Fire Season ending for Klamath & Lake Counties
/The 2020 Fire Season will officially end for Klamath and Lake Counties on Friday, November 6, 2020.
Press release by Oregon Department of Forestry, Klamath-Lake District
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - Fire management personnel from the Oregon Department of Forestry, Klamath-Lake District, and Walker Range Patrol Association in cooperation with other local fire agencies and departments will declare the termination of the 2020 season as of 12:01 am Friday, November 6, 2020. “Fire Season” for the area has been in effect since June 1st.
“The season is finally coming to an end. This has been one of the longest fire season declaration periods that I can remember and maybe on record”, states Randall Baley, Protection Unit Forester for ODF. “The prolonged warm, dry, and mostly windy fall will show its strength again Thursday, but an approaching more moist and cool pattern finally augers on Friday for a lengthy period of time.”
The ending of the fire season lifts the ban on Open Debris burning in Klamath and Lake Counties. Logging Operation requirements including watchman services and fire equipment on site, in effect on private, county, and state lands have also been lifted.
Check with your local rural structural fire district for burning regulations within their districts and the county health departments for air quality restrictions. The Oregon Department of Forestry, Klamath-Lake District does not issue or require burn permits on lands solely protected by them when fire season is not in effect.
Fire managers from the Klamath-Lake District, Oregon Department of Forestry [ODF], in cooperation with other local wildland fire agencies and structural fire departments, would like to remind the public that just because fire season has been terminated, fire starts and spread may still occur under the right conditions. Please continue to use fire-safe practices all year-round.
Landowners need to remember that any burning escaping their control is their liability and they could be billed for the fire suppression costs. Be cautious, be fire safe.
The Oregon Department of Forestry and Walker Range Patrol Association would like to thank its cooperators, landowners, and the people of Klamath and Lake Counties for their assistance in preventing fires during 2020. With fire season-ending, we would also like folks to stay vigilant through this week. Winds are predicted to reach 15mph on Thursday. Even with the cooler temperatures, vegetation is still dry and there is still potential for a wildfire to spread rapidly.