Flat Fire in SW Oregon prompts questions about firefighting in Kalmiopsis Wilderness

Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, said running bulldozers in the Kalmiopsis would be enormously destructive to a very fragile area.

"The scars from that use would far outlast the effects of the fire, and it would just be a mistake, not just to the spirit and intent of wilderness, but a real, real damage to the land itself," he said.

He also pointed to the benefits of wildfire as helping rejuvenate landscapes and reduce fuels in the environment.

"Fire is a natural process. Wildfire kind of helps keep the 'wild' in wilderness. Many other wilderness areas we have, the fire's influences account for its beauty, its wildness, its naturalness," he said.