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June 08 - Refuge fire crew completes readiness review
May 23 - Lava Beds N.M. Caldwell SE prescribed fire assist
May 18 - Drain Wildfire
May 11 - Refuge fire crew assists Keno RFPD with Wildfire Prevention Video
May 11 - Tule Wildfire
May 02 - Engine crew heads to South Texas
April 30 - Pump Wildfire
April 19 - Refuge fire crew assists Stillwater NWR with emergency prescribed burn
April 12 - Leaseland burning makes late, big start
March 30 - Moss Wildfire

June 08 - Refuge fire crew completes readiness review
Firefighters staffing Klamath Basin's fire engines participated in an annual U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service preparedness review, assessing their fire suppression readiness, tactics and safety. Each year representatives from the California-Nevada Operations (CNO) Office in Sacramento and select refuge fire personnel travel to each of the four fire management programs in the two states and evaluate their fire suppression programs. Doug Waggoner, CNO Fire Management Coordinator, stated the evaluations ensure "job safety, firefighter preparedness and that firefighters have the right tools for the job."

Everything from training records to equipment is inspected and reviewed to make certain crews are proficient and ready to safely extinguish any uncontrolled wildfire they may be assigned. Crews also complete a fire drill, simulating a wildfire dispatch and response. Resources receive a simulated call from dispatch and respond to a predetermined area and operate as if they are in an actual wildfire suppression scenario. According to Waggoner, the Klamath Basin crew did an "excellent job, communicating well and approaching the drills with a positive attitude."

Waggoner was joined by Jessica Wade, CNO Wildland-Urban Interface Coordinator and Javier Saldivar, Engine Operator from San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Ruth Johnson, Klamath Basin Prescribed Fire Specialist, joined Waggoner, Wade and Richard Hadley as an evaluator of the San Luis and San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex fire management programs. Utilizing refuge-based fire staff facilitates the sharing of ideas and strategies and fosters working relationships throughout the Service.

"Overall, I feel very good about our (fire) programs," Waggoner said. "Everyone is ready to fight fire and do the job safely."

View pictures from the wildfire drill in our multimedia section.

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May 23 - Lava Beds N.M. Caldwell SE prescribed fire assist
Firefighters from Klamath Basin NWRC joined nearly 65 other federal and contract firefighters for a prescribed burn at Lava Beds National Monument in Tulelake, CA. The monument shares a common boundary with Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, immediately south of Fish & Wildlife headquarters. Due to weather constraints, only a small portion of the burn was completed, about 25 acres, but managers planned additional ignitions if the weather improved for June 1. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service crews provided a fire engine, a task force leader trainee and an information officer trainee. Prescribed fires often offer quality opportunities for firefighters to gain new skills and train for qualifications they are aiming to add to their list of competencies and abilities. In wildland fire suppression and prescribed fire operations, all firefighters must maintain certain minimum qualifications to lead a specific activity, such as commanding a fire engine, igniting a fire, or overall management, like is done by the incident commander or burn boss. Fire crews from Klamath Basin and Lava Beds regularly join forces and assist with each others prescribed burns and wildland fire suppression activities.

Following the burn activities, Lava Beds hosted it first Junior Firefighter program, lead by a combination of National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service fire personnel. Though cold and snowy, more than 25 children and 10 adults showed up for the hour long program. Attendees learned about fire and its role in nature, understanding how to distinguish good fire from bad fire and safety precautions to take when around fire. Kids crawled through the Park's fire engine, dressed up in wildland fire attire and took turns spraying water. After completing a short test, each student was awarded a Junior Firefighter patch.

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May 18 - Drain Wildfire
A small wildfire consumed 0.6 acre on Thursday, May 18. Fire crews located the incident and the fire was brought under control without any property damage or injury. This is the fourth Tule Lake NWR wildfire of the season.

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May 11 - Refuge fire crew assists Keno RFPD with Wildfire Prevention Video
The entire Klamath Basin NWRC Fire Management firefighting staff joined federal, state and local cooperators from the Klamath County vicinity to participate in the production of a wildfire prevention video. Spearheaded by Keno Rural Fire Protection District Chief John Ketchum, the video will offer homeowners information on how to protect their properties from the potential impacts of wildfire. Using grant money, Chief Ketchum started production on an informative video educating the public about the realities of wildfire suppression, showing multiple wildland and structural fire agencies working together to suppress a wildfire. The video also provides tips for homeowners to reduce hazardous fuel accumulations and explains how firefighters make time-crucial decisions in defending/protecting structures from oncoming wildfire.

Participants represented many firefighting agencies from throughout Klamath County, Oregon, including the: US Fish & Wildlife Service, Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex; US Forest Service, Fremont-Winema National Forest; US Bureau of Land Management; Klamath Falls Resource Area-Lakeview District; Oregon Department of Forestry; Keno Rural Fire Protection District; Klamath County District One; Kingsley Airfield; Chiloquin Agency Lake Rural Fire Protection District; Harriman Rocky Point Volunteer Fire Department; and Klamath County Sheriff's Office.

See pictures of the days activities.

