When it was organized on Thursday, July 17, the tone and focus of the community meeting in Madras regarding the Cram Fire was still in question. Would the fire run hard westward toward Madras? Would it continue its push southward and threated the timber of the Ochocos? Thanks to some cooling temperatures and less dangerous winds Thursday evening and Friday,  the Friday evening meeting became much more reflective on what had happened as opposed to what may happen.

It was very impressive and interesting to listen to the range of professionals, from the incident command teams to leaders of the federal and state land management, discuss tactics and operations. It was a great opportunity to get “behind the curtain.”

However, the highlight of the community meeting — which I viewed recorded on Facebook, a tremendous public resource for fluid emergency situations — was the presentation of Jefferson County Commissioner Mark Wunsch.

Wunsch, a rancher in the Grizzly area, is a part of the Grizzly Rangeland Fire Protection Association. It was one of two RFPAs involved in the Cram Fire, along with the heavily involved Ashwood-Antelope RFPA. The RFPAs operate under the umbrella of the Oregon Department of Forestry, which focuses on protecting private natural resource lands. The RFPAs consists of private individuals volunteering to help suppress fire in their rural area, country not covered by a fire district. I can’t recall ever hearing about RFPAs before this past week. My first thought was to imagine their individual efforts might be like wildland firefighting a century ago, volunteers pounding ground with gunny sacks. They have better equipment now, but their level of commitment and bravery might be similar to that of the guys who’d hit wildfires a century back.

Wunsch was one of the last officials to speak at the Friday meeting at the Jefferson County Middle School, and his words were the most riveting. He talked about a call going out the night the fire was moving southward toward the Grizzly country and a distressed rancher having 200 head in the fire’s path.

“In one hour, 20 ranchers were moving 200 head to safe ground. If you’ve never moved black cows at night …” said Wunsch, getting several laughs as the attendees could easily imagine the difficultly.

Wunsch noted how the cattle represented a million dollars in assets in harm’s way, but said that it’s more than the monetary element but also the emotional pull those cattle have on the ranchers.

“To lose animals is devastating,” said Wunsch.

Wunsch noted how the Grizzly RFPA budget is next to nonexistent and is dependent on grants and donated equipment from largescale fire protection agencies.

Directing his comments to the state and federal organizations represented at the community meeting, Wunsch said, “Our partnership is very valuable, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

All the officials who spoke at the meeting were gracious and did a great job of presenting information, but only one received an ovation from the attendees when the finished, and that was the rancher from Grizzly.

Wunsch was speaking for the Grizzly RFPA, but could have also been speaking for all of us.  Thanks for all the interagency response to help protect our community. Everyone knows how different agencies will go to the emergency zone, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive to see the rigs from those fire departments from all over Oregon moving through Madras. It certainly reminds us that we’re all a part of larger community.

Among the other highlights of the meeting was the unanimous consent among the visiting fire protection officials that our local and Central Oregon fire departments and wildland agencies are high quality. Their incident preparation and rapid response when the fire started on July 13 helped the state and national firefighting units and teams hit the ground running. That’s not a surprise to local residents, but it’s good to hear regardless, and something our local professionals should take pride in.

The community meeting was another great lesson in fire fighting logistics, tactics, vernacular, all  things we Oregonians are becoming evermore educated in as conflagrations continue to hit our state every year. Thank you to all the firefighters.  Please come back and visit Jefferson County under less taxing circumstances.