logo
Published by the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal | October 2020
The wildfires that swept through the state starting on Labor Day are unlike any wildfire disaster seen before. In the state's history of responding to wildfire, this was an unprecedented set of events that tested our residents, our integrated wildfire response system, and the Oregon fire service.

In the case of some communities, the extensive devastation could have been dramatically worse had not first responders and neighbors helped to evacuate residents from fast-approaching fires. The heroism demonstrated by many is a testament to the character of Oregonians and those who serve their state every day.

In this issue we will highlight how the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) prepared for and responded to events that saw a full third of the state's firefighting agencies mobilized to the state's coordinated wildfire response. The devastation to our state, our residents, and the environment is still being calculated. However, the loss of loved ones and one's home or business may be impossible to quantify by those who experienced these events.

The OSFM wants to extend a much earned thank you to everyone who served with uncompromising selflessness throughout the September wildfires. Landowners and cooperators, along with all firefighting services, dispatchers, and law enforcement agencies were the backbone to our communities. It was truly one mission, one team, one plan. All of you performed your mission exceptionally, and we could not be more proud of your collective service.
OSFM Responds to a Historic Week of Wildfires in Oregon
On Sept. 7, the last day of the Labor Day weekend, an unprecedented wind event began across the Northwest in the late afternoon amid dry conditions statewide.

Within hours, the storm triggered what became the greatest wildfire disaster in state history, and more than 1 million acres in Oregon were lost to fire. The multiple wildfires displaced thousands of Oregonians, while claiming at least nine lives.

By the end of the month, wildfires had left an indelible mark on Oregon’s landscape. As of Oct. 1, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reports three Oregonians are still missing and more than 4,500 structures are destroyed, including homes. Those numbers may grow as information is gathered.

The communities of Talent and Phoenix, in Jackson County, were severely damaged by fires that erupted on Sept. 8, with hundreds of families displaced. Nearly the entire city of Medford was placed under an evacuation order.

The communities of Mill City, Gates, Lyons, Mehama, Detroit and other areas along State Hwy. 22 saw significant damage in the Santiam Canyon, when the Beachie Creek fire roared out of the Willamette Forest, showing fire behavior never seen before.

In Lane County, along the McKenzie River, the Holiday Farm Fire left a similar path of destruction. Evacuation orders were given for residents of Vida, Blue River, Mohawk, McKenzie Bridge, Leaburg, and Walterville. More than 400 homes were destroyed by the fire, mostly along the McKenzie Highway corridor.

Other fires in Oregon also accelerated and threatened lives and structures on and after Labor Day, including Echo Mountain in Lincoln County, the Brattain Fire near Paisley in Lake County, the Two Four Two Fire near Chiloquin, the South Obenchain Fire north of Medford, and the Slater and Devil’s Fire that crossed north California and approached O’Brien. The Riverside Fire in Clackamas County also led to evacuation warnings being issued for large parts of the county, including for the communities of Molalla, Estacada, Canby, Oregon City, and Sandy, as well as parts of Happy Valley.

Estimates compiled through the national reporting system for wildfire incidents indicate the state’s wildfires threatened more than 172,000 structures during the week of Sept. 7-14.
Agencies Planned Ahead of the Windstorm

The windstorm was predicted nearly a week earlier by the National Weather Service. It represented a significant risk to all state and federal members of the Pacific Northwest Coordinating Group, which includes the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM).

Working together, the state and federal agencies, including the OSFM, Oregon Department of Forestry, and federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, among others, developed preparedness messages and shared them widely on social media and to regional media to help prevent possible human-caused fires.

The OSFM also reached to all Oregon fire agencies, who already were working together with nonprofit groups like Keep Oregon Green and other fire prevention groups to inform Oregonians about wildfire risks and the need for every Oregonian to demonstrate extreme caution over the holiday weekend.

The OSFM also began to work with local agencies to preplan for the expected event.

On Sept. 7, the OSFM held an emergency meeting with the state’s 33 Fire Defense Board Chiefs to ensure every Chief was prepared, as all agencies awaited the storm’s arrival. For their part, the Deputy State Fire Marshals statewide had established connections with their local Chiefs, in preparation for possible events.
Wildfires Test the State’s Coordinated Response

The expected wind event arrived, leading to multiple Conflagration declarations by Gov. Kate Brown by Sept. 8, as well as an Emergency Conflagration declared statewide that day to allow OSFM to move resources more quickly throughout the state.

Winds from the east gusted up to 50-60 mph across the state of Oregon and the Oregon Cascade Mountains, fanning the flames of existing large fires on the landscape. The winds led to erratic fire behavior on the Lionshead and Beachie Creek fires, which quickly grew in size. The multiple wildfires represented a historic event, with wildfires on the landscape from the northern to the southern border, on both sides of the Cascade Mountains.

In response to the Conflagration declarations for the Beachie Fire in the Santiam Canyon and Holiday Farm Fire on the McKenzie River, OSFM mobilized its Green and Red Incident Management Teams (IMTs) to provide unified command with Oregon Department of Forestry and local resources during the first 24 hours. The OSFM’s Blue Team was mobilized next to the Almeda Fire, south of Medford, which damaged much of the communities of Talent and Phoenix.

When these fires started, everyone from fire chiefs to law enforcement to wildland firefighters were singularly focused on safely evacuating residents away from the unstoppable blazes. The fires saw Oregonians saving lives even as their own homes were being destroyed.

As the OSFM began its response through OFMAS, the primary mission during the first two days became emergency evacuation and life safety. Resources around the state were focused on point protection, focused on lookouts, communications, escape routes, and safety zones.

The Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System (OFMAS), made up by the Oregon structural fire service, worked nonstop, from the initial onset of fires beginning the evening of Sept. 7 and throughout the following days.

“OFMAS was tested like never before,” said State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple. “Structural firefighters from across the state worked around the clock to save lives and homes. The state’s mutual aid system proved critical during this historic series of events.”

For nearly two weeks, a thick blanket of smoke covered much of western Oregon, impacting millions of residents, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality determined that Portland's air quality ranked among the worst for all major world cities.

All told, 113 fire agencies contributed resources to support communities where fires threatened lives and structures. The collective response included nearly 300 firefighting apparatus and nearly 650 members of Oregon’s structural firefighting service, all deployed on an extended response to assist the state’s coordinated response.

The structural firefighters were part of the estimated 7,500 personnel from 39 states and multiple Canadian provinces mobilized to fires in Oregon since Labor Day. This figure does not even count the many forest land operators, other government workers, and community members that supported firefighters since Labor Day.

OSFM’s Red and Green IMTs and the Oregon structural task forces assigned to the Beachie Creek and Holiday Farm fires completed their demobilizations the third week of September, as fire crews began to contain the fires that are expected to burn through the fall and winter. OSFM’s Blue IMT completed its assignment at the Slater Fire, in Jackson County, with the final task forces demobilizing on Sept. 29.

On Sept. 29, the OSFM’s Agency Operations Center, which coordinated the deployment of task forces and strike teams, officially ended its activities. The last of the Oregon’s deployed resources to the Slater Fire safely returned to their home stations and the last three out-of-state task forces were on their multiday journey to their home states. 
OSFM Agency Operations Center Mobilizes Record Number of Resources
As September came to a close, the Office of State Fire Marshal’s Agency Operations Center (AOC) began ramping down what was the center’s busiest period of operation in the agency’s history.

From the moment the historic wind event hit the state on Labor Day, on Sept. 7, OSFM staff ran the center 24 hours a day, coordinating the mobilization of Oregon fire service resources from their local fire departments and rural fire districts to deployments at multiple conflagrations supporting the state’s coordinated response.

Through the end of September, AOC staff coordinated the safe deployment and demobilization of nearly 650 fire personnel and almost 300 pieces of fire apparatus from 37 state task forces, in addition to eight task forces sent to the state from requests through the Emergency Management Agency Compact (EMAC). The eight structural firefighting task forces came from Utah, Idaho, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington state starting first week of the fires, with the last team demobilizing on Sept. 29.

