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Rural dwellers trigger fires Some don�t believe rules apply to them By Mark Freeman Rural residents could learn a real-life wildfire lesson from the comic-strip character Pogo�s legendary musing, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Rogue Valley�s rural land-owners are starting grass and brush fires on their own properties at increasing rates, dispelling the illusion that freaks of nature, freaks from town or the wild kids down the road are the biggest backwoods fire threats. More than a third of the wild fires and almost two-thirds of the burned acreage in Jackson and Josephine counties this year resulted from landowners triggering accidental fires on their own land, according to local Oregon Department of Forestry officials. That makes landowners the single largest culprit of local human-caused fires. "There�s a myth out there that someone else is the problem," says Dan Thorpe, the Medford Unit forester for the state forestry office in Central Point. Historically, landowners have accounted for about a quarter of the human-caused fires. Now that figure is more than a third, says Jim Wolf, a fire-prevention planner for the department of forestry, which oversees wildfire restrictions and fighting efforts on all state, county, Bureau of Land Management and private lands in Oregon. Rural landowners often don�t realize that department of forestry restrictions � no afternoon mowing of dry grass, for instance, � actually apply to them, Wolf said. An 15-acre fire Thursday in White City, for instance, was triggered by a lawnmower�s exhaust system, Wolf said. Through Sunday, foresters tallied 67 wildfires that burned 51.5 acres. Of those, 55 fires totaling 46.3 acres were caused by humans. Total fires and acreage burned, however, are down from the historic averages of 87 fires blackening 256 acres through mid-July. But equally destructive are fires caused by power cords, weed and grass trimmers, the occasional arcing electrical fence and even by barbecue briquettes tossed off the back deck, Thorpe said. State law requires the department of forestry to bill people who start negligent fires. The bills can be high. Just a single engine and a small crew to clean up a half-acre fire caused by mowing dry grass could easily run a few hundred dollars; if aircraft are needed, the costs start at $5,000 and rise. It literally pays to takes fire restrictions seriously, Wolf said. Currently, landowners are banned from open burning, having campfires outside designated locations and from using all fireworks around flammable vegetation. Off-road driving is illegal, and smoking in wildlands is allowed only in enclosed vehicles while on improved roads free of flammable vegetation. From 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., people cannot use chain saws, mow non-agricultural grass that is dry, or use any power-driven machinery in and around flammable vegetation. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA