Legislative Days: State forester, fire marshal share fire season status

Presenter: During legislative days Sept. 9, a Senate committee hears the latest on the fire season. They also hear a defense of FEMA and some thanks for the federal fire reorg.

Kacey KC (Oregon, state forester): Kacey KC, state forester for Oregon Department of Forestry. And I’m going to give you a quick overview of the season. As of today, we’re at just over 2.5 million acres burned across the state, 1,700 fires. 

Just as a point of reference, I think 2024 was the highest in recorded history from an acres burned perspective, which was just two years ago at 1.9 million acres. And so we’ve surpassed that pretty significantly.

And we had come before you with a prediction discussion of what the predictive services were saying. We knew we were coming into a dangerous fire season. We had limited snowfall in the higher elevations. We had limited moisture across all of our elevations.

We had a pretty tough winter, which then led into warmer, drier summer. They had predicted that we would have an early onset to the fire season and an above-average fire season, basically from the middle of June all the way through September here in Oregon and pretty much the entire state.

What we saw was an early start. We did get a few early starts, human-caused starts primarily, but we were able to hold those at small fire sizes.

And what really started the fire season off was that first lightning bus that came up the south-central portion of the state. On July 16th, we had about 8,500 lightning strikes that day and hundreds of fire starts.

Hundreds of fire starts turned into only a few that got bigger and large, but they were driven by very receptive fuels. And they were very resistant to any suppression tactics that we were putting in.

I want to say I heard a million times ‘unprecedented conditions.’ We had record-breaking ERCs (energy release component). We had record-breaking-low fuel moistures, hot temperatures.

Unfortunately, I think we hear that every season anymore, so I’m not sure if it’s ‘unprecedented’ anymore. I think it’s just the precedent that we have, in certain years when it’s hot and dry and we don’t get that moisture over the winter.

The original Row Creek fire started in that first lightning bus. We had quite a few large fires in the landscape. By the time the second one came through, Akawa Butte was in the landscape. There were many fires that had already started.

The second lightning event came through on July 22. Again, about 8,600 lightning strikes, hundreds more fire starts as we went through, and that really tested the lines that we had put in on some of those large fires.

Then the Row Complex turns into six, seven, 11 different fires, which eventually grows together into 610 miles of fire perimeter—very large fire by anybody’s calculation. So we definitely had a lot of starts.

What I will say is we did have a lot of success in this landscape where we were able to keep some that should have, could have, would have been large fires at small. And that’s a testament to the complete and coordinated system.

Every contractor, every local, tribal, federal, state entity, every cooperator agreement that we have in place got utilized this season. We even had federal firefighters from Australia and New Zealand here in state, for quite some time.

I haven’t looked at the statistics today as far as the lightning, but we are running about the same trend. We have higher numbers of human-caused starts, but the larger fires came from lightning, acres came from lightning-caused starts this year.

So that kind of tends to be how it runs in these years. We’re always kind of trending higher on the human caused starts. but the larger acres in these years, when we have real receptive fuels and dry lightning tends to be from lightning. So the acres are higher there.

Mariana Ruiz-Temple (Oregon, state fire marshal): My name is Mariana Ruiz-Temple. I serve as the Oregon state fire marshal. 

It was six years ago that as the smoke settled and dissipated, that we really started to really understand the loss for all of us.

And I just want to thank you for your leadership. Six years seems like a long time, but also is not a long time. And the work that we’ve done—whether it’s mitigation or understanding or furthering this conversation—really has been led by you all and specifically this committee. So I just want to say thank you for that.

If you look at 2020, that was certainly Oregon’s deadliest and most disastrous fire season at that time. That’s 14 conflagrations for the department of state fire marshal—when a local fire chief has exceeded their capacity and they have to request state assistance. 

Fourteen conflagrations in 2024. If you remember, that was at that time the largest burnt acres, as well as the costliest today.

And in 2026, we’re seeing even another record-breaking year in terms of acres lost and costliest. I think the reason I reflect on that, it is a trend that we’ve talked about, we’ve anticipated, and we expect to see continue. And those are things that I think this committee has had to grapple with over the last six years.

