State of Oregon assists four other states with wildfires

SALEM, Ore. (ODF) - Wildfire activity has not picked up yet in Oregon on Oregon Department of Forestry-protected lands, enabling the department to assist other states with their fires. Since early June, ODF has sent 35 employees to four states.
Specially-trained personnel are fighting fires in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Alaska. Additional requests are coming in from Alaska, as severe weather conditions there spawn new fires. On Thursday, lightning ignited 29 fires up to 750 acres in size. With the sun up twenty hours a day this time of year, the hot dry conditions are expected to continue in Alaska.
Oregon and the other western states routinely share firefighting resources as needed. The arrangement is reciprocal: if the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) needs outside help on fires in Oregon, its partner agencies will provide personnel and equipment when possible.
Fire statistics These fire statistics are for the current year and the average over the past ten years for the sixteen million acres of private and public forestland protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry.
January 1, 2013, through today* Lightning-caused fires: 45 fires burned eighteen acres Human-caused fires: 211 fires burned 851 acres Total: 256 fires burned 869 acres
Ten-year average (January 1 through the present date) Lightning-caused fires: 21 fires burned 25 acres Human-caused fires: 120 fires burned 294 acres Total: 141 fires burned 319 acres
Fire statistics can be accessed any time from the ODF website www.oregon.gov/odf.
*When personnel are heavily engaged in firefighting activities, the latest information may not always appear in the statistics.

Click here to read this story on www.kmtr.com