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June 2017
Published by the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal
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Oregon SERC and LEPCs moving forward
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At the end of last month, I had the pleasure of attending the State Emergency Response Commission / Local Emergency Planning Committee conference in Seaside.
It was exciting to see the great turnout and the variety of public safety officials who attended. Listening to presentations and speaking to attendees, it was obvious how far our program has come and the great momentum we have to continue to advance in the future.
Thanks to the efforts of Oregon fire agencies and other public safety agencies, Oregon’s LEPC program is growing. This is good news because LEPCs are the cornerstones of the response and recovery process with any significant incident.
The past 18 months or so has seen a much greater focus on rail safety and the OSFM has a dedicated rail safety planner who has been busy centralizing the training, preparedness, and response planning for hazardous materials releases that may occur during rail transport. LEPCs have been playing a large part in this effort and I thank everyone who has been and continues to be involved in this effort.
I would also like to recognize the work of the SERC Executive Committee that has been instrumental in helping designate emergency planning districts, reviewing plans, and assisting with hazmat training, education, and outreach. The SERC’s support has been key to helping LEPCs implement the Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA).
Committee members represent a wide range of knowledge and expertise and have maintained a strong focus that is setting up a great path for future success.
I appreciate everyone’s effort and involvement in making Oregon one of the top states in the nation for LEPC development and effectiveness.
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Oregon State Fire Marshal Jim Walker
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OSFM's 100 years of service
:
Highlights from 1960 to 1969
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This is the sixth 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.
1965
- The OSFM develops the nation's first state based fire reporting system.
1969
- The OSFM became a division of the Department of Commerce.
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Spotlight on:
OSFM deputy district 8
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Counties: Clackamas, Hood River, Multnomah, Washington, and the northern portion of Wasco County.
- Deputy State Fire Marshal: Ted Megert. Ted has been a deputy state fire marshal since 1995.
- Population: 1,732,069
- Fire Agencies: 26
- Approximately 65% career firefighters
- CR2K facilities: 4,040
- Extremely Hazardous Substance facilities: 497
- Conflagration responses in the last 15 years: 55
- Annual calls (5 year avg): 104,184
- Annual reported fires (5 year avg): 5,166
- Annual Hazmat calls (5 year avg): 482
- Annual dollar loss (5 year avg): $59,545,000
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Did you know:
- Portland was almost lost to fire on two occasions in the late 1800s. On December 22, 1872, a fire started near a Chinese laundry and quickly began to consume the building, mostly of light frame construction. Upon realizing that the fire was out of control and spreading fast, a general panic arose among the citizens. Fortunately, the wind died down and a heavy rain began to fall around noon the following day. The rain reduced the heat and slowed the spread of the fire so that fire agencies were able to stop its progress and bring it under control. Later that evening, the area was blanketed by heavy snowfall. Losses were substantial, though contemporary accounts do not agree on how many buildings were involved. Between 15 and 25 buildings were completely destroyed and many more were damaged. Final cost of the loss was given as $413,665 ($7.5 million in today’s dollars).
Less than eight months later, on August 2, 1873, another fire broke out in the same area. Although the official cause of the 1873 fire was never determined, many people believed it was started by anti-Chinese arsonists. The site of the earlier 1872 fire, which had yet to be rebuilt, acted as a buffer zone and aided in the containment of the second and much larger fire of 1873, which resulted in a loss of $925,000 at the time. As the city began its recovery, they required new buildings in the business core to be constructed from brick. In addition, the city beefed up its firefighting corps to four fire engines manned by approximately 50 volunteer members per unit.
- Portland was once home to the world’s largest log cabin. The Forestry Building was just shy of half an acre, built using more than one million board feet of lumber in 1905. On August 17, 1964, old wiring started a spectacular fire which consumed the Forestry Building. The logs were treated with creosote and could not be extinguished with hose streams, so the fire burned all night. The Montgomery Ward building across the street was saved, although the windows were blown out due to the intense radiant heat.
