May 19, 2024
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Forest fire management officer in Wilmington fought forest fire in Oregon

Chris Lundgren part of emergency team that brought the fire under control

By Denise M. Baran-Unland
Chris Lundgren is a forest fire management officer with the USDA Forest Service based in Wilmington. He and his team are based out of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. He was one of the firefighters assigned to the Bootleg Fire, on the Fremont Winema National Forest in Oregon.

Chris Lundgren is a forest fire management officer with the USDA Forest Service based in Wilmington. He and his team are based out of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. He was one of the firefighters assigned to the Bootleg Fire, on the Fremont Winema National Forest in Oregon. (Photo provided)

Christopher Lundgren spent two weeks on two occasions helping to fight the Bootleg Fire in the Fremont Winema National Forest in Oregon.

“I’d been on the fire this time for 10 days,” Lundgren said Thursday. “We got a handle on this fire so we’re turning it back over to the local units.”

The Bootleg Fire started July 6 and the Log Fire started July 12. The two merged July 20 according to website inciweb.nwcg.gov.

Lundgren, of Wilmington, is a forest fire management officer with the USDA Forest Service based in Wilmington. Lundgren and his team are based out of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Lundgren also belongs to two of 16 Type-1 incident management teams in the U.S. Those teams manage what they describe as large-scale, complex incidents in the U.S. not limited to wildfires.

“We’ll go out on any sort of emergency, like a hurricane or flood, any sort of disaster really,” Lundgren said.

He’s belonged to a team based out of the Pacific Northwest for two years and a team in the Northern Rockies for about 12 years.

He said about 97% of forest fires are caught the day they start so teans can get extinguish them quickly.

Chris Lundgren is a forest fire management officer with the USDA Forest Service based in Wilmington. He and his team are based out of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. He was one of the firefighters assigned to the Bootleg Fire, on the Fremont Winema National Forest in Oregon.

Chris Lundgren is a forest fire management officer with the USDA Forest Service based in Wilmington. He and his team are based out of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. He was one of the firefighters assigned to the Bootleg Fire, on the Fremont Winema National Forest in Oregon. (Photo provided)

The remaining 3% of forest fires burn rapidly, at a rate that available resources and staff can’t contain, Lundgren said. When forest fires are the size of the Bootleg Fire – about 413,717 acres – he said the area is divided into sections.

“Those are broken down into divisions with division supervisors,” Lundgren said. “Then they have resources that work for them to put in the fire lines and contain the fire.”

A fire line is designed to halt the spread of the fire, he said. This can involve removing vegetation down to the mineral soil or using aircraft with water or a fire retardant to slow the fires and cool it down.

“The basic reason we put them out is the value at risk here, whether it’s private property, infrastructure or the threat to human life,” Lundgren said.

Lundgren said he’s worked for the USDA Forest Service his entire adult life – about 26 years, beginning three days after his high school graduation.

Lundgren said he especially enjoys the strategizing and planning of putting out fires.

“My dad also worked for the forest service as a district firefighter, so I started out just watching him do it. I enjoy the outdoors and I like to travel and see new places,” Lundgren said. “I’ve worked with a lot of great people through the year and made some lifelong friends.”