An Unprecedented Event
The AOC serves as the statewide coordination center for the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid system, managed by OSFM. AOC staff oversee the mobilization of local resources to fires and other all-hazards incidents, working with 33 Fire Defense Board Chiefs, who work with local agencies to determine available resources from their counties for fires and other natural disasters statewide while still ensuring local needs are met.

In advance of the Labor Day windstorm that rapidly expanded wildfires statewide, the OSFM coordinated an emergency call with the Fire Defense Board Chiefs that afternoon, to ensure resource availability if a response to a conflagration was required. Under normal circumstances, the chiefs can pull together the teams from different agencies and be ready in a matter of hours.

By 8 p.m. Labor Day, when the wind drove the spread of fires from the northern to southern borders of Oregon, OSFM staff were monitoring the emerging large wildfires and began making calls once the first of multiple Conflagration declarations were made by Gov. Kate Brown.

The nature of the emergency event created strains on many local fire agencies, who saw an increase in 9-1-1 calls related to the storm in their own communities, decreasing possible resources to help out statewide.

OSFM Assistant Chief Chad Hawkins and OSFM employees Jamie Kometz and Fraser Wick — the first of many staff rotating into the AOC — began what became a marathon event that stretched on for 48 hours, starting around 8 p.m. on Sept. 7, coordinating the state’s structural fire service response.

Historically, wildfires have erupted in the southern, central, and eastern parts of Oregon, and the AOC can typically draw resources form the state’s western counties. However, these fires arose uncharacteristically in western Oregon, and many of the AOC’s expected resources had been committed to attacking the fires in these jurisdictions. 
'Anything You Can Give Up'

The first mobilized task forces were drawn from Polk, Linn, Yamhill, Marion, and Clatsop counties, with four task forces mobilized in the first three hours of the fire events that were emerging in multiple western counties. Two task forces were sent to the Beachie Creek Fire that was roaring down the Santiam Canyon and two were deployed to the Holiday Farm Fire in Lane County.

“The AOC was running full tilt, with calls made every couple of minutes,” said Hawkins.

OSFM had its first task forces on the road by 2 a.m. on Sept. 8, and the task force from Linn County was literally on the fire line by 3 a.m. to provide immediate life safety assistance.

According to Hawkins, the AOC and the local chiefs became creative, pulling any engine that could be made available from fire departments across the state. Some task forces were made up of fire engines from separate counties, coming together from across the entire state to protect Oregonians in this dire time of need. During the first 48 hours, AOC staff made hundreds of calls for any resources — Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, and Type 6 engines, and water tenders — that could be deployed for what became a major disaster event. Hawkins said AOC staff told the chiefs, "We really need anything you are able to provide."

During the first hours of the incidents, OSFM simultaneously had mobilized its Green Incident Management Team (IMT) to the Beachie Creek Fire and its Red Team to the Holiday Farm Fire, to integrate into unified command of two of the largest fires that hit the state. A short time later, the Blue Team was sent to Almeda Fire in Jackson County within the first 48 hours.

By day four of the fire event, Sept. 11, the AOC was on a more solid footing as Oregon’s structural fire services evacuating threatened communities, protecting structures, and supporting wildland firefighting teams.

All OSFM staff based out of the agency’s headquarters contributed to the fire response by working in the AOC or by deploying with IMTs or driving equipment to and from fires, as well as providing logistical, financial, and other support almost continuously during the response.

The State Fire Marshal would like to thank the more than 300 agencies who comprise the OFMAS and the hundreds of firefighters who stood together with local, state, and federal resources to protect Oregonians and their communities.
Deputy State Fire Marshals Played Critical Role in State’s Coordinated Response
As the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) prepared for the predicted windstorm on Labor Day, the agency’s Deputy State Fire Marshals (DSFMs) were finalizing preparations for what became Oregon’s single worst fire disaster.

On Sept. 6, the night before the predicted wind front hit the state, Assistant Chief Deputy Chad Hawkins had all of the deputies and their supervisors ready to implement a deployment and communication plan.