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Spotlight: Hazmat Team 07
Portland
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Hazmat Team 07, established in 1991, is staffed by Portland Fire & Rescue firefighters, paramedics, and officers at Station 7 in Portland, Oregon.
HM07’s response area is the city of Portland and Columbia County out past the city of Rainier. This includes high-density urban and rural areas with interstate roadways, rail lines, and river traffic. Some of their biggest response challenges are two mainline class 1 railroads and one short line railroad, large quantities of flammable liquid storage tank farms, major industry and major highways, and large-scale public events within their response boundaries.
The team has responded to many significant large-scale rail car flammable liquid fires, large chemical releases from fixed facilities, meth lab and white powder calls, and large-scale highway truck rollovers.
Team members are trained to the OSFM's 160-hour Hazmat Technician level. Each of the three shifts have members trained to the specialist level to include tank car specialist, highway response specialist, hazmat medic, radiation safety officer, hazmat safety officer, and hazmat incident commander.
All team members are required to maintain a high level of training with highly specialized chemical protective clothing, field use of complex scientific monitoring equipment, safe methods of containing chemical spills, correct techniques for off-loading chemicals from damaged containers, determination of chemical hazards, proper methods and locations for disposal of hazardous waste, and basic chemistry.
HM07 team members train constantly on aspects of all-hazards hazardous materials response, and they train with other OSFM regional hazmat teams, private vendors/businesses, and other response partners.
The team has taken the lead in many statewide training projects in partnership with the OSFM hazmat program. In the past, the OSFM has recognized HM07 members with “Call of the Year”, “Behind the Scenes”, and “Achievement” awards.
For more information on outreach, response, or training, contact LTH/HM coordinator Shon Christensen 503-793-1606.
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by Deputy State Fire Marshal David Mills
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Sky lanterns - not a bright idea
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W
ith the Fourth of July celebrations quickly upon us, the Office of the State Fire Marshal would like to remind everyone that as of January 1, 2017, sky lanterns (also known as aerial luminaries, Chinese lanterns, mini hot air balloons, UFO balloons, wish lanterns, etc.) are illegal to release into Oregon airspace (See
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/477.512
).
These lanterns contain a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material. When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density and causing the lantern to rise into the air. They are known to travel significant distances from the point of release. There is a serious fire and safety hazard associated with sky lanterns, which include the potential to start a fire on or off the property from which they are released.
Most states in the U.S., as well as countries such as Germany, Australia, and Brazil have outlawed the release of sky lanterns.
As of January 1, 2017, releasing a sky lantern into Oregon airspace will be a Class A Violation subject to a maximum penalty of $2,000.00.
If you have any questions, please contact our Codes & Technical Service Desk at 503-934-8204 or email
osfm.flss@state.or.us
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Fireworks - the roles of
OSFM and locals
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Oregon Revised Statutes 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 and rules 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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Oregon solar eclipse update
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A
s the summer creeps closer to August 21st, the estimate of nearly 1,000,000 visitors traveling to Oregon to view the solar eclipse is becoming more of a reality as hotel and campground reservations and event ticket sales are quickly adding up to that number. Fortunately, many local, district, county, and state agencies have initiated readiness activities and developed event action plans.
Special Event Planning
It remains vital that Oregon’s fire agencies continue to work with local, district, and county emergency managers to plan for this event, especially in those areas in or near the trajectory or major transportation routes. All incidents start locally, and individual communities having their own plans in place will be key in keeping the impact of this event to a minimum. Some considerations for local planning: transportation congestion, alternative response models, mass gatherings, and pre-staging of personnel, equipment, and supplies.
The OSFM is involved in planning and coordination efforts with other state agencies including Oregon State Police, Oregon Emergency Management, Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Oregon Health Authority. A Special Event Plan is being developed by the OSFM and is expected to be available in early July. That plan will focus on the OSFM’s plan for staffing the Agency Operations Center to field requests for mobilizations, deputy state fire marshals' support to local fire agencies in their regions, and safety and prevention messaging.
