Local Life Saver Recieves FGF&R Citizen's Service Award

It's National Emergency Medical Services Week!  During this week in May every year the Forest Grove City Council  recognizes the work that first responders do in the community to provide critical life saving care to those in need.  This year EMS Week has a special meaning for our firefighters however, in the last year a man's life was saved in part because of the work of our Paramedics, but mostly because of the quick actions of a local woman to save the life of one of her employees.  At the May 14, 2012 Forest Grove City Council meeting, Fire Chief Michael Kinkade was honored to present Phoebe Reinecker with the Forest Grove Citizen's Service Award to recognize her inspiring story of how effective CPR can make a difference and save a life.

Phoebe Reinecker receives the FGF&R Citizen's Service Award from Fire Chief Michael Kinkade

On the afternoon October 24, 2011, Phoebe Reinecker, a longtime resident of our community and owner of Reinecker Nursery, was in her home office, the work day almost done, when she heard one of her employees call for help.  An otherwise healthy man in his early fifties, and longtime employee of her small horticulture business near Forest Grove, had suddenly gone into cardiac arrest and had collapsed near one of the greenhouses.  Reacting quickly Phoebe made the one hundred yard dash to the man who was unconscious and not breathing.  Knowing exactly what to do, Phoebe began to apply very effective CPR to the man she had worked with for so long. 

The American Heart Association created the term “Chain of Survival” to describe how timing is everything when it comes to a successful resuscitation of a cardiac arrest victim, and this case shows exactly how essential this timing really is.  With her swift actions, Mrs. Reinecker effectively connected the first two links (early access to 9-1-1, and early CPR) of the chain of survival.  When Paramedic/Firefighters from the Forest Grove Fire Station arrived within five minutes they were able to provide the other two links of the chain that include cardiac defibrillation for the unconscious man as well as advanced life support care.  These steps combined with Mrs. Reinecker’s earlier response restarted the man’s heart; by the time that he had arrived at Tuality Hospital in nearby Hillsboro, the man had even started to wake up and begin to speak.  Within a matter of weeks, after a successful heart surgery, he had returned to work and is still there to this day helping the family owned company grow beautiful flowers and horticulture products. 

 Local life saver Phoebe Reinecker with her husband Mike, and the FGF&R crew that took over for her effective CPR that saved a life of one of her employees last October

Sadly, most sudden cardiac arrest calls do not end this way, in fact less than 8% of victims of sudden cardiac arrest survive the event and the damage it causes to the human body.  What's amazing in this family's story is that even though this is Mrs. Reinecker's first time doing CPR on a live person, this is not the first time that a life has been saved on her property.  Around 1987 a 19 month old boy crawled into a covered swimming pool and was rescued by Phoebe's husband Mike and the boy's father.  Effective CPR was given in that incident too, and just  a few years ago that boy graduated from the Air Force Academy as a young man.   In almost every incident where a victim of sudden cardiac arrest survives it is because someone helped them with early and effective CPR, which can cause survival rates to double or triple in some instances.  There is no doubt that in this incident the man is able to be among us today because of the calm yet quick actions that Mrs. Reinecker took to save his life.  If you have a few hours, take a friends and family CPR course, you never know when the things you learn will help you save a life.    

Fire Destroys Home in Rural Washington County

Firefighters from Forest Grove Fire & Rescue (FGF&R) were alerted to a house fire at 3:22AM on Friday May 11, 2012 located at 58166 NW Wilson River Highway near the community of Glenwood. Firefighters arrived approximately 20 minutes after being dispatched to find a double wide manufactured home that had burned to the ground with large amounts of fire still showing. Fire crews used multiple hose lines to extinguish most of the fire and contain it to the house; they also had to work around a dangerous power line that was burned to the ground.

The two residents arrived home to find their home on fire. While the husband tried moving vehicles near the burning house, the wife had to travel over two miles to call 9-1-1 from a cell phone. Limited information was given to dispatchers due to the call being dropped after a couple minutes with poor cell phone service in the area. The wife was then able to flag down a passing motorist to assist her by going to a nearby neighbor to call 9-1-1 on a standard phone.

Due to the location being in a rural area, it was an extended response time for the emergency crews to arrive on scene. Also with no fire hydrant near the house, water tenders were used to shuttle water into the scene to fight the flames. Crews had to travel six miles to get additional water from a fire hydrant in the community of Gales Creek.

Firefighters remained on scene for almost four hours extinguishing hot spots. The house and its contents are considered a complete loss. Also near to the house was a boat, travel trailer and multiple other small vehicles, they were all destroyed. At this time a total damage estimate is not available and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Firefighters control roof fire in one hunred year old barn

Just before 1:30 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012 firefighters from Forest Grove, Banks, North Plains, and Cornelius were called to a barn fire in the 8000 block of NW Spreadborough Lane in the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District.  When firefighters arrived they found a large, two story barn, that had been on the small family farm property for over 100 years that had light smoke coming from the roof.  Firefighters went to work, using ladders to climb inside the cavernous barn structure to spray water on the fire that was burning slowly in the roof of the old wooden barn.  Once they felt like the fire was under control, they called for the thirty five foot tall ladder from Forest Grove's ladder truck to scale the west wall of the barn and cut away the burned roofing and eave structure so that they were sure the fire was out.  Fire Investigators confirmed the property owner's statements that earlier this afternoon he had been burning yard debris on a nearby burn pile when   Fortunately, the barn was empty this time of year and the fire did not spread beyond the roof area.  There were no injuries as a result of this fire, which caused an estimated $5,000 in damage to the roof..  Please be cautious when burning, never burn near structures, brush, or fences and always attend your burn pile with a garden hose and firefighting tools at all times.

   

It's Wildfire Awareness Week!

We are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of Oregon. Forest Grove is surrounded by agriculture to the north and south and to the west the Oregon Coast Range beckons us with it's ability to recharge our batteries with a bounty of recreational adventures. Almost all of us have taken in what the Tillamook State Forest and surrounding timber lands have to offer; some of us are lucky enough to live right in the foothills with the forest as our backyard, a lot of us have hiked or taken an ATV on one of the trails that meander through the shaded trees, while some enjoy the bone chilling waters of the Wilson River on a hot August day, and almost everyone has taken a drive to the beach and gazed upon the stunning views from the north coast highways. Imagine stepping back in time and instead of a green forest shaded your drive, all