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May 2017
Published by the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal
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Wildfire awareness is crucial
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It may not feel like it with the record rainfall we’ve been having, but wildfire season is just around the corner.
Drought conditions have certainly lessened throughout the west but this is no indication of how our 2017 wildfire season might turn out. We do know that the increase in rain will likely be followed by heavy grass and brush growth which will add to the fuel load in our wildfire prone areas.
Summer weather is our great unpredictable influencer. We really don’t know what will happen with lightning strikes, wind, or human behavior. A wet winter does not necessarily correlate with a mild fire season, and as members of the fire service, it’s our job to ensure that the public does not become complacent regarding wildfire preparedness and prevention.
Early spring is the perfect time for homeowners to learn about the Home Ignition Zone and the proper way to create defensible space around their home. I encourage you to reach out to residents in your jurisdiction and educate them about the organizations and resources available, such as Keep Oregon Green, Firewise, and the Oregon Department of Forestry, that can walk them through the right steps in protecting their home.
May is Wildfire Awareness Month, and preventing and preparing for wildfires is the focus. The Oregon Department of Forestry reports that about 70% of Oregon wildfires are started by people; the other 30% are started by lightning. Safe debris burning, equipment use, and campfires should all be addressed.
I encourage you to take advantage of the springtime and May’s focus on wildfire to get the word out to members of your community about the actions they can take to prevent wildfires and prepare their homes.
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Oregon State Fire Marshal Jim Walker
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The OSFM has teamed up with ODF and Oregon universities on a wildfire awareness ad campaign scheduled to begin this month,
watch for it!
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OSFM's 100 years of service
:
Highlights from 1950 to 1959
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This is the fifth 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.
1953
- In cooperation with the International Association of Fire Chiefs and under the sponsorship of the "State Fire Marshal Department," local fire departments throughout the state introduced the Home Fire Prevention Program and conducted voluntary inspections of approximately 25% of all dwellings in areas with fire problems.
1955
- Due to the efforts of the Home Fire Prevention Program, home fire insurance claims were reduced by 832 compared to the previous year. The program was so well received that the State Fire Marshal received a Certificate of Commendation from the National Safety Council in recognition of exceptional public service for the program.
1956
- November saw the first recorded major school fire at St. Joseph's Academy in Pendleton; a 72 year-old, three story frame center section and a 60 year-old, two story section were destroyed. A valuable collection of paintings and musical instruments were included in a loss totaling more than $123,000.
1957
- The Oregon Legislature gave the responsibility of regulating liquefied propane gas installations to the OSFM. This included inspections, installer exams, gas fitters, and LPG truck equipment drivers.
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Spotlight on:
OSFM deputy district 7
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Counties: Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine
- Deputy State Fire Marshal: Mike Shaw
- Population:398,791
- Fire Agencies: 47
- Approximately 65% volunteer
- CR2K facilities: 1,328
- Extremely Hazardous Substance facilities: 94
- Annual calls (5 year avg): 47,595
- Annual reported fires (5 year avg): 1,460
- Annual Hazmat calls (5 year avg): 210
- Annual dollar loss (5 year avg): $15,704,166
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Did you know:
The Roseburg Blast was the first declared conflagration. On August 7, 1959, at approximately 1:00 a.m., the Gerretsen Building Supply Company caught fire. Firefighters soon arrived at the building to extinguish the fire. A truck loaded with two tons of dynamite and four-and-a-half tons of the blasting agent nitro carbo nitrate had been parked near the building. The truck exploded at around 1:14 a.m., destroying buildings in an eight-block radius and severely damaging 30 more blocks.
A total of 14 lives were lost in the blast and fire, and there were 125 injuries. Damage was estimated at 10 to 12 million dollars. The Governor declared a conflagration, and the Office of State Fire Marshal helped to mobilize firefighting forces from as far away as Eugene to assist.
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Spotlight: Hazmat Team 08
Southern Oregon
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Members in the photo (left to right): Ron Nelson, Jim Turcke, Sean Schmidt, Rick Rohrbough, Graham Payer, Dale Mawhirter, Dennis Macey, Sean Fey, Dan Buchanan, Bryan Baumgartner, Erin Sawall, seated is Ryan Stidham. Not pictured is David Penicook, Kip Gray, Rich Martin, and Brian Fish.