Agency Operations Center (AOC)
In May, the OSFM conducted an AOC readiness exercise that involved calling each of Oregon’s Fire Defense Board Chiefs (FDBCs). The OSFM is also working with FDBCs to determine resource availability during the solar eclipse to better plan how to mobilize resources across the state should they be needed during the celestial event. As with any incident exceeding the capacity of a county and mutual aid, resources will be deployed, as requested by FDBCs, following the guidelines in the Mobilization Plan.
The AOC will maintain an overall readiness posture from Wednesday, August 16th through Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017, monitoring fire conditions and gathering situational intelligence. The AOC will be staffed and OPEN from Friday, August 18th at 0600 until Tuesday, August 22nd at 0600.
If necessary, the AOC can be activated by the OSFM Duty Officer who can be alerted through OERS. Senior personnel will also staff Emergency Support Function #4 (firefighting) and/or ESF#10 (hazmat) at the State Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) on Monday, August 21st when Oregon Emergency Management opens the ECC during the day.
Fire and Life Safety Services
Deputy state fire marshals have been supporting local emergency planning activities and assisting with inspections of assembly and residential (hotel and motel) occupancies.
Fire and Life Safety Education
In coordination with the Oregon Life Safety Team (OLST) and partners including Keep Oregon Green, OSFM’s Education Branch has posted important safety tips, flyers, links, and other resources on a dedicated Solar Eclipse Safety Information webpage:
https://www.oregon.gov/osp/sfm/Pages/eclipse.aspx
This webpage offers safety tips including recommendations for:
- Safely viewing the solar eclipse
- Travel safety
- Emergency preparedness strategies
- Wildfire prevention
- Campfire safety, and
- Hotel and motel safety
Be sure to check out the
Oregon Solar Eclipse Preparedness For Fire Service information sheet
for helpful reminders and resources to ready your fire department for August 21st!
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News from the Analytics & Intelligence Unit
by Program Coordinator Dave Gulledge
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New Tool for Fire Damage Assessment
Reporting dollar losses from fires is a requirement of the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). Dollar loss data can have significant impact on how fires are perceived and boost fire education messages. Knowing the
pre-incident value
of the property and contents also serves an important purpose. Subtracting property and contents losses from the pre-incident values of the property and contents, gives us an estimate of property and contents
saved
. Such a measure helps justify the value of fire alarm systems, fire suppression systems, fire education programs, and fire department effectiveness.
We realize property and contents value can be difficult to estimate, so we would like to arm you with a new tool to do this. It is a free web-based fire damage assessment calculator that was privately developed and put into use to assist the fire service with calculating loss and pre-incident value. It can be applied to either residential or commercial fires and has proven to be very accurate for fire damage assessment. This damage assessment calculator can be accessed at: http://www.myhomesafetyplan.com/fire-service
The calculators and evaluation tools found on this website have been created to reflect uniform price guidelines within the fire service, and the insurance and restoration industry. They are not designed to reflect exact reconstruction or replacement costs and have been found to be within a 5% margin of error when the proper dimensions and structural elements are selected. When users enter the applicable information to determine values and loss, they can also have a copy of the report and applicable information, used to make the loss determination, emailed directly to them.
For questions or more information, please contact the Analytics & Intelligence Unit at 503-934-8250 or by email at
osfm.data@state.or.us
.
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FDBC Call Down Drill - Thanks!
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Thank you to everyone who participated in the annual Fire Defense Board Drill – both fire service and OSFM personnel. Agency Operations Center staff were able to mobilize 18 task forces on May 16.
The annual drill serves as an opportunity for Fire Defense Board Chiefs to practice mustering resources for a conflagration and walking through the paperwork process, as well as allowing OSFM staff to re-familiarize themselves with the AOC.
This year’s drill saw an unprecedented number of Fire Defense Board Districts working together to fill resource requests, which is highly encouraged when resources are thin. Those districts who are interested in having their conflagration partnerships documented in the AOC should contact
mariah.rawlins@state.or.us
.
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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 of 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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See what's happening on our social sites:
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