Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he and four other senators are calling out the Trump administration’s failures to prepare and adequately respond to the ongoing 2026 fire season throughout the West.
A record 2.5 million acres-plus have burned in Oregon so far this year, and temperatures for much of Oregon next week are forecast to be in the 80s.
“[…] Record-breaking high temperatures and historic drought have led to catastrophic fires across the West, destroying thousands of homes, wreaking havoc on the economies of rural communities, stressing the budgets of local governments, and leading to the loss of four wildland firefighters and two pilots,” Wyden and the other senators wrote Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Between July 18 and September 4, 2026, the national firefighting force was at preparedness level 5 with federal resources fully committed to combating wildland fires across the country. So far this year, the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Wildland Fire Service has dedicated more than $6 billion to fire suppression budget authority, spending nearly the entire fire suppression budget as of September 2, 2026. The West is expected to remain in peak fire season with hot, dry, and windy conditions for at least the next two months, raising concerns that federal wildfire resources and suppression funds could run out entirely.
“In light of these concerns, the capacity of the federal government to sustain operations is critical. We are concerned that the agencies simply do not have enough highly qualified personnel, Incident Management Teams, and supervisory staff to sustain operations,” the senators wrote. “Our offices have received reports that teams have worked more fires than is safe, using temporary supervisory structures because fully qualified personnel are not available. We have also heard that locally-led initial attack was affected by national mobilization, and that personnel have worked repeated or extended assignments. This is exceptionally concerning given that the worst of the fire season is likely yet to come and the high wildland firefighter fatality rate this season.”
In addition to Wyden, other senators signing the letter led by U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) are Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
The text of the letter is here.
A web version of this release is here.