The day began with a briefing for all involved parties who were then split by function (structural/wildland fire engine, water tender, bull dozer and hand crew). Videographers captured resources arriving on scene of preselected homes and deploying their resources to begin structural triage (the process of determining how best to protect a home from impending wildfire). Wildland engines arrived at a property where thinning and hand piling was completed some months before to ignite a prescribed fire. The crews worked together to safely ignite and complete the burn from which the videographer was able to capture hours of low intensity ground fire and different fire behavior types. A host/narrator explained the processes utilized and the importance of fuels management to protect homes and property.

Throughout the day, numerous local land owners and residents stopped by, expressing their joy with such activity. Many inquired as to how they too could start fuels reduction on their properties and safe controlled burning. The Keno RFPD has used grant monies over the past few years to treat thousands of acres of forested properties with hand thinning, piling and burning and shared information to interested parties on how to join in the effort.

Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge is a close neighbor to many Keno residents, in fact sharing a common boundary with a dozen or so homes in the Cedar Trails neighborhood alone. Klamath Basin NWRC fire managers and biologists have worked closely with the Keno RFPD, Oregon Department of Forestry and local home owners for years to accomplish thousands of acres of fuels treatments within the refuge aimed at reducing the wildfire risk to local residents as well as the refuge itself.

Chief Ketchum aims for a completed 30 minute DVD within the next few months. Additional footage is being captured in the communities of Rocky Point and Chiloquin and other sites around Klamath County. You can see pictures of video production activity on our website under the Still Images page. Check back for future video clips from the interagency video production and for information on how to get your copy of the final wildfire prevention DVD.

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May 11 - Tule Wildfire
A wildfire measuring 8.9 acres was discovered late Thursday afternoon by a U.S. Forest Service firefighter on Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Modoc National Forest Battalion Chief Chris Orr located the fire in the southeast area of the refuge. Klamath Basin Battalion Chief Greg Zoppetti responded and together with Orr controlled the blaze. The exact cause has not been identified, but an uncontrolled vegetation burn is the likely culprit. No injuries or serious damage were reported.

Additional fire information can be found on the Wildfires page.

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May 2 - Engine crew heads to South Texas
Klamath Basin's Engine 81 headed south to assist Texas-based refuge fire crews on May 2nd. This is the second year in a row Engine 81 has been requested to south Texas for severity staffing. The crew has already extinguished one 1/4 acre wildfire and is anticipating more. Last year, the engine crew spent 30 days in McAllen, TX, near Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge fighting more than a dozen wildfires. Texas has experienced a record fire season this year, with continual activity since late November, 2005. The crew will remain in Texas for at least two weeks and may continue for an additional two weeks if necessary.

More about our fire engines and resources on the Suppression page.

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April 30 - Pump Wildfire
An unattended smoldering debris pile was found on Tule Lake National Wildfire Refuge's south western boundary in the end of April. Fire crews monitored the pile and determined it was safe to continue burning down. Discovered by refuge law enforcement personnel, the pile presented little risk and was safely handled. Drying conditions and close proximity to open expanses of wildland fuels requires every wildfire be examined for potential escape and be dealt with accordingly.

Additional fire information can be found on the Wildfires page.

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April 19 - Refuge fire crew assists Stillwater NWR with emergency prescribed burn
Heavy rains and increasing snow melt resulted in pressure for quick measures to move large quantities of water through Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge has a series of canals designed to facilitate just such an effort, however a major section was thickly overgrown with tule reeds and posed a risk of clogging and potential flooding. A crew from Klamath Basin traveled to Fallon, NV, and burned nearly 10 miles of canals, significantly reducing the thick vegetation and increasing flow ability. Weather and holding conditions permitted the crew only two days of burning before new rains inundated roads and limited access. Refuge managers report the burns increased their ability to safely deliver water through the refuge.

See pictures from the burn on the Stillwater NWR Stills page.

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April 12 - Leaseland burning makes late, big start
After months of heavy rains and soggy fields, refuge firefighters were able to enter the Tule Lake leaseland farm fields and ignite thousands of acres. Farmers have patiently waited for conditions to improve to the point where burning was effective and worthwhile. In less than three days, refuge fire crews burned more than 9,000 acres of leases and completed a large portion of the Tule Lake component of leaseland burning.

In a usual year, crews start as early as February, burning fields as farmers turn-in their requests. This years precipitation accumulations prohibited anyone from even driving the refuge roads until early April.

The leaseland farming and burning program is a unique US Fish & Wildlife Service/Bureau of Reclamation and private initiative whose roots date back to the 1905 establishment of the Klamath Irrigation Project. Farmers draw leases to farm refuge lands with a combination of alfalfa, oats, barley, wheat's, potatoes and onions. Fields are burned annually to assist with vegetative debris removal.

Understand the leaseland program in greater depth by visiting our Leaseland Burning page.

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March 30 - Moss Wildfire
Refuge maintenance crews discovered a small, unattended debris pile burning on Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge's north eastern boundary. The fire posed little risk, but was extinguished to ensure it did not spread to surrounding nesting grounds and private lands. Unattended vegetation fires have been quite common on Tule Lake NWR since the refuge was established in the late 1920's.

Explore Klamath Basin NWRC's wildfire history or check out our fire suppression resources.

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