Grizzly Bear Complex Fire: New fire management team on its way

Published 2:47 pm Thursday, August 20, 2015

Public information officer Erik Pronold of the Umatilla National Forest has confirmed that the Umatilla team will be transferring command of the Grizzly Bear Complex Fire to the Washington Interagency Type 2 Team, led by Incident Commander Brain Gales, tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.

The new management team will be stationed at a base camp in Elgin.

“A spike camp may be at the Troy school, but I cannot comfirm that at this time,” Pronold said.

Pronold could not say how many firefighters would be deployed on the fire.

“I know that resource orders are in for everything they can get,” he said, “unfortunately, that’s what everyone is requesting.”

Pronold was able to confirm that one Type 2 helicopter had been assigned to the fire and that the Interagency Management Team (IMT) was asking for more because of the inaccessibility of the fire.

“We’ve been able to borrow a VLAT (very large air tanker) and other aircraft now and then, but they are not assigned to the fire,” Pronold said.

He praised the firefighters that have been battling the blaze so far.

“The crew is on day 17 and the most they can work is 21 days,” he said. “Furthermore, some teams are on their third or fourth 14-day assignment. They get two days off every 14 days, sometimes it’s only one day off. They work 16-hour days and after they get supper it’s a very short night before they start again. Fatigue is setting in. They’ve been doing an awesome job.”

Pronold said that the potential for danger on the Grizzly Bear Complex fire was “great.”

“(Firefighters) are in a site with a mixture of fuels from light grasses to heavy timber, and there is a lot of very dry fire fuel on the ground. Add to that mix, high winds and inaccessibility. It’s very dangerous,” he said.