EDITORIAL: Make campfire safety a habit, starting now

Published 11:00 am Friday, May 26, 2023

On this Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer outdoor recreation season, the snowdrift is apt to pose a bigger problem than the wildfire.

But the risk, though considerably less acute than it will be in July and August (and perhaps into October, if the summer is especially stingy with its rainfall), is not absent.

We can’t, of course, do anything to prevent lightning, which sparks a majority of the blazes in Northeastern Oregon.

But we do have control over the fires we light.

And we have a responsibility to be careful with flames.

(There is also potentially an expensive legal culpability, as you can be held financially liable for firefighting costs.)

Earlier this week, fire crews from the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest had to douse two campfires that had been abandoned by whoever kindled the flames.

One was at the Marble Creek picnic area west of Baker City, the other beside a road north of Union Creek campground.

Trevor Lewis, assistant fire management officer for fuels on the Burnt-Powder Fire Zone, said neither blaze spread. The grass is still green and lush and the ground still damp.

But that will likely change soon.

Within a few weeks — and almost certainly before the Fourth of July holiday — a campfire left before it’s dead out could turn into a major fire.

Everyone who plans to have a campfire this weekend — and there will be hundreds around the region — should be certain that they don’t leave a campsite before they’ve thoroughly squelched the fire.