PORTLAND, Ore. — Fourth of July weekend is here and fire crews across Oregon are standing at the ready, hoping people refrain from shooting off fireworks in such dry conditions.
Portland Fire & Rescue along with the Portland Parks Bureau and Oregon Department of Forestry recently put up two signs in the Forest Park area to make sure people are aware of the conditions. They’re color-coded signs that show the level of fire danger.
"So when people approach, they take that second thought,” said Portland Fire spokesman Terry Foster.
The Portland Fire Facebook page said eight more signs will be placed throughout the Forest Park, Powell Butte and Rocky Butte areas.
“We have one of the largest parks in the nation in Forest Park. We do not want a wildfire to start there,” Foster said.
Heading into the holiday weekend, that message could not be more important.
“Right now all the vegetation, the trees, the fuels basically are primed to be lit up,” said Foster.
Portland and a number of other cities and counties have temporarily banned fireworks ahead of Fourth of July this year.
Foster said due to staffing issues for both Portland Fire and the Portland Police Bureau, similar to the last couple years, there will not be enforcement patrols.
“At this point we just want people to know it's up to us and our neighbors to be responsible,” Foster said.
He said while Portland has banned the use and sale of fireworks, people should not travel to other smaller communities to light off fireworks.
“We want to remind people that if they go to the smaller communities and they light fireworks off, you put them at risk. Once they respond to one fire, it limits their resources, which is already quite small,” said Foster.
To give an idea of the difference in resources, in Portland, Foster said there are about 650 firefighters with just shy of 140 working each day. Compare that to North Lincoln Fire & Rescue on the coast, which has 16 paid firefighters and some other volunteers. North Lincoln Fire covers an 80-square-mile area with 10 miles of coastline.
North Lincoln Fire & Rescue Chief Rob Dahlman said this weekend they'll have five people on duty manning two stations.
Dahlman hopes people refrain from shooting off fireworks and stick to public displays that are planned.
He said right now they're seeing dry conditions that they don't normally see until the end of August.
In addition, both Dahlman and Foster said people should not call 911 to report illegal fireworks. That could tie up phone lines for emergencies that are in progress. They said don’t call 911 unless there’s an imminent threat or emergency, like if a fire breaks out.