As we talk about are we positioned and to your point, Chair (Sen. Jeff) Golden, the mitigation needs on the front end. As mitigation has become this emerging trend in wildfire, so should and has innovation and technology.

Presenter: For example, she said technology helped predict potentially dangerous situations, and the state was able to pre-position resources, to protect communities. 

Mariana Ruiz-Temple: And that is a conversation that I think you’ll start to see emerging more and more is how can we use this technology to keep fires small? And Kacey and I also do have some meetings at the end of the month to further those conversations, specifically around what is our statewide strategy with cameras as well.

In terms of structures impacted, we did see 54 homes lost this fire season to date, 164 outbuildings, and about 27,000 in different layers of evacuation or threatened throughout this fire season. Those 54 homes were lost across about 15 different fires.

The largest fires where we experienced loss were the Row complex and the Brewer complex, which is that large complex outside of Prineville that Kacey spoke about, the Grasshopper fire, which was outside of Tygh Valley. Dufur lost eight homes and then the Lower Dry Creek lost six homes. And that was the fire that was outside of Milton-Freewater.

So those three were our largest loss to date. But again, the loss really expanded across the state of Oregon across 15 different fires. And then the outbuildings, certainly across about 20 different fires, with the Grasshopper losing the most outbuildings to date. And that was 25 outbuildings.

So when you take a look at Grasshopper in terms of eight (homes) and 25 outbuildings, that was a pretty significant loss for that area. It’s mainly in the friend area right outside of Dufur.

Presenter: Oregon State Forester Kacey KC:

Kacey KC: And the only thing I would add to that is we are getting early reports as it becomes safe for us to move into those areas, and we have staff available to go in from the suppression mode.

We are looking at the impacts of the mitigation work on the Aqua Butte, for example. We did get examples that when that storm cell came over on the twenty second and really pushed that fire in three different directions, our suppression tactics had to change in that moment, and we had to move people away from structures because it was not safe to have firefighters in that neighborhood and that neighborhood.

Though we did sustain a few losses of homes in that neighborhood, I believe to us that we got early reports that because of the fuel break that was behind us. It really did slow that that fire’s approach into that, which could have been a much more significant loss.

So there’s a lot of, detail out there, which we would love to bring forth at some point about not just protection of communities, but those treatments, but also protections of standing forests and other areas that are going to be critical as we go into the rehab, form of these fires.

And we’re looking at natural regeneration versus us having to plant. it was quite a large year but also the fire is shifting. This year we were in a lot of the sparsely populated grassy areas for some fires.

We had the threat in both areas, as we said, because we didn’t have that snow at the higher elevations. So while we were fighting lowland fires, we were also fighting those high elevation timber fires.

So we had a combination of both at the same time where we were hitting preparedness level five at the national level and preparedness level five here in our geographic area, which basically means that all geographic areas of the United States were experiencing fire, which is not normal in every fire season where we all experience it together.

And it was drawing resources at the federal level down. So once we get to that preparedness level, anything that becomes available, a crew in the national system. A contractor in the national system. Any fireline leadership in that system gets prioritized by a group of state forestry representatives and our federal partners to which fire it goes to.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, we were number one in the nation for much of July and into early August, between us and Washington. So the Pacific Northwest region was number one for quite a few days, going into this system.

So we were getting everything they had. They just didn’t have the resources necessary to deal with the fires across the West. The fires in the southern part of the U.S. and the northeast Midwest was also experiencing fire.

Presenter:  The state forester was asked if she saw any drop in the numbers of federal firefighters available this year. Kacey Kaycee.

Kacey KC: I saw both federal agencies this year. There was a concerted effort to make them on the fire suppression side, really work differently together and work differently with states.

And part of their mission, which it had not been historically, was aggressive initial attack of all fires, no fire use. Which I hope that they do go back to a thoughtful process on that.

However, it did help. They were out there. They were available. They were working very closely with us and we did not see any other issues than Preparedness Level 5 issues.

I have had a good experience working with them this year. On the fire side, we did not see any reduction in their fire fighting forces this year. 

