Firefighters directed by the Coos Forest Protective Association attack the remains of the Hootman Fire, south of Coos Bay, on Aug. 1, 2003. Mike Robison, a CFPA district manager, said at a May 21 meeting with timber company executives he is launching a letter-writing campaign to state and federal legislators seeking to prevent the federal government from barring teenagers from fire-protection duty. State law currently allows 16- and 17-year-olds to hold some firefighting positions that are off-limits to them on federal forest lands. World Photo by Lou Sennick

The district manager of the Coos Forest Protective Association last week declared his agency reasonably well equipped to tackle forest fires this summer, but cautioned an audience of timber executives of a movement by the federal government that may deprive the South Coast of its youngest fire-crew members.

Speaking at a May 21 meeting jointly organized by the Douglas Timber Operators and the Bay Area Chamber's Forestry & Fisheries Committee, Mike Robison called a possible federal ban on forest firefighting by those younger than 18 a threat to the fire agency's staffing levels and effectiveness - and announced a letter-writing campaign to legislators was under way to keep teenagers eligible for the work.

Robison used the meeting, held at the Red Lion Inn in Coos Bay before a 21-person audience to outline the CFPA's status and needs after successive summers of drought and extreme fire risk, and only two years after the Biscuit Fire carved a half-million-acre swath into the Southern Oregon woodlands.

The immediate battle facing local firefighters, Robison told the audience, is to hold onto their youngest colleagues. While teens are barred from fighting blazes on federal property, the Oregon Bureau of Labor allows those as young as 16 to do so on state lands, barring only the more hazardous duties from 16- and 17-year-olds. The CFPA manager said he began to hear reports the U.S. Forest Service, together with the Labor Department, were considering extending the federal age limits to state fire crews - depriving local agencies like the CFPA of their main source of recruits.

"If that happens, we won't be able to use 16- and 17-year-olds on any ground," he said, disputing the idea that teen firefighters are more likely to be harmed. "We have a great safety record with the kids. They are tools in our toolbox and we don't like losing any tools."

The firefighting agency, Robison said, has begun writing federal lawmakers, including Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to forestall such a ban, though he added after the 45-minute meeting no federal agency has yet announced such legislation.

"Right now we're still in 'voice concerns' mode," he said, estimating the CFPA would employ about 30 crew members under 18 at its fire stations in Coos Bay, Reedsport and Gold Beach.

Also Friday, Robison called the South Coast's early fire-season prospects only fair at best, mainly because of erratic rainfall since March that has left some regions fairly moist but others nearly as fire-prone as in 2002 and 2003.

"What makes or breaks the fire season is March to June," he said, calling the March rainfall "dreadful" and the following month problematic because "the rain was spread over a week, not the whole month." May precipitation was acceptable in Coos and Douglas counties but lower south of Port Orford, he said, may make a two-part fire season necessary, longer and stricter in most of Curry County.

One bright spot for South Coast firefighters, according to Robison, is the availability this year of state-chartered air tankers - all the more welcome when Western states struggling to replace 33 similar planes that lost their federal charters earlier this month. The Forest Service canceled $30 million in air-tanker contracts, citing two midair accidents in 2002 that killed five people.

On Aug. 1 four planes, two tankers and two lead aircraft, are set to become available to the Oregon Department of Forestry after firefighting duty in Alaska. The ODF announced on Monday it will seek two more tankers for use as early as the beginning of July.

Two of the Alaska-based planes will be available to Southern Oregon fire agencies, Robison told the Coos Bay audience, along with water-carrying helicopters in Medford and Grants Pass.

"We're probably better off than if we did have the fire retardant program with the Forest Service," he said wryly.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.