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Hazmat Team 08 began in 1989 as a joint team with Grants Pass, Ashland, and Jackson County Fire District #5. The team is now based in Medford.
HM08 has responded to several types of incidents since their inception. There were a greater number of incidents when the team first started but this has decreased over the years as the hazardous materials industry has become more aware and responsible with their actions.
One of the team’s biggest challenges over the years has been the Siskiyou Summit where I-5 exits Oregon through the mountains. There have been many semi-tractor trailer incidents due to the steepness of the pass. Additionally, the railroad goes over the mountain in the same area and they have also had a few incidents. Some of the chemicals involved in incidents HM08 has responded to include: liquid oxygen, propane, anhydrous ammonia, chlorine, paint products, radiological, and many others.
HM08 has 18 positions, with 16 currently filled. They are working on rounding out the other team positions later this year if possible. Like most teams, they try their best to have a "rank-less" team functionally on incidents - not always successfully. HM08 currently has four firefighters, three engineers, five captains, three battalion chiefs, and the fire chief making up the team.
The team covers both Jackson and Josephine counties to their county lines, which means they have a wide variety of terrain to cover; mountains, waterways, and flat lands. HM08 also has the interstate highway and railroad traversing through both counties, generally running north and south. The Rogue River, runs east to west eventually ending in the ocean. These challenges can cause issues related to communications and access, especially in the winter months.
Most of HM08’s training centers around completing task book refreshers. The team has developed a very good relationship with the Linde Corporation (they purifiy several types of hazardous gases) and their private response team. HM08 works with Linde on conducting annual drills.
One of their most recent and challenging incidents wasn’t necessarily dealing with hazardous material but with the challenge in dealing with an impending storm during the incident. The incident involved a roll over semi-tractor trailer on I-5. The truck was hauling around 40,000 pounds of paint and paint products in one gallon, five gallon, and 55 gallon containers. Many of them were leaking or covered with product from other containers.
A heavy storm was predicted to hit the area of the incident within 24 hours and the truck had come to rest 15 feet away from a large culvert with water running through it and under the freeway. Paint product was already leaking from the trailer and running into the drain.
Since there was a flammable atmosphere in the trailer, team members needed to wear SCBA packs to remove the products. The inside of the trailer was covered with paint and paint products making the removal quite slippery and challenging.
According to Medford Fire Chief Brian Fish, "Looking back on the incident, if the weather was not going to be a factor, the removal would not have been an immediate issue and could have waited. The removal of product along with the tapping and transfer of fuel took several hours to complete and was very taxing for the team members."
"The biggest lesson learned from this event is to actively monitor personnel during extended events to ensure their safety and physical well-being. Fortunately there were no injuries to personnel."
HM08 Southern Oregon serves the following fire departments:
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by Deputy State Fire Marshal David Mills
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New Codes & Technical Service Desk
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The OSFM has instituted this service to provide better customer support in receiving, processing, and responding to service requests for code- and OAR-related questions and interpretations.
Service requests received will be reviewed and routed to the best OSFM team member for customer service support. This new resource is intended to provide our customers with a response to their questions in a timely manner.
Also coming soon:
- A FAQ webpage to address frequently asked questions. This feature will allow our office to post responses to common code and technical service questions to allow you to receive immediate “self-service” when a specific reply from us is not needed.
- A webpage-based codes question submittal page. This feature will provide an additional method for you to submit your questions directly to the Codes & Technical Service Desk when visiting our website or when you do not have access to your e-mail system.
Why are we rolling this service desk out now?
Our codes and technical services unit processes over
200
technical advice requests each week:
- Over 125 calls
- Over 75 emails
- 20-50 of these technical assistance requests require additional follow-up research
- We need to improve our management and responsiveness to the growing demand for this service.
Please contact us through our new Service Desk if you have any questions!