As on the consolidation on the interior side where they went from four agencies who used to have sometimes conflicting priorities. that was significantly helpful at times this year.

They were ordering things that we didn’t have the capacity to deal with, and we had to slow them a little bit in their, in their, at times during the fire before we got to PL 5.

That wasn’t an issue later. but we have found that they’re pretty receptive. I mean, this system is meant for whichever team goes out. It could be an ODF team. It could be a federal team. It could be a Florida team. Whoever gets there.

When you have that level of qualification, you’re taking that fire regardless of who jurisdictionally owns that land below you, and we’re delegating that authority to that team so that they are able and we have agency administrators on there making sure that they’re looking out for the needs of the local communities.

But, I have found that they are good to work with.

At the consolidation of the Interior side, we did see a reduction in some of their higher-level management positions as they work through their consolidation and agency reorganization.

On the natural resource side is where we saw the largest reduction and the ability to implement the critical work ahead of and behind those fires is where I think we’re going to see more of that impact.

Presenter: Oregon State Fire Marshal, Mariana Ruiz Temple.

Mariana Ruiz-Temple: So fire season costs to date: ‘Gross’ is the total cost of fires, and then ‘net’ is what other agencies may owe us, whether that’s the federal government for U.S. Forest Service, BIA. In my case, BLM, and then FEMA, when we received the approval for the Fire Management Assistance grants. Those are the grants that in a lot of cases, make up the majority of those dollars, at least for OSFM.

You can see ODF’s gross costs at $268 million, net $160 million. And then the recoveries that they’re expected to receive through other agencies and FEMA: OSFM, we’re currently at a total gross of $55 million and then we do expect recoveries from FEMA and BIA in around $22 million .

And just highlight there that those recoveries from FEMA generally can take up to three years and sometimes longer if they’re the individual assistance. So both agencies are still holding federal debt from previous fire seasons. these recoveries, for ODF around $55 million, for OSFM around $22 million.

Kacey KC: And the only thing I would add there to the gross and the net conversation for us on the ODF side, it’s a little more complicated. So FEMA gives us the Fire Management Assistance grants, which helps both our agencies pay for the nonfederal firefighting costs of fires that are approved through their fire management assistance grants.

We have seven approved FMAGs in the state this year. Two have been denied, but we have appealed them and we’re working through the appeals process. So our hope is that those will get approved.

And then we have cost-share agreements. So those fires where the fire burns across federal, state, and other lands, we then have to adjudicate those costs across all of our agencies.

So when you see the other agencies, that’s our other federal partners: Forest Service, BIA, BLM, traditionally or wildland fire service. Now on the Interior side—and they do pay a lot faster at that level.

But in fairness to FEMA, and I did have to say this, they are much slower, but it is also harder for us to get the bills to them in an expeditious manner, because we have to get through the cost-share adjudication which can take us a couple of years to then get that bill finally over to FEMA for reimbursement.

Presenter: It was the worst year ever, and it could have been much worse, if not for cooperation among the agencies.  State Forester Kacey KC:

Kacey KC: So from an ODF response, it’s not just ODF. Obviously, we’re responsible for the complete and coordinated system. And I just want to say ‘thank you’ to everybody who’s in that complete and coordinated system. It’s federal, state, tribal land, landowners. We’ve got industry, we’ve got contractors. And it took all of us this year to hold back what could have been a much worse year.

So everyone was out. Everyone was working. Where we did have constraints was the availability of some of that fireline leadership, those mid-level fireline-qualified managers who actually can ensure the safety and well-being of those crews out there.

So every time we did hear a lot from it’s like, I have, I have a crew available. And it’s like, that would that would have been great, except we didn’t have anyone to manage that crew from a span of control perspective.

And normally we would draw on a national pool of applicants, but because the nation was bumped to (PL) 5 and there was none available, I mean, we were calling, we were phoning every friend we could find, which is how Australia and New Zealand ended up, had significant help with, a couple hundred personnel, giving us both mid-level managers for that fireline leadership and teams to help us with teams of ours who had far surpassed time frames that they needed to go home and get that mandatory rest.

