Oregon's top fire marshal resigned on Saturday as wildfires keep raging across the state, and he was replaced by Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple, according to the governor's office and state police.
Fire Marshal Jim Walker submitted his resignation to the Oregon State Police superintendent's office after he was put on administrative leave, said the police agency in an announcement. No reason was given for Walker's resignation.
“Mariana has led with grace, transparency and courage,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. “She embodies the experience Oregon needs to face this crisis, in this moment.”
A local official from Linn County, Commissioner John Lindsey, said there has been a lack of coordination from the state in responding to the fires.
In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown called the perilous blazes a “once-in-a-generation event,” and the director of Oregon’s office of emergency management, Andrew Phelps, said authorities were bracing for the possibility of “mass fatality” incidents.
“There are going to be a number of fatalities, folks that just couldn’t get warning in time and couldn’t evacuate their homes and get to safety,” Phelps told MSNBC on Friday.
In Portland, where more than 100 days of political protests have turned increasingly violent in recent weeks, the Multnomah County Sheriff chastised residents for setting up their own checkpoints to stop cars after online claims said that far-left group Antifa or Black Lives Matter were responsible for the fires. Some local officials said the claims are not accurate. There were counter-claims online that far-right groups were behind the fires.
Over the weekend, the FBI issued a statement about the claims.
“FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon. With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue,” the FBI Portland Division said in a statement.