Firefighters work to control Washington wildfires

As fires rage in Montana and throughout the west, equipment and firefighters are stretched thin trying to meet demands. “We will be going over current status and planned action, any changes to evacuation from the county sheriff’s office, any forest closure updates in fish and wildlife parks, river closure updates, and general information about how the fire is doing”. In August, more than 10,000 firefighters battled 16 wildfires, 13,000 residents were ordered to evacuate, and 96 structures had been destroyed, according to CNN. In Oregon drought conditions are increasingly dire and have begun to hit municipal water supplies.

In 2006, the worst wildfire year to date, a total of 9,873,745 acres were burned.

The state has to pay contractors in a timely manner, for example, to ensure they remain in business and can continue to work on the fires, Nichols said.

“We have lots of safety checks, heads up, look around to make sure we are safe before we go in and that’s what is instilled in all of these guys so we hope to do that again and come back with everyone safe”, he said.

Carol Connolly is with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. It’s too late for congress to act to prevent transfers this fire season.

Commenting on the wildfires in Oregon to the Associated Press, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack noted the rising cost of fighting wildfires. To help, Florida’s forest service has sent more than 500 firefighters to help in states like California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. It is still zero percent contained.

Rod Nichols, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said this week that the agency estimated its net spending this year at $26 million, when expected reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other sources are factored in.

Wildfires are a natural part of forest ecology, but if this much fire seems unnatural…well, it’s because it is.

American forests play a crucial role in mitigating climate change.