Unseasonably dry conditions cause early uptick in Grant County fires

By Logan Bagett on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories

JOHN DAY – Oregon Department of Forestry Wildland Fire Protection Supervisor Tyler Moodenbaugh was recently in KJDY Studios to discuss fire prevention. Moodenbaugh said while it may be surprising, conditions are a lot drier than folks may think:

“The springtime has been pretty dry, right? I mean, the green up— they’re are seeing that, and folks are wanting to burn and clean up their properties, but that outlier of dead grass is still there. We haven’t had a lot of precip. We’ve had a lot of sunshine, a lot of heat, and then several windy days. So, those combinations are getting things going again. And then, folks just leaving the piles unattended and…not mopped up properly has caused an uptick [of escaped debris burns].”

People are urged to use caution as they continue fire prevention cleanup as part of Wildfire Prevention Month. Listen to the full podcast with Moodenbaugh below: