©Rowe Creek FB

The Trump administration has denied two of Gov. Tina Kotek’s requests for firefighting-assistance grants as wildfires ravage eastern Oregon. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved three of the state’s requests for financial assistance for the Lower Dry Creek, Awaka Butte and Grasshopper fires, the agency chose not to grant the state emergency federal funding for the East Evans Creek and Rowe Creek fires. Following the agency’s denial of the federal assistance grants for the two fires, Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, wrote to Robert Fenton, the head of FEMA, to express alarm and to argue that the decision represented “a major shift in administrative policy” for the agency.