Nine C.O. fire departments awarded Oregon State Fire Marshal grants to boost their staffing before wildfire season
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – To boost the number of firefighters available across Oregon before wildfire season hits, the Oregon State Fire Marshal announced Wednesday it has awarded $6 million in grants to 191 local fire agencies across the state, including nine in Central Oregon.
The Central Oregon recipients are the Alfalfa, Black Butte, Cloverdale, Crook County, Crooked River Ranch, Lake Chinook, La Pine and Warm Springs fire departments and Jefferson County Fire and EMS.
The 2024 Wildfire Season Staffing Grant program is in its third year. Local agencies in the Oregon structural fire service were eligible to apply for up to $35,000. The funding will allow agencies to bring on additional firefighters or increase on-duty hours during the 2024 fire season. A list of agencies awarded funding can be found here.
The 2023 Wildfire Season Staffing Grant program was integral to the success in protecting communities, adding more than 1,500 paid firefighters to the Oregon fire service. These added resources allowed agencies to attack fires and keep them small and away from communities and added capacity to respond to other calls, ultimately saving lives. Read about the successes here.
“The staffing grant program has been a huge success for the Oregon fire service and our district,” Sublimity Fire District Chief Alan Hume said. “It allowed us to staff our station during the busiest time of the year, which we previously couldn't do. This resulted in quicker responses with adequate staffing for not only our district, but our neighboring agencies. Last year we had several fires in our area with the potential to develop into larger, extended duration fires. We were able, as region, to keep those fires smaller.”
“This grant has provided us the ability to respond to all requests for emergency services, including automatic and mutual aid requests in our district,” Crooked River Ranch Rural Fire Protection District Chief Sean Hartley said. “This program is instrumental in keeping fires in our community small and allowed us to respond to multiple calls for service at the same time.”
In a similar fashion, Jefferson County Fire Chief Jeff Blake shared this with OSFM after a mid-August blaze was stopped small near Madras:
“I wanted to share a success story with you all. We’ve had many, but this one is the most recent. Central Oregon has been in a heat advisory with temperatures over 100 degrees all week. Jefferson County Fire and EMS decided to up staff for wildland firefighting responses. On Monday, August 14, in late afternoon, we were dispatched to a brush fire in a high-hazard area. The OSFM grant funds allowed us to staff up and we stopped the fire at one acre. Because of the temperatures, topography, and fuel type, the fire had significant growth potential. We just wanted to say thank you and share our success story.” - Chief Jeff Blake
This 2024 Wildfire Season Staffing Grant program is part of a multi-pronged approach to combat wildfire in Oregon. Over the last three years, the OSFM has made strategic investments to modernize the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System and help communities become more wildfire adapted.
This grant is part of the OSFM’s Response Ready Oregon initiative. The OSFM is looking for sustained funding for this program and is exploring all options to continue this highly successful grant in 2025 and beyond.
ABOUT RESPONSE READY OREGON
The OSFM’s Response Ready Oregon initiative was created to help boost capacity and modernize wildfire response within the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System (OFMAS). The goal of Response Ready Oregon is to keep fires small and away from communities, reducing costly conflagrations.