That plan called for the deputies to establish communications with all of the 33 local Fire Defense Board Chiefs and discuss the availability of resources and to make sure all agencies were informed of the anticipated wind event that could greatly affect fires on landscape.

Those communications, and the deputies long-standing relationships with their local chiefs, proved essential once responding agencies statewide began to report on the multiple wildfire events that began impacting Oregon communities as the sun set on Labor Day, Sept. 7.

By day two of the wind and fire events, all deputies and three supervising deputies were assigned as OSFM agency representatives, agency administrators, or held other positions within the incident command framework, on wildfires across the state that were being declared conflagrations. In those roles, the deputies worked with their local Fire Defense Board Chiefs to complete Conflagration requests that are required before the Governor can make a declaration, along with working in other critical support functions.

Those declarations are made by the Governor when incidents exceed the capacity of local resources to respond, allowing the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) to mobilize additional resources through the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid system (OFMAS) to support life, structures, and property.

For the first time in state history, a statewide Emergency Conflagration Declaration was made on Sept. 8 by Gov. Kate Brown, with more than 10 other fires declared Conflagrations.

The support by OSFM deputies helped mobilize resources to support the coordinated response by local, state, and federal responding agencies. By Sept. 10, there were 16 large fires burning in Oregon.

Deputies played roles in the coordinated responses at the Almeda, Archie, Brattain, Beachie Creek, Echo Mountain, Riverside, Lionshead, North Cascades Complex, Slater, South Obenchain, and Holiday Farm fires. Supervising Deputy Jason Cane took over the role as Planning Section Chief for four different fires alone. Some OSFM deputies also served like many responders did, while their own families were experiencing personal loss from the fires.

As the state’s response progressed, OSFM’s deputies began the transition to support the fire investigation component on multiple fires. With ODF leading the investigation efforts on a state level, OSFM has provided its deputies to assist in the coordinated investigation effort.

As the state moves into its recovery phase to the many incidents, the OSFM deputies will continue supporting and assisting with fire investigation activities with state and federal partner agencies. Those investigations remain active at this time. 
Serving up Fire Safety for
Fire Prevention Month
The year 2020 has brought a number of reasons for Oregon residents to be staying home, such as the Covid-19 response and the recent wildfires throughout our state. As we stay home, it is now more important than ever to practice fire safety in the home. 

This October’s Fire Prevention Month takes on the theme of cooking safety in the kitchen. While the events surrounding fire service’s annual tradition promoting fire prevention may look very different, we have heard our fire service partners thinking outside of the box and they are continuing to find ways to engage with communities in honor of the longest-running public health observance in our country.

Cooking has consistently been a top cause of home fires in Oregon, making up an average of 19 percent of home fires over the past five years. Throughout the month of October, we will be providing graphics and virtual resources to help increase cooking safety practices through consistent messaging. Topics include:

Cooking fire safety tips:
  • Keep an eye on what you’re cooking- don’t leave cooking unattended.
  • Keep your cooking areas clean and clear of combustibles (potholders, food packaging, towels, etc.) and wipe up surface spills.
  • Create a three-foot kid- and pet-free zone around the stove.
  • Older children should only cook with permission and under the supervision of an adult.
  • Have a lid or cookie sheet within reach while cooking (to smother flames) in case of a fire.

Safety tips for if a cooking fire does start:
  • Put a lid on it! Slide a lid over the pan (from the side) and then turn off the burner.
  • Don’t move the pan until the fire is completely extinguished and cooled, and don’t try to transfer the pan to the sink.

If you cannot extinguish the fire:
  • Get you and your family safely out of the house.
  • If you can, close doors as you are escaping, to help contain the fire.
  • Call 911 from a safe place (outside).

Fire Prevention Month digital resources will be available on the OSFM website throughout October. OSFM invites you to join us in "Serving Up Fire Safety in the Kitchen," and we look forward to spotlighting efforts from around the state on our social media feeds. 

If you have questions, please contact OSFM’s Fire & Life Safety Education Division at 503-934-8228 or osfm.ce@state.or.us.