WALLOWA — As mop-up work continues in the Winding Waters Complex of fires in western and northern Wallowa County, fire officials and members of the public took time during a Thursday, Aug. 1 meeting to express mutual appreciation for the public-private teamwork that has helped battle the blazes.

The meeting, held at Wallowa High School — home base for the efforts to fight the five fires in the complex — also gave fire officials a chance to update about 50 attendees on the progress of the blazes.

Matt Howard, incident commander and regional forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry, noted that the size of the fires has not changed in recent days.

“We’ve stopped the forward spread of those fires,” he said. “We’re putting them out. That’s what we’re here for.”

Here are the five fires in the Winding Waters Complex and their estimated size:

• Mountain View, west of Wallowa: 318 acres

• Big Canyon, west of Wallowa: 288 acres

• Charlie Brown, north of Wallowa: 69 acres

• Courtney Creek, near Flora: 59 acres

• Water, west of Wallowa: 18.5 acres

The total size of the complex, as noted in a Friday morning update, is 752.5 acres. The complex is 29% contained. The fires were started by lightning strikes. The estimated cost of fighting the fires thus far is $3.6 million.

John Tillotson, an operations section chief for the ODF, went over the five fires on a map and said Thursday that the second-largest — and most worrisome of the blazes — the Big Canyon Fire, had been cut into two and was in the process of being mopped up. 

Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts told how the county Road Department has two water trucks manned by six workers bringing in water to the blazes. She urged anyone happening on the road crew to express their thanks to them for their efforts, which involved much overtime work.

Sheriff Ryan Moody emphasized that there is no immediate threat to the Wallowa community from the fires and, unlike in the Troy area with the Cougar Creek Fire, no evacuation notices have been issued. Moody said that unless someone owns property in the immediate vicinity of one of the fires, they have little to be concerned about.

Howard said Tuesday night’s rainfall was helpful.

“It really helped us with Big Canyon,” he said.

But the weather picture isn’t all rosy. Friday’s update said that chances of thunderstorms, while low overall, enter the forecast on Saturday and Sunday, mainly over the mountains. With those storms could come more lightning.

Public-private partnership

The main topic of discussion Thursday was how well public and private resources were coming together to extinguish the fires.

Howard said the addition of the 491 people fighting the fire has been a substantial boost to Wallowa’s population of about 880. 

Wallowa Mayor Gary Hulse, while not at Thursday’s meeting, has been actively helping fight the fires and as mayor, working to round up supplies for the firefighters. Fire personnel have their primary fire camp at the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland, just across the Wallowa River from town. The incident command has set up at the school, with some personnel camping out on the grounds.

Hulse said the ODF had to hustle to find food for firefighters when the fires broke out in the area last week. He said ODF reached as far as Island City to find lunches to distribute to the firefighters. 

“One program that helped before caterers arrived was coordinated by the Lostine Presbyterian Church,” he said.

The mayor said that In memory of her father, Roark Schwanenberg, Margo Schwanenberg Delevan of Walla Walla, Washington, sent the church a published list of items needed for firefighters. The church collected as many items as possible and delivered them to the ODF in Wallowa.

Roark Schwanenberg was killed when the helicopter he was piloting crashed at the Iron Complex fires in California in 2008, Hulse said.

Brian Anderson, district ranger for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in Joseph, said the U.S. Forest Service is also working closely with the ODF and local fire resources.

“We want to be in lockstep with our partners” in the ODF, private landowners, industry partners and other firefighters, he said.

Some of those industry partners include Henderson Logging, BTO Logging, Hafer Brothers, Tanzey Forest Improvement and others.

As the Winding Waters Complex dies down, Howard is only too aware that it’s still early in the fire season. After all, two years ago, it was in late August that lightning ignited the Double Creek and Eagle Cap Wilderness Complex of fires in southern Wallowa County. He said this year, over a million acres have burned so far in Oregon.

“The situation around Oregon and the Intermountain West is difficult and resources are extremely rare,” he said. “We need to get ready for the next” round of fires. 

No further evening briefings on the complex will be conducted, though morning briefings will continue.

Updated information about the Winding Waters Complex can be accessed online at  https://tinyurl.com/windingwaters0802 or by calling 541-321-0369.