Hotshots to Train this Week on the Oregon Dunes

Winema Interagency Hotshot Crew in action. Photo courtesy: Winema Interagency Hotshot

(FLORENCE, Ore.) - Each spring the Winema Interagency Hotshot Crew travels from their home base in Klamath Falls, Oregon to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area to get in some spring training in preparation for the coming fire season.

This year the crew of elite fire fighters will be on the coast during the week of April 23rd.

“This is the seventh year that the hotshots have come to the Dunes for training,” said Oregon Dunes NRA Assistant Fire Management Officer Tim McKillop. “Each year they not only get in some classroom work and physical fitness training, but they help in getting some of our prescribed fire program accomplished,” added McKillop.

The Winema IHC will help with a planned fuels reduction project near the south jetty of the Siuslaw River.

The project will reduce fuels from the Whale Memorial south approximately 1.5 miles, by burning vegetation along the foredune.

The fuel reduction project is scheduled to be completed between April 23rd and April 27th.

“As with all of our prescribed fires, timing is critical in accomplishing the project,” McKillop said. “We continuously monitor the wind, temperature and humidity to make sure that the burn is within established prescription, in order to minimize smoke impacts to the local population and to achieve the project goals.”