February 2017
Published by the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal
Fire service appreciation
Oregon celebrated its 10th Fire Service Appreciation Day just last Friday, January 27th.

The entire staff here at the OSFM truly appreciates your dedication and professionalism in protecting our citizens and the environment from fire and hazardous materials.

In 2007, the Oregon Legislature passed House Joint Resolution 25 recognizing January 27th of each year as Fire Service Appreciation Day to give recognition and gratitude to all members of the Oregon fire service for their courage, selfless concern, and sacrifices. The Joint Resolution notes:
  • Whereas the fire service members of Oregon have dedicated themselves to the protection of life and property of their fellow Oregonians, often at great risk to their own safety and well-being; and
  • Whereas the fire service members of Oregon have continuously supported efforts to elevate the standards and training of firefighters and have been instrumental in increasing the public’s awareness of methods of fire prevention and suppression; and
  • Whereas firefighting is one of the most hazardous professions and requires extensive training, strength, endurance, courage, and a selfless concern for the safety of the citizens of Oregon; and
  • Whereas the contributions and sacrifices of valiant fire service members often go unreported and are inadequately recognized by the public; and
  • Whereas the work of fire service members deserves the attention and gratitude of all individuals in Oregon.
The fire service is an extended family and we appreciate being a part of it. We also appreciate your continued partnerships and collaboration efforts amongst Oregon fire agencies and our office to enhance our effectiveness in fire prevention, education, and enforcement.

Thanks for all you do!
Oregon State Fire Marshal Jim Walker
OSFM's 100 years of service :
Highlights from 1920 to 1929
This is the second of 12 monthly articles highlighting interesting facts and significant events from each decade of OSFM's 100 years of service and an OSFM deputy state fire marshal region.

1920
  • The Oregon Fire Chiefs Association was formed. B.F. "Biddy" McDowell was named the first OFCA president.

  • The Department of State Fire Marshal reported three major fires for this year, claiming 22 lives and seriously injuring 17. The fires were an apartment house in Portland called Elton Court, Houston Hotel in Klamath Falls, and a hotel in Robinette (Baker County). The Robinette townsite is now under the water of the Browlee Reservoir created by the damming of the Snake River by the Browlee Dam in 1958.
Spotlight on:
OSFM deputy districts 2 & 3

Counties: Lincoln, Marion, Polk, & Yamhill

  • Deputy State Fire Marshals Shannon Miller & Sean Condon. Shannon came to OSFM from Las Vegas & Sean has served as the healthcare deputy since 2012
  • Population:  547,483
  • Fire Agencies:  39
  • Approximately 73% volunteer
  • CR2K facilities:  1,603
  • Extremely hazardous substance facilities:  131
  • Conflag responses in last 15 years:  49
  • Annual calls (5 year avg):  39,288
  • Annual reported fires (5 year avg):  1,529
  • Annual hazmat calls (5 year avg):  178
  • Annual dollar loss (5 year avg):  $22,223,736
Did you know:

The current capitol building is the third in Salem. The first capitol building, along with many of the territory’s public records, was destroyed by fire on December 29, 1855. Arson was suspected, but no arrests were ever made.

The second capitol building was completed in 1876. On April 25, 1935 a fire started in the basement and quickly spread to piles of old records. A strong updraft in the hollow columns enclosing the dome pulled the flames through the rotunda to the upper stories. The intense heat burned even the copper dome and the flames could be seen as far away as Corvallis. One volunteer firefighter, Floyd McMullen, a student at Willamette University, died in the fire. Salem sent seven fire trucks to the scene; three more came from Portland. Losses were estimated at $1.5 million ($25.9 million in current dollar value), and the state did not carry insurance.

The losses, which included historic artifacts such as portraits of all the governors, could have been worse had the state not used fire-proof vaults in the basement to store valuables including more than $1 million ($17.3 million in current dollar value) in stocks and bonds. During the blaze, firefighters poured water on these vaults to help keep them cool and prevent the contents from disintegrating.

The current capitol building was dedicated in 1938. On August 30, 2008 the building caught fire, but this blaze was quickly extinguished with only damage to the Governor's offices on the second floor.

Spotlight: Hazmat Team 09
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Hazmat 09 was one of the original founding members of OSFM’s Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Teams in 1989.

HM09 is split between Station 53 near Washington Square and Station 34 in Tualatin. Each station has a hazmat response truck capable of responding independently with four personnel.

The most significant calls were at the peak of the anthrax responses after Sept. 11, 2001. It would seem at the time that any white powder was considered anthrax, and a hazmat response, until ruled otherwise. TVF&R HM09 worked with the OSFM and the Oregon Health Department to establish a biohazard response protocol which was shared with law enforcement to protect their members while investigating possible anthrax calls.

More recently, there have been a few gasoline tanker rollovers where HM09 assisted private environmental contractors with bonding/grounding to off-load the remaining gasoline into a new tanker.

HM09’s regional response boundaries include TVF&R’s area of Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, and Yamhill counties as well as serving Canby, Aurora, Hubbard, and out to the coast to cover Tillamook County. This large service area can lead to responses in excess of two hours, however most calls are in the greater Washington County area.

Hazmat training is conducted on Mondays at their training center in Sherwood, OR. This training typically starts with an educational class followed by a hands-on scenario in the afternoon.

Their greatest hazmat potential involves the significant amount of hazardous material transported within their response area to supply the local high tech industries. Past experience has shown that hazardous products are handled appropriately with minor spills being contained by trained on-site response teams, whereas the transportation and transfer of hazardous material over the road and while loading/offloading has created many responses.
Current HM09 Team Members: Capt. Andrew Klein, Capt. Patrick Fale, Training Officer Ben Sims, Lt. Gavin Price, Lt. Eric Bokovoy, Lt. Chris Pfeifer, Lt. Dan Mitchae, Lt. Kurt Koudelka, Lt. Jared Whitney, Eng. Jason Gianella, Eng. Mike Rose, Eng. Wyatt Chamberlin, Eng. Jeff Stewart, Eng. Scott Rifle, FF Lee Trotter, FF Dave Milburn, FF Jason Shelton, FF Michael Schrier, FF Brandon Pratt, FF Blake Ferguson, FF Gus Wettstein, FF Kelby Childers, FF Cody Fordyce, FF AJ Howard, FF Erik Peterson, FF Cody Nichols, FF Ryan Lawless,
FF Austin Fiske, FF Sonny Mann, FF Nate Christensen.
HM09 has a great balance of senior hazmat techs who have been on many calls and learned ways to solve complex problems while keeping safety in mind, as well as new energetic hazmat techs who bring new ideas and technology to keep HM09 up-to-date with trends and tools available to improve response capabilities. The team's minimum daily staffing of seven hazmat technicians helps ensure an immediate response to any hazmat emergency. Additionally, HM09 has always provided help to the OSFM with conducting hazmat technician training. HM09 enjoys the opportunity to provide this training and continually develops skilled instructors to provide top notch training.

Contact information for outreach: Capt. Andrew Klein Andrew.Klein@tvfr.com 503-259-1753 or Capt. Patrick Fale Patrick.Fale@tvfr.com 503-259-1734.
Cooking window clings and revised brochure now available
The OSFM is releasing the fourth in its series of window clings and a revised brochure focusing on cooking safety. The window clings were developed in association with the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

Cooking fires are the top cause of residential fires in Oregon.

The clings and brochure are free and can be ordered by visiting the OSFM prevention and safety material request page.











Data Connection
News from the Analytics & Intelligence Unit
by Program Coordinator Dave Gulledge
Mutual/Auto Aid Calls
Oregon fire agencies gave aid to other agencies more than 19,400 times in 2016. The aid local fire agencies give and receive is critical to providing emergency services. Correctly capturing aid to or from other agencies on an incident report is very important as well. It is a key field used in data analysis.

When it comes to incident reporting, aid is classified in two ways – mutual or automatic. Automatic aid is typically prearranged, where mutual aid is for a specific incident. When capturing information pertaining to aid on an incident report, there are essentially four options:
  • Aid Received (automatic or mutual) is when a fire agency handles an incident within its jurisdiction with additional manpower or equipment from other fire agencies outside its jurisdiction.

  • Aid Given (automatic or mutual) is when a fire agency responds into another fire agency’s jurisdiction to provide assistance at an incident or to cover a vacated station while the receiving agency is busy at an incident. 

  • Other Aid Given is when a fire agency covers and responds to unprotected areas or to another jurisdiction and no units or personnel from that jurisdiction are on-scene.

  • No Aid Given or Received is when a fire agency handles an incident within their jurisdiction without help from other agencies.

Under the NFIRS standard, anytime a fire agency responds to an incident, a report should be generated. When one agency receives aid from another, the agency having jurisdiction (receiving aid) is responsible for providing as much information about the incident as possible. This generally applies to fires and hazmat incidents where additional modules need to be completed within the report. The agency providing aid only needs to provide very basic information about their response and is not responsible for capturing detailed information about the incident, such as where and how a fire started. On a structure fire where multiple agencies are involved, the agency that has jurisdiction would complete the basic, fire, and structure fire modules of a report. All of the assisting agencies would only need to complete just the basic module of a report.

