Smoke From California Fires Drifting North Into Oregon

WILDFIRE  ENVIRONMENT 

By Chris Lehman

Salem, OR  June 30, 2008 4:40 p.m.

The Pacific Northwest fire season is still ramping up.  But in California, more than a thousand wildfires are raging across the state.

The smoke from some of those fires is making it hard for fire managers in southern Oregon to do their job. Correspondent Chris Lehman has more.

Southern Oregon has had little more than a handful of nuisance-type fires so far this summer.  

To the south, some 45,000 acres of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest are ablaze in California.  Smoke from that inferno is snaking its way through the valleys of southern Oregon.

It obscures the view of land-based spotters looking for local fires.  So the state forestry department is relying more heavily on spotters in airplanes.

Brian Ballou is a fire prevention specialist for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Medford.  He says local residents there have been alarmed by the smoke and haze.

Brian Ballou:  “We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from people wondering where the fires are that are causing all the smoke.  Because the Rogue Valley has just been socked in.”

Haze from the fire has drifted as far north as Salem.  It will stick around at least though mid-week.

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