Wasco County declares emergency, enacts county-wide firework ban

“With the high temps and wind conditions, we need this ban for public safety, public health and the protection of property,” said Commissioner Steve Kramer.

County legal counsel Christen Campbell the declaration, and banning of all fireworks, is thoroughly vetted and has gained a lot of traction in counties and cities in Oregon. “We saw yet another fire yesterday afternoon, threatening our community and our crops,” Campbell told the board. “I’m comfortable this qualifies as an emergency.”

Violations are “subject to Class C misdemeanors and all civil and/or criminal penalties, sanctions, and liability allowed by law,” the emergency declaration states. Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill said, “We have a limited staff, enforcement will be a challenge. Our hope is that in doing this, we will raise the bar, and our citizens will recognize the danger we are in and comply. We are going to get the word of this ban out as fast as we can, as hard as we can.”

Commissioner Scott Hege said he did not recall the county having ever outlawed fireworks in the past, but noted “there has always been challenge and angst around the Fourth of July, especially in the Pine Hollow area.”

The City of The Dalles banned fireworks in the city Tuesday, as have Hood River, White Salmon and Bingen in the Gorge.

According to Magill, the Barlow Ranger District of the Mt. Hood National Forest will ban all fires — including campfires — effective July 2. Fireworks are already banned in the national forest.

Conflagration declared

Even as the board approved the ban, a brush and grass fire ignited the day before in the Dufur area, south of The Dalles, was reported to have grown to 10,000 acres in its first day.

The Dufur fire was declared a “conflagration” Wednesday morning, prior to the emergency meeting, which transfered management of the fire to the state via the Oregon Fire Marshall’s office.

Stefan Myers with the Oregon Fire Marshall’s office said the 3 task forces were coming from Yamhill, Multnomah and Washington counties and would provide ground and air attack as well as structure protection. He said 20 homes were threatened by the fire, which was being driven toward the Deschutes River. “It’s not contained but they have some good fire lines dug in,” he said of the overnight work by local fire crews. He added that a barn had been lost overnight, but local crews had saved a home that was in “immediate threat.”

Three aircraft have been assigned to the fire, Myers added.

Sheriff Magill said the fire was held at Center Ridge Road overnight by local fire crews, but deep canyon fires and spot fires ahead of the fire were making containment a challenge. “This is like the Substation Fire, with dry conditions and high winds anticipated,” he said. The 2018 Substation Fire was ignited in The Dalles and rapidly burned south clear into to Sherman County, burning four homes and four secondary structures, killing one resident and blackening 79,121 acres, many of them planted in wheat and ready for harvest.

Magill told the board there are 3 task forces en route that include overhead and incident command teams, and they will be fully operational very soon. He noted the teams responding including some of those who worked the Substation Fire.

The fire camp will be based at the Wahtonka Campus in west The Dalles.

“That’s an additional 100, 150 resources,” Magill said, which should allow a significant ground attack on the fire.

As of Wednesday morning, 70 to 100 people had been evacuated from the area. Evacuation notices and fire updates will be posted on the Wasco County Sheriff's Facebook page.