Properly capturing aid responses provides the ability to eliminate double counting in aggregate data. At the state and federal levels, if we want to identify how many individual fires there were, we would have to account for mutual aid. We do this using the Aid Given or Received field. How it matters is - if there is a fire and multiple agencies respond, each agency that responded to that fire should submit a report. So, if four agencies gave aid to the initial responding agency, there would be five reports involving that fire, but there was only one fire. From all of the reports submitted on that fire, only one agency should have indicated they received aid, the rest should indicate they gave aid. By looking at the aid given or received field and excluding where aid was given, we can easily identify how many instances of a particular incident occurred.

If you have any questions about how to properly capture aid that is given or received, contact the OSFM Analytics & Intelligence Unit at 503-934-8250 or 877-588-8787 (toll free), or by email at osfm.data@state.or.us
Estimating potential harm of hazmat: Parts per million - Part 1
Estimating the potential harm of a hazardous materials release is a key element of the NFPA 472 core competency, analyzing the incident. An essential measurement standard to  consider when estimating potential harm is parts per million, or ppm. When collecting hazard and response information about the material(s) released, specifics regarding how the release will affect human beings are often reported in ppm.

Parts per million, or ppm, describes the concentration of a substance as a fraction of one million equal parts. If you filled the fire station apparatus bay with one million balloons, a single balloon represents 1 ppm. Fifty balloons represent 50 ppm; one hundred balloons represent 100 ppm; and so on. In a hazmat situation, it is critical to know at what concentrations a substance is hazardous to humans. Consider the short-term symptoms and effects of hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, measured in ppm.

According to OSHA, the odor threshold for H2S is 0.01-1.5 ppm. At 2-5 ppm, prolonged exposure may cause nausea, tearing of the eyes, headaches, or loss of sleep. At 20-100 ppm, exposure may lead to fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory, dizziness, conjunctivitis, and respiratory tract irritation. The following table (courtesy of OSHA) details the dangerous effects of H2S at increasing concentrations in ppm:
Safety data sheets, or SDS (formerly known as material safety data sheets or MSDS), the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, and other hazmat reference materials may list exposure limits measured in ppm. According to NIOSH, the term immediately dangerous to life and health, or IDLH, represents, “…conditions that pose an immediate threat to life or health, or conditions that pose an immediate threat of severe exposure to contaminants, such as radioactive materials, which are likely to have adverse cumulative or delayed effects on health.” 

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has an IDLH of 100 ppm. A perilous side note to the IDLH of H2S is that olfactory fatigue (loss of smell) also occurs around 100 ppm. This means that just as the concentration becomes immediately dangerous, those who have been exposed to it may no longer be warned by its rotten egg odor. Concentrations increasing from 200 to 2000 ppm may cause progressively worsened symptoms including respiratory distress, coma, and instant death.

Part 2 of Estimating potential harm: ppm will explain how to convert concentrations measured as a percentage by volume to ppm and why that is important.

The Office of State Fire Marshal’s network of 13 Regional Hazmat Emergency Response Teams are equipped with air monitoring and gas detection tools. OSFM’s teams are also a resource for training on fire service air monitors.

To identify and connect with the team in your service area, contact Hazmat Team Program Coordinator Jamie Kometz at 503-934-8280 or jamie.kometz@state.or.us
HMEP grant period open
T he FY 2017-18 Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) grant application period is now open. It will remain open until March 24, 2017 at 5:00 pm.

The Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety and Security Reauthorization Act of 2005 authorizes the U.S. Department of Transportation to provide assistance to local, state, and tribal governments through training and planning grants for emergency response. The purpose of this grant program is to increase effectiveness in safely and efficiently handling hazardous materials accidents and incidents, to enhance implementation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, and to encourage a comprehensive approach to emergency training and planning by incorporating the unique challenges of responses to transportation situations. 

The Oregon SERC receives Hazardous Material Emergency Preparedness grant funds from the DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The grant funds are used to support planning, training, and exercise projects related to hazardous materials emergency response to transportation incidents.

Oregon receives approximately $260,000 annually. At least 80% of those funds are passed through to local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) and local first responder agencies. The remaining 20% is used by the OSFM to facilitate additional planning, training, and exercise projects.

For more information, contact Sue Otjen at 503-934-8227 or sue.otjen@state.or.us
SAVE the DATE
2017
State Emergency Response Commission/Local Emergency Planning Committee Conference
May 22 - 24
Seaside Convention Center

The final agenda is still being worked on and highlights should appear in the
March edition of the Gated Wye 

 
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