NE Oregon sends two trucks, 10 firefighters to LA fires
Published 3:32 pm Monday, January 13, 2025
- A helicopter drops retardant on the Charlie Brown Fire on July 25, 2024, as a dozer sits by after cutting a fire break just off Promise Road about 10 miles northwest of Wallowa. Firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Forestry have traveled to California to help battle the Los Angeles wildfires.
ENTERPRISE — Two fire trucks and 10 firefighters from Northeastern Oregon have been sent to Southern California to help battle the serious wildfires that have devastated the Los Angeles area.
Tracy Brostrom, the unit forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry at Wallowa, said Wallowa has sent one engine and one firefighter and has taken two firefighters from Pendleton and Baker City. He said Monday, Jan. 13, that La Grande sent one engine and three firefighters as well.
Jeff Bohnsack, U.S. Forest Service fire management officer for the Wallowa Mountains Office in Joseph, said the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest has sent one Type 6 engine and four firefighters to Beaumont, which is just east of LA. He said they arrived Sunday, Jan. 12.
Brostrom and Bohnsack both said that if the current firefighters are needed beyond the two weeks they’re scheduled to stay, replacements can be sent.
“They’ll put in their full 14 days,” Brostrom said. ”It just depends on what the fire’s doing.”
“If additional resources are needed, we’d fly them down,” Bohnsack said. “They’re down there to help provide relief.”
Paul Karvoski, emergency management director for Wallowa County, said no resources from the county or the four municipalities in it are being sent to the LA wildfires.
