Rowan praises UCSO workers roles during wildfires
By Terry Murry on Friday, August 23rd, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – The recent wildfires that have swept through Umatilla County means all hands are on deck managing emergency operations. Sheriff Terry Rowan says his staff rose to the occasion.
“We had to do a lot of juggling, a lot of shifting,” he said. “One of our major responsibilities with these fires is making notifications to the public.”
That’s not as easy as it sounds when you consider the fires burn through remote areas with scattered populations.
“They may be disconnected,” he said. “They could be off-grid. So, we have to send boots on the ground to those locations, especially if it’s a Level 3 evacuation.”
Rowan said that during the heat of the emergencies, he was asked why the sheriff’s office makes the notifications instead of the firefighter organizations.
“I’m thinking, because they’re putting out the fire and they need resources as well,” he said. “I was just shocked and awed from the responses from the state and the nation. I remember there was a crew that came in from Utah that was here for about a day and then they had to go back to their state because they had fires kick off there.” Rowan said responding to wildfires are very challenging and very time-consuming and he’s proud of the hours that were put in at the emergency operations center.
File photo of the Battle Mountain Complex
