After scraping out a fire trail in the forests near Sweet Home, Oregon, a task that followed several days of classroom preparation, young firefighting teams started to click.

“Someone threw out the word ‘trauma bonding,’” said Sam Briggs, 23, who was born and raised in Corvallis. “After we punched some line yesterday, everyone’s spirits were so high.”

The rookie firefighter was one of hundreds training in the lower Willamette Valley recently in preparation for this year’s wildfire season. The Oregon Department of Forestry, which protects over 16 million acres of forests in the state, is preparing for what could be a perilous fire season.

After stretches of hot and dry weather, forestry officials said fire conditions by late June resembled the conditions normally seen in mid-to-late July. Fires have already sparked throughout the state.

Though they’ve been manageable, Craig Pettinger, a unit forester with the department, said he’s nervous.

“If we get more of those long stretches of hot days, we could be looking at a very busy season,” he said.

Like many states, Oregon is coming off a warm winter that did little to fill the reservoirs of snow that melt in the spring and summer and refresh downstream forestlands. That dryness makes kindling – or “fuels” in the firefighting community – out of brush, shrubs, plants, small trees and the like.

About 86% of the state is currently facing drought conditions, according to a June 26 report from the Oregon Water Resources Department. Several counties – a belt stretching from Douglas and Lane counties to Umatilla and Union counties – are facing “extreme” drought conditions.

“There was no snow this year,” Pettinger said. “All those fuels that are usually buried under a blanket of snow, they’ve had sun on them for months.”

Firefighters train for worst-case scenarios.

On June 26, roughly 200 wildland firefighting trainees completed a five-day academy, which culminated in a controlled burn near the lower Santiam River. Light rain muddied the terrain.

Yellow-shirted crews spread across the hillside. Makeshift pools of water and firetrucks loomed nearby to supply hoses that firefighters carried up to the burning piles. Trainees took turns dousing and managing test fires made from piles of branches and forest vegetation.

Forestry department official Ben Cline stood nearby and watched the trainees work.

“Absolutely nothing is going to change about the way we train our firefighters and the way we prepare for the day,” Cline said. “We prepare for the worst every day.”

Each firefighter carried a heavy-duty hand tool. Briggs, holding a hazel hoe, recalled raking the forest floor so deeply to remove the vegetation. Those hand trails are vital to containing wildfires.

“You’re just trying to scrape right down to the soil; you don’t want anything that’s going to creep over the line. You’re just trying to scrape everything away,” Briggs said.

The job can be physically taxing, said second-year trainee Raegan McKinney, 19, but “It definitely has a way of weighing on the mind, too.”

Wildfire seasons have gotten longer in the Pacific Northwest, sometimes lasting into the fall.

McKinney said. “About August, September, when you’ve been doing it a lot, it can start to feel a little tiring. But I think it’s also a great opportunity to build camaraderie.”

As the summer kicks into full swing, Pettinger cautioned that there are things the public can do to help. Fireworks, campfires, cigarettes and sparks from machinery are just some of the ways people can inadvertently set a blaze.

“People can get lulled into a sense of security because we got a shot of rain,” Pettinger said, backgrounded by the forest trees and dark gray clouds. “It helps, but a week from now you’ll never know this happened.”

He pointed out that the day’s wet weather will change soon enough.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/09/oregon-wildland-firefighters-prepare-for-potentially-busy-fire-season/