So we had a lot of assets out there deployed from air to ground resources, just to give you an example, the severity aircraft that we had put on, they did have some early detection flights. They flew over almost 1700 flight hours this year, 2.3 million gallons of water and 279,000 gallons of retardant just for us.

That’s not counting our fed partners and all the aircraft that they bring to the table. So we had everything working in all different directions. Not only did we bring in a bunch of staff from every agreement, we had out-of-state partners. We also did send staff—early season when we were not experiencing as much fire—to get the training and help other states that then came to help us as we started our peak fire season.

We are still not out of fire season, yet.  We still have receptive conditions.

We also have a very high probability of the strong and one of the maybe strongest in history, they say, but there’s all kinds of that el Nino coming in, which unfortunately for us means warmer temperatures, drier winter conditions, which could prolong those conditions.

One nice thing I will say about that wetting event was there were quite a few fires in the upper elevations that we were very concerned about as we started to head into September when you get those frontal passages and high winds that usually come with that.

That did help significantly in the fire fight. We still have fire in the landscape. It didn’t put them all out, but it’s significantly helped us to get our arms around it to where we might feel more confident coming into those weather events.

Presenter: State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz Temple. 

Mariana Ruiz-Temple: And then just in closing, I think we all experience some significant eastern Oregon fires. I think one of our biggest fire, the big grass fire to date in eastern Oregon.

The high elevation fires due to that low snowpack that we saw last year. A lot of conversation will happen off about the kinds of lands and jurisdictions that where we saw fire, rangeland fire protection associations, as well as the unprotected. And what does that mean in terms of their complete coordinated system?

The sustainability of fire fighters when we experience Preparedness Level 5 for 43 days, that pace and scale in keeping up with that, pretty significant.

And then as the state forester indicated, the ability to take a look and explore what is needed for mid-level fireline leadership and how in terms of scope and control, how that plays an integral role in getting all of our resources on the ground. 

Presenter: State forester Kacey KC:

Kacey KC: The fireline leadership qualifications that we’re looking at take many years to get, they’re nationally recognized, nationally certified so that we can rotate them across any state who might need them.

So it takes time to get to these levels of qualification. We’re talking task force leaders, division supervisors—that level of management is what you need to safely deploy more crews and more ground assets.

And that level doesn’t take as long as incident commander to get to, but it does require training at the national certification level, and it requires annual use, which has been the hard push and pull across the nation, which is why you have to expand to a national system. No state will ever have enough of the things to do this fire season.

So we always rely on a national system. There’s strain at that national system in a (Preparedness Level) PL5 every year. That will be true.

And then succession planning, you know, we had a large workforce that worked for us for a long time. We weren’t seeing that as much anymore. They’re coming into wildland fire, doing it for a couple years and then maybe going to other jobs.

And so we’re still trying to hold on to that level of qualification. Ours is a seasonal workforce. So even harder in the ODF side because we bring the seasonals in, we train them, they may stay with us for a couple seasons. We get them to a level of qualification. Then they find a full time job elsewhere with our federal friends, or maybe even outside of the fire realm.

So it’s a complicated issue to solve because to keep those calls. But I do want you to know, at that level, we were calling in contracted members who had those qualifications. We were calling in our partners. We had every one of those types of things deployed. There were crews out there that were available, but we didn’t have the division supervisors in order to get them out.

Even to get the Guard crews out for us. Took a few phone calls after our staff had already put the order in to our state partners through and asked multiple times. I had to call and beg California to release me two and they did. But they barely had enough because their fire season was less than ours was this year.

So we got lucky that they weren’t burning at the level they normally would have been at this time of year. But it’s a tension in the system, primarily at Preparedness Level 5. Had we been significantly lower, we might have seen more of that in the system.

Presenter: The Senate Interim Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire gets an update on the 2026 record-setting wildfire season, and praise for the federal partners. Oregon fire officials say FEMA isn’t entirely to blame. Long reimbursement waits are often due to negotiations among multiple agencies. Similarly, the reorg of firefighters under the fire administration drew early praise.