Lake Oswego Fire Department Closes Cooks Butte Park
The closure is to help prevent any human caused fires throughout the weekend.
(LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. ) — The Lake Oswego Fire Department has ordered Cooks Butte Park officially closed through the weekend.
"With a Red Flag warning and very high winds expected, we are extremely concerned about this park and the surrounding homes," said Fire Marshal Gert Zoutendijk. "This extreme weather combination, which is rare for our city or the Metro area, creates a high fire danger."
The closure is to help prevent any human caused fires - as experienced in the city of West Linn earlier this week when a fire was started behind West Linn High School by a photographer.
This fire aided Lake Oswego's Fire Marshal in the decision to close Cooks Butte Park completely until the fire threat subsides.
At this time only Cooks Butte Park is being closed due to its location and exposure to the winds.
The park is a valuable resource for our citizens and we will re-open the park as soon as possible.
With the Red Flag warning we want to advise everyone to use extreme caution in and around their home and neighborhood.
Lake Oswego Fire Department has seen an increase in bark dust and vegetation fires this summer. One of the fires started the outside of a home on fire but was quickly extinguished keeping the damage to a small attached shed.
The majority of these fires are believed to have been caused by discarded smoking materials.
Source: Lake Oswego Fire Department
