People are shooting exploding targets and firing hot lead into dry vegetation in the Tillamook State Forest with predictable results: Five wildfires since May.
“These fires are all preventable,” said Stephanie Beall, acting District Forester for ODF's Forest Grove District.
On Wednesday, July 16, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency over the wildfires at the request of the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon State Fire Marshal. Forest Grove firefighters are once again aiding at statewide wildfires.
According to Forest Grove Fire & Rescue, about four acres of grass field and some adjacent brush were burned Sunday evening near the intersection of NW Thatcher Road and NW Kemper Road. The cause appeared to be a welding job in the middle of the field that went awry, the agency said.
The Oregon Department of Forestry is raising fire danger from moderate to high Monday in NW-02 and NW-03, the eastern and central portions of the Tillamook Forest and surrounding areas, including regions just outside of Forest Grove.
In advance of Independence Day, the Oregon Department of Forestry is raising fire danger from low to moderate in areas in and around the Tillamook Forest and near Forest Grove.
"As the saying goes, police officers and firefighters have one thing in common, they both want to be firefighters," said Forest Grove Fire & Rescue after police put out a fence fire before fire crews could arrive.
Smoke rising into a hot summer day in the general vicinity of Thatcher Park was from a field fire, now extinguished, near Plum Hill Lane on the city's northwestern border.
At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, June 23, fire season will begin in lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry in the Northwest Oregon Forest Protective Association (NWOFPA ), which includes areas in and near the Tillamook State Forest.
Freshly returned from a deployment in the Gorge, crews from the Banks Fire District and Gaston Rural Fire District joined Forest Grove Fire & Rescue and other county agencies to head to the Alder Springs Fire Tuesday.
The Oregon Department of Forestry deployed 22 firefighters Friday to Canada and three states in what the agency said would be their "last big out-of-state resource push" until rains return this fall. One firefighter was out of the Forest Grove District.
