Oregon Fire Service Meritorious Awards

Saturday May 22 was a special night for Forest Grove Fire & Rescue as one of our staff members was recognized by the Oregon Fire Chief's Association at their annual Fire Service Meritorious Awards Dinner. This year's event was held in Salem at the Salem Conference Center and was attended by over 400 fire service employees, volunteers, and leaders from all across Oregon. This year FGF&R Captain David Nemeyer was presented with the Award of Excellence because of his efforts serving the Forest Grove community.

FGF&R Captain David Nemeyer with Oregon State Fire Marshal Randy Simpson (left) and Oregon Fire Chief's Association President Mark Prince after David recieved the Award of Excellence

This is what the night's Master of Ceremonies Tim Birr had to say about David as he was on stage receiving the award:

"Captain Nemeyer serves as a Fire Prevention Officer with Forest Grove Fire and Rescue. He has become one of the fire service leaders in the utilization of social media to communicate with the public, which has improved public education, information and code enforcement in Washington County. Utilizing Facebook, Twitter and a blog, information on public education and safety programs can now be sent to the community quickly and efficiently. During a recent water rescue incident, Twitter followers were instantly informed of what the emergency vehicles were responding to and public information messages were posted, reminding people of the importance of wearing life jackets. Captain Nemeyer has also been instrumental in setting up the Western Washington County Fire Investigation Team to serve the community of Forest Grove and surrounding communities, resulting in increased investigatory depth, expertise and capability. He has provided public education programs to over 2,000 children in the Forest Grove School District. He has also coordinated the annual Christmas Toy Drive and is an active leader in the Washington County Safe Kids Coalition, becoming one of the recognized leaders in fire safety, public education and information in Oregon. Captain Nemeyer is the primary instructor and coordinator for the joint school district and fire department Fire Cadet program. He has also been a vital part of setting up a unique local committee of assisted living care facilities and nursing homes to improve partnership with the high-risk population that we serve."

Fire Investigator Training Comes to Forest Grove

On Saturday May 15th, firefighters from all over NW Oregon came to Forest Grove to attend the hands on portion of a basic fire investigation class. The students had previously received instruction on topics that ranged from legal aspects to burn pattern interpretation to photography and documentation, and was intended to prepare them to help their agency determine what causes the fires that they respond to. Mostly senior firefighters, the participants came from as far away as Warrenton on the Oregon Coast and Columbia River Fire & Rescue in St. Helens, and were instructed by Fire Investigators from FGF&R and the Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal.

FGF&R Fire Inspector Matt Johnston works with a team from Cornelius and Warrenton to identify the cause of a living room fire

For the last few months we collected furniture and items typical of a modern home to set up the house at the corner of 18th Avenue and C Street with as real of a presentation as possible. Last Monday our firefighters created various "sets" inside the home to simulate different causes of fire. We created an arson situation using flammable liquids to start the fire, a youth set fire involving fireworks and matches, a kitchen fire started by unattended cooking, a living room fire that began by a person who smoked while using medical oxygen, and an electrical fire started by using too many extension cords in a bedroom. We extinguished the fires just as we would on a real fire and left the rooms intact for the fire investigators.

Our "set" involving what could happen if a person smokes while using oxygen begins to burn the couch in our living room scenario

When the students processed the scene they were expected to work as a team to determine each of the five fire causes. Starting from the outside of the home they made observations and worked their way towards the areas where the fire had created the most damage. Once there they carefully layered through the debris to find what they believed had caused the fire to start. Even in the vast blackness and destruction of the fire the new investigators were able to find and identify small items like cigarette filters, match sticks, and the remains of the flammable liquid bottle. Once done they were all expected to share their findings with one of the instructors and create documents to prove their theories.

Police Officers from the Forest Grove Police Department stopped by to chat with the new fire investigators about the role that police officers have on a fire investigation scene.

All together, almost 20 students attended the Saturday class. Many of which came from the western part of Washington County. FGF&R participates in a fire investigation team concept that uses trained fire investigators from our neighbors at Cornelius, Gaston, Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal, and Washington County Fire District 2 to work together on a fire scene. This training will allow us for a more experienced training pool to pull from when needed anywhere in the western part of Washington County.

Forest Grove Firefighters to add confined space rescue to their menu

One of the most overlooked dangers in our community is that which involves what we call a confined space. Basically a confined space is something that is large enough for a worker to get inside of and work, but is not designed to be constantly occupied and has limited options for the worker to be able to leave this area. We have these all around Forest Grove, they are the underground vaults that the utility workers use to supply us with sewer, power, and water; they are the silos that the farmer uses to store grain or seed in; confined spaces are the tanks that our industrial centers use in their processes. These confined spaces can be very dangerous for workers and for emergency crews. Often times they have dangerous gasses that build up inside of them because of the natural decomposition of plants, confined spaces can also lack oxygen sufficient enough for us to breathe, and they sometimes can have hazardous materials in them that can harm us if we work with them wrong.

Through a grant we were able to train our crews over the last month on how to respond to an emergency in a confined space. We worked with our neighbors at the Hillsboro Fire Department to provide this training for us, which took place over two full eight hour days for each of our three shifts of career firefighters. The first part of each day was spent in the classroom learning the materials that we would need to perform the hands on afternoon training safely. Firefighters practiced at the City of Forest Grove Water Treatment Plant. Using the almost 20 feet vault there to simulate a number of scenarios. Firefighters from FGF&R as well as the Cornelius and Hillsboro Fire Departments set up specialized equipment that we use to lower rescuers into a confined space, this include a tripod device that uses a pulley and rigging system to safely lower and raise a rescuer into the vault or tank. We also used ventilation equipment that can either provide clean fresh air into a confined space, as well as remove dangerous and toxic gasses so we can work. In addition firefighters trained with not only our traditional self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), but a new to us device called a supplied air respirator. This respirator is lighter weight and uses a hose from a bank of air cylinders that is kept a distance away so we can go in and work for longer periods of time then our SCBA will typically allow.

This training will help us better serve and respond to this potentially dangerous and life threatening type of emergency. Within the next few months firefighters will begin outfitting emergency vehicles and wrapping up training for all of our personnel to prepare us to respond if needed to a confined space emergency.