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Fireworks
Soon we will be seeing firework retail sales stands setting up throughout Oregon. Retailers who want to sell fireworks to the general public for personal use are required to obtain a retail sales permit from the Office of State Fire Marshal. Applications for the permits must include the signature of the appropriate local fire authority where the retail fireworks will be sold.
Legal fireworks may only be purchased from Oregon-permitted fireworks retailers and stands. Oregon law allows retail permit holders to sell the following types of fireworks to the general public.
- Those which produce only smoke, sparks or fire, and which do not explode, eject balls of fire, fly into the air, or travel more than 6 feet horizontally and 12 inches vertically from the point of ignition. (See ORS 480.127 for additional information on types of fireworks allowed for sale to the public.)
- This means bottle rockets, Roman candles, and firecrackers are illegal under Oregon state law. Fireworks are also prohibited on all state beaches, in parks, and in campgrounds.
For more information on retail sales of fireworks visit the OSFM website at
https://www.oregon.gov/osp/SFM/pages/licensing_fireworks_retail.aspx
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Fireworks - the roles of
OSFM and locals
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Oregon Revised Statute 480.111-480.165 grants authority to specific entities to conduct certain activities. Under these Oregon Revised Statutes, the OSFM is mandated to issue fireworks permits for the use of Pest Control (Agricultural) fireworks, the display of non-consumer fireworks, and the sale of both display and consumer fireworks. The OSFM Regulatory Services Unit also provides information regarding the fireworks statutes and rules; helps facilitate assistance from OSP when appropriate; provides guidance and information to local law enforcement agencies regarding seizure, storage, and pick up of fireworks; and helps facilitate the destruction of seized fireworks. The fireworks statutes provide for local authorities to control fireworks in their communities.
- ORS 480.140 places the supervision of fireworks displays under the local fire and police agency or in unprotected areas, the county court.
- ORS 480.160 has provisions for local regulation of fireworks.
- OAR 837-012-0860 (9-11) requires displays to be postponed or discontinued by the local authority if there are adverse conditions, lack of crowd control, or adverse weather conditions that affect safety recognized by the local fire or law enforcement authority.
- ORS 480.120(2) requires law enforcement agencies of the state, county, or municipality to enforce the provisions of ORS 480.111-480.165.
Below is a matrix that summarizes the roles of OSFM and local authorities relating to the retail sales of consumer fireworks, fireworks displays, and enforcement activities.
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News from the Analytics & Intelligence Unit
by Program Coordinator Dave Gulledge
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Managing Information
The Office of State Fire Marshal’s Analytics & Intelligence Unit is mandated under statute to manage certain information assets, which involves collecting information, analyzing it, and/or appropriately disseminating it. At the beginning of 2017, the A&I Unit was actively managing more than 9.5 million information assets that include a variety of records, documents, and files.
A key repository for information assets maintained by the unit is the state’s incident reporting repository, the Oregon Fire & EMS Bridge™. Within this web-based data system are approximately 406,000 training/activity records, 151,200 inventory records, staff/personnel records on more than 11,700 individuals, and 19,700 records related to inspections. The system also currently contains more than six million incident report records with an average of 25,000 incident reports added to that each month. Attached to the documents currently in the system are approximately 144,400 photos or other documents. In addition, there are also more than two million Oregon incident report records the unit maintains in the NFIRS database at the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Data Center.
Furthermore, the Analytics & Intelligence Unit manages more than 172,000 internal information assets as well. These include analytical reports, charts, graphs, and maps; along with photos, logs, training materials, presentations, legacy databases, emails, contact lists, and other working documents.
In order to streamline its operations and information management capability, over the last few years, the unit has transitioned to a paperless environment where all of the information managed by the unit is now maintained electronically.
The overall volume of information managed by the unit is equivalent to approximately:
- 214 million pages of plain text
- one million text books
- 153,000 webpages
- 53,372 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica
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2017 Incident Management Teams Conference wrap-up
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A majority of the 107 OSFM Incident Management Team members attended the annual training conference in Hood River April 10-12.
The session kicked off with a tabletop exercise focusing on a team response to a crude oil derailment. The teams focused on information sharing and the exercise was an excellent way to begin thinking about how that type of all-hazards response might differ from the standard wildland urban interface fire to which the teams generally deploy.
