Fire officials estimated there were about 100 fires in Jackson County this year, which burned a total of 80 to 90 acres.
Officials from the county, the Oregon Department of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service attended the meeting.
Dave Larson, director of the Southern Oregon Area for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said this fire season was “highly successful,” even in the face of the county’s long-term drought conditions.
But despite the successes, Larson said the year wasn’t perfect.
"[It] did have its challenges. We had to cancel days off numerous times, so our firefighters didn’t get a whole lot of rest. And for the first time in probably 15-20 years, we were the net exporter of our firefighting resources to help out other districts," he said.
ODF firefighters were working on the nearby Golden, Flat and Anvil Fires.
The region spent 134 days in fire season this year, compared to previous years, which Larson said have had up to 180 days in fire season. Fire season is enacted by the Oregon Department of Forestry and depends on conditions like weather, rain and increased fire risk.
He said his goal is to add more fire engines and make an afternoon swing shift permanent as increased funding becomes available from Senate Bill 762. That bill, from 2021, provided more than $220 million to help Oregon improve its wildfire preparedness, including effective response.
The leading cause of fires this year was equipment, including cars, lawn mowers and power lines. The second highest cause was lightning strikes.
Jackson County’s Emergency Manager Holly Powers said coordination and communication among the departments were strong this year, enabling them to fight fires together.
"I think we did really well this year coordinating with the guys on the ground when they were getting there and connecting the sheriff’s office very quickly with fire incident command so that they could start communicating on what it was going to look like, impact to community, so the sheriff’s office, if needed, could implement evacuation or notifications," she said.
Next year, Powers said her department would like to do more education about the emergency alert systems. For example, she said the department doesn’t always send out citizen’s alerts for a fire, since sometimes a door knock from a sheriff’s deputy is more effective and efficient.
She said this year, her department sent out 15 emergency evacuation alerts, including two Level 1 (Get Ready) alerts, two Level 2 (Get Set) alerts and one Level 3 (Go Immediately) alert.
