Neighbors complain about smoke from intentional fire
EUGENE, Ore. - Neta Prefontaine and her upstairs neighbor Vivien Hernandez are having difficulty breathing.
They live in the Redwood Park Apartments in west Eugene, just across the street from a controlled burn that took place on protected grasslands on Wednesday.
Hernandez has emphysema and said the smoke aggravated her condition.
"Like something really heavy on your chest, and you just can't breath," she said.
Prefontaine has severe asthma and said she can't take the smoke either.
"If you've ever put a pillow on your face and tried to breath, that's how I feel," said Prefontaine. Her late brother Steve Prefontaine took a stand against agricultural field burning after the smoke caused him to cough up blood after a race at Hayward Field.
The two women understand the fire was controlled - but said they don't think it was justified.
"For a little plant, they put people in danger," Hernandez said.
Land managers said the 15-acre chunk of grasslands needed to be burned to be preserved.
"Prairies need fire in order to thrive," said Matt Benotsch from the Nature Conservancy, "and as for prairies, we only have one-tenth of one percent which was in the Willamette Valley, and that means that most of the species that rely on this habitat are rare or are threatened."
Benotsch said the Nature Conservancy set the blaze in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management in Eugene. Michael Mascari with BLM said the agency and the City of Eugene did everything they could to minimize risks for the neighbors.
"Unfortunately, it will always be inconvenient for some folks," Mascari said, "especially when you live in an area with a large urban interface like we do."
Usually ..if one keeps all the windows closed and door shut... the smoke won't bother anyone..Since its a short duration on the burn..  a couple hours of keeping things closed up..should not aggravate  the lungs..
LOL the whole Willamete Valley use to be a wet land. Until about twenty dams was built. Then during right around july when grass and other vegitation was dying off the would set flame to it. To kill thorny brush and whatever else they cuold not walk through. But that was then.
Letters were sent to all addresses within a 1/4 mile of the planned burns, in which a pre-burn phone call was offered, and the link to a Facebook site with realtime updates.
 @Eric Residents of the apartment complex shown did not receive any notices. The apartments management was notified, but not with sufficient enough time to properly warn its tenants.
 @Eric In that case, the BLM did a good job with outreach for the most affected citizens. I still think that a TV ad campaign would help people become accustomed to the concepts and objectives of prescribed fire. Given a broader outreach campaign, people who may have respiratory issues can avoid recreating in the targeted areas.Â
I am not opposed to prescribed fire to maintain the ecological systems of our wetlands, after all the feathered/furry/finned creatures that we treasure evolved within wetland ecosystems (which were formed in the presence of prairie fires).Â
In my opinion, the BLM did a terrible job informing the citizens of their intention to burn. One suggestion is that they send out flyers in the mail outlining their targeted burn windows and burn locations, or take out ads in the Register Guard, or buy a commercial spot on television (ODF does it for their "defensible spaces" campaign), or all of the above.Â
I believe that an informed public is more likely to accept hardships associated with prescribed burning. Let's face it, regular fires should be part of existence in Oregon (ecologically speaking) just like rain, the key is to keep people abreast of activities and intentions so that we can be prepared.
 @Willskey You are absolutely correct. In the past BLM has sent mail directly to tenants with the maps outlining the intended burn areas and dates. Who ever was in charge of the program this year did a horrible half-ass job of notifying people.
there is just no pleasing some people.
sorry your having a hard time of it ladies but it beats the heck out of town burning
 @Iam1woody SO true. You know as well as I do that if they hadnt done this burn and then it happened in a manner that was uncontrolled there would be people very upset that the BLM didnt do anything to prevent it. We live in Oregon. We live in a community that has a lot of agriculture and places such as this prairie...every year there will be forest fires in the hills, there will be controlled burns such as this, there will be field burning. Every year we hear the same thing.