Oregon Army National Guard citizen soldiers support the state Department of Forestry with wildland firefighting efforts at the Two Four Two Fire near Chiloquin, Ore., in September 2020. Oregon lawmakers are likely to focus on wildfire prevention legislation in 2021.

The wildfires that exploded across Oregon in late summer quickly strained all available firefighting resources, requiring Gov. Kate Brown to call in help from the Oregon National Guard.

Fortunately, the military expected that Oregon may face a severe wildfire season and had trained three teams of firefighters earlier in the summer.

“When civilian firefighting assets are exhausted, that’s when they call the guard,” said Stephen Bomar, public affairs director of the Oregon Military Department, which oversees the Oregon National Guard.

As the gravity of the growing wildfires rapidly became apparent, the organization trained two more firefighting teams, bringing the total to five groups each consisting of 130 members. Typically, the agency has two firefighting teams available each year.

The guard was also involved in other operations than direct firefighting and at the peak deployed 1,300 members in the wildfire response this year.

“They have civilian jobs and had to leave their civilian jobs pretty much at a moment’s notice to help fight those fires,” Bomar said.

Apart from the three ground crews, the guard also deployed nine Black Hawk helicopters that were capable of dumping 500 gallons of water on the fires per flight. Overall, the helicopters made 1,100 drops during the recent wildfires.

The Guard also sent out two UH-72 Lakota helicopters to pinpoint hotspots with their radar systems and help the Oregon Department of Forestry with wildfire mapping.

Members of the National Guard also assist the Oregon State Police by monitoring traffic checkpoints to prevent people from traveling into areas at risk of fire.

Other members were available for search-and-rescue operations, as well as searching for fire fatalities.

Even as they were protecting other Oregonians from the flames, several National Guard members lost their own homes to the fires while hundreds of others were ordered to evacuate their properties.

“We literally live in the communities we serve,” Bomar said. “The biggest takeaway is a lot of these Oregonians came on orders and were able to help their own communities.”