Oregon Fire Season 2018 Declared Over, 75,531 Acres Burned

PORTLAND, OR – It's over. The 2018 fire season in Oregon came to an end on Monday. The Oregon Department of Forestry made the announcement on Tuesday, saying that around 75,531 acres had burned since the season started on June 1.

The acres burned is more than double the 10-year average.

Officials say that the fires were were fueled by a combination of historically high temperatures and near-record low precipitation.

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"With numerous large fires and limited resources across the nation, the 2018 fire season brought real challenges," ODF Interim Deputy Chief for Fire Operations, Russ Lane, said.

The two causes of wildfires were humans and lightning strikes.

There were 219 lightning-caused fires that burned 58,744 acres, and 836 fires caused by humans that resulted in 26,806 acres burned.

The total was 1,055 fires that burned 75,550 acres.

ODF says that the majority of fires started were contained very quickly in the initial attack.

Of all wildfires, ODF says that they were able to keep 95 percent to less than 10 acres.

The state spent 32 days at the highest level of preparedness. While that was less than the year before, the number of fires and acres burning required a major commitment of limited resources, adding to the difficulty in containing the fires.

Lane says that the lesson from the season is there is still more work to do on fire prevention.

:Fire prevention remains our top priority," Lane says. "Human-caused fires — especially debris burning and illegal, abandoned campfires — continue to raise concern, and we are focusing outreach and messaging efforts there.

"Combined with fuel reduction and mitigation, we are constantly looking for new ways to raise awareness and support Oregonians in our shared objective to reduce wildfire and keep Oregon green."

Photo via ODF.