OR County Files Suit Against Forest Service Over Fire Operations

While individuals who lost homes and other property during Oregon’s Labor Day fires are looking to hold utilities liable due to ignitions from downed power lines, Linn County and other private landowners are looking at another potential culprit: The U.S. Forest Service.

Officials in Linn County, where the Beachie Creek fire burned 193,000 acres of public and private land, want to know why the Forest Service pulled firefighting resources off the fire in late August, when it was still a small, smoldering fire burning in a remote area of the Opal Creek Wilderness.

Among other things, they want to know why two Chinook “supersoaker” helicopters were pulled off the fire, when it might otherwise have been extinguished and prevented the conflagration that blew up during the Labor Day windstorm.

A lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Eugene demands that the agency hand over a broad set of documents, including its fire plans for the area, prescribed fire activities, records that describe its firefighting response and communications with contractors assigned to the fire. Linn County originally sought the information in a Sept. 28 request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The agency acknowledged receiving it via email, but said “your request is not perfected at this time and we will be reaching out to discuss clarification.” The complaint says no outreach has occurred and the agency has not complied with the 20-day deadline to respond. It asks the court to direct the Forest Service to immediately fulfill the request.

Beachie Creek may be something of a misnomer for the fires that hopscotched through communities in the Santiam Canyon and destroyed nearly 500 homes. Fire authorities have already indicated that there were some 13 fires ignited by downed power lines in a stretch along Highway 22 from Mehama to Detroit.

But the ignition discovered Aug. 16 at Beachie Creek, which is still under investigation, was doubtless responsible for a wide swath of destruction as the easterly gales blew it west down drainages to the north of the canyon and toward the valley floor.

Linn County’s complaint acknowledges that the Forest Service attempted to put out the fire when it was 10 to 20 acres but were hampered by steep, densely forested terrain. Between August 18 and 20, it used a Chinook CH-47 helicopter, the suit says, “but then, inexplicably scaled back its efforts on Aug. 21, leaving the fire to burn.”

“To date, officials have not provided the public any information about where the original Beachie Creek fire traveled, the location where it merged with another fire in the area, or which areas it burned.”

The Forest Service said it does not comment on pending litigation.

— Ted Sickinger; [email protected]; 503-221-8505; @tedsickinger

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