Three team members were recognized for their work on the OSFM Structural Protection Plan, which is available online. The document, made public and implemented prior to the 2016 season, was the result of many hours of work by Chris Barney (Portland Fire), Brent Goold (Corvallis Fire), and Alex Haven (TVF&R) – pictured above, left to right with Operations Chief Andy Louden (Corvallis Fire) and Incident Commanders Scott Magers (Hillsboro F&R) and Ian Yocum (TVF&R).
Team members met with their individual teams and also worked with others in their functional positions to discuss procedures, policies, and design a 'program of work' for the coming year.
The conference culminated in a presentation about the upcoming fire season by John Saltenberger with the Northwest Coordination Center.
OSFM wants to extend our appreciation to all of the IMT members and the departments who support their involvement in the program.
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Smoke Alarm Installation Program reopens June 1
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The Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal will open up the application process for the Smoke Alarm Installation Program on June 1, 2017. The purpose of the program is to provide smoke alarms to Oregon fire agencies to install in residences that are unprotected. Smoke alarm distribution to Oregon fire agencies will begin in July 2017.
Due to changes with the program, training is required for all agencies who choose to participate. The training is available via webinar. If you are interested in attending the training, please see the attached flier for available dates and registration information.
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Annual fire defense board chief drill
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The Annual Fire Defense Board Drill will occur Tuesday, May 16, 2017. Fire Defense Board Chiefs will receive a call from our Agency Operations Center asking for a specific set of resources. The intent of this drill is to exercise our AOC personnel and technology, and to allow Fire Defense Board Chiefs an opportunity to walk through the process of responding to a resource request.
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Printed copies of the 2017 mobilization plan now available
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Printed copies of the 2017 Oregon Fire Service Mobilization Plan are now available! Contact your local Deputy State Fire Marshal or
mariah.rawlins@state.or.us
to request copies.
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Registration open for the OVFA Conference in June
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Registration is now open for the Oregon Volunteer Firefighter Association Conference June 14-17, 2017 at the Best Western Boulder Falls Inn & Conference Center in Lebanon, Oregon.
This is the 59th annual training conference sponsored by the OVFA and co-hosted this year by Lebanon Fire and Scio RFD. Scholarship opportunities are available.
The OVFA is excited to introduce a new format for conference classes. Based on membership requests, the classes are designed around fire certification and EMS recertification hours. The goal on the fire training is to help complete certification over several conferences. These certifications are divided into several tracks including FFII, Apparatus Operator, and Company Officer.
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2017 Oregon SERC/LEPC Conference
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Th
e 2017 State Emergency Response Commission/Local Emergency Planning Committee Conference is scheduled for May 22-24, 2017, at the Seaside Convention Center.
This conference is the perfect opportunity to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) and will provide valuable information and ideas. It will also be a great opportunity for networking with people from across the state involved in LEPC activities, emergency planning, and response to hazardous materials incidents. This conference is hosted by the OSFM and paid for by funds provided by the HMEP grant.
If you have any questions, contact SERC Coordinator Sue Otjen at 503-934-8227 or email
sue.otjen@state.or.us
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Slots still available for NFA class at DPSST in June
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Class: NFA F0365 - Best Practices in Community Risk Reduction
Dates: June 7-8, 2017
Time: 0800-1700
Location: 4190 Aumsville Hwy SE, Salem, OR 97301
Cost: Free
Registration Deadline: May 31, 2017
Course Description: This two-day course demonstrates to students nationally recognized principles that, when used appropriately, can lead to community risk-reduction programs that can measure success in local communities. This course will give students the opportunity to explore programs from communities across the United States that have been showcased at Vision 20/20 symposiums. These programs demonstrate what nationally recognized organizations identify as examples of "best practices" in community risk reduction. At the end of the course, students will be evaluated through a 25-question multiple-choice examination. A final grade will be provided to each student. The minimum score needed to pass is 70.
Prerequisites: None
If you experience and difficulty with the form or the registration process, please contact Rebecca Carroll at: 503-378-2408 or
rebecca.carroll@state.or.us
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See what's happening on our social sites:
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