After the Smoke Clears on the Fourth of July

It’s a perennial question among Central Oregonians each Fourth of July: Less if errant fireworks will spark Central Oregon’s next blaze than — how big will it be?

This year’s Fourth saw numerous fires, most predictably on Pilot Butte, on top of which commissioned pyrotechnics set off the City of Bend’s firework display while firefighters stood at the ready to douse sections that inevitably catch fire.

Consider as a sideshow attraction: The patch of Deschutes County Fairgrounds that also caught fire during the Redmond fireworks show.

Yet it was on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management near Redmond where the very-big-deal Coyner Fire sparked around 8:30 pm. Crews from the Redmond Fire & Rescue Department and partnering agencies have since corralled the fire to 20.5 acres, with 50% containment by July 7.

Redmond Police Chief Devin Lewis and RFR Chief Ryan Herrera will present a Fourth of July overview to the City Council on July 14. This is likely when they’ll revive the conversation about whether Redmond will retain its Fourth of July firework exception, or whether the city of 38,000 will shore up its 365-day firework ban with Bend, Sisters and Sunriver, for example.

Now that evacuation warnings stemming from the Coyner Fire have been dropped and the blaze’s cause is being investigated, the Source reached out to RFR Marshal Tom Mooney to talk shop about firework culture, a pronounced need for firework safety and memorable, if fiery, past Fourth of Julys.

Redmond Fire & Rescue Marshal Tom Mooney Credit: RFR

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

the Source: How was your Fourth of July? Was the Coyner Fire your biggest event?

Tom Mooney: That was probably one of the bigger ones among the couple structure fires. We had a house that caught fire from fireworks. The owners used the house for storage. We also had a bunch of little fires overnight that people aren’t aware of, little dumpster fires. The cause of most of those is somebody doing the right thing, cleaning up their fireworks but throwing them in the dumpster. Fireworks are made from cardboard, so those little embers sit and smolder.

tS: For a fire department, is Fourth of July the biggest event that you can count on each year?

TM: It’s always hard to tell what the Fourth of July is going to be like. We can surmise that it being a weekend and obviously with this year being the 250^th. Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball. If we had available staffing, we would’ve staffed up, but we were running with what we normally have. The fortunate thing is we have great partnerships with other agencies in the area and then as we need help, we can rely on them to come and assist as they’re available.

tS: Right, Bend Fire & Rescue and Cloverdale Fire District helped RFR last weekend. You personally have a long background with firefighting, beginning in Oklahoma and then in Tualatin. How does Central Oregon fit in?

TM: It’s unique here. Oklahoma has a lot of open prairies and a lot of dry grass, so we’d get a lot more grassland fires that would exceed thousands of acres. Central Oregon has a different climate than in the Willamette Valley, where it’s greener. We have a lot of brush and grass that interfaces with the cities, unfortunately. We have had an extreme fire danger listing here for at least a month. That really comes into play if somebody wants to use fireworks. They really should take that to consideration and almost second-guess themselves. Should they even use them? People have to stop and think about how their actions can have implications on other people in the city where they live.

tS: Do you think the Redmond City Council should totally ban fireworks the next Fourth? That’s been an ongoing conservation.

TM: It’s hard to say after this year which way they’re going to go. I can say that we’re in the process of writing a wildland-urban interface code. There will be language in there regarding fireworks, weather and fire-danger ratings. The Oregon Fire Marshal’s Office will take our draft under review. When it comes back and we review it then it’ll be adopted.

tS: It’s like guessing which way the wind will blow.

TM: Right.

tS: Fireworks are such a hot-button topic. It’s maybe second to Second Amendment concerns. Fireworks are such a piece of the American fabric.

TM: We have to balance culturally what has happened historically. We also have to look at what’s safe for the community. We don’t want to say yes to fireworks at next year’s Fourth and then have a 100,000-acre brushfire that takes out half of the community. We have to find that balance. Is it not allowing fireworks anymore or is there a better alternative to fireworks and still being able to celebrate our nation?

tS: What do you think about drone shows?

TM: I’d be all for them, but Redmond has a challenge with drone shows because we have the airport airspace above. That’s an added layer, but I think it’s doable.

tS: From an optics standpoint, the Fourth of July is when we looked to our local fire department, like, ‘Oh, crap — you guys saved our butts.’ Do you think the Fourth gives fire departments an opportunity to remind the public about their crucial role?

TM: We’ll have a Fourth of July data report coming out [on July 14]. We’ll talk about how many fires we responded to and how many resources those incidents ate up. That way people can have an idea of how many resources a 20-acre brushfire pulls away from the city.

tS: I understand you’re also a fire investigator. What’s the order of operations when it comes to preserving a fire site that may also be a crime scene?

TM: When there’s a significant fire we have different protocols that meet certain thresholds. I got called to a double house fire on Saturday afternoon. I took witness statements, considered the evidence at the scene. That makes my determination of whether this might be an intentional fire and whether I should engage my law enforcement partners. The source of the Coyner Fire, which is on land owned by BLM, is being investigated by their investigators, for example.

tS: Looking toward smoke season, how do you feel? We had that winter drought, of course.

The source of the Coyner Fire is being investigated by the BLM, owner of the land outside of Redmond. The Redmond Police and Redmond Fire & Rescue will present a July Fourth report to the Redmond City Council on July 14. Credit: DCSO

TM: The predictive services have been spot-on as far as our fuel and moisture content, which is super low. According to the data, we’re still at least a month ahead of where we should be at this time of the year, unfortunately. Any fires that start just take off running. By saving grace, we haven’t had really high winds when these fires have taken off.

tS: Do you have any favorite Fourth of July memories?

TM: My mom was from the Port Huron, Michigan, area. When I was a kid, we were there for the Fourth one year. We were walking downtown when we noticed a building on fire. A bottle rocket had landed on the roof. I think that might’ve been my first real spark of interest in the fire service. From that point on, the Fourth of July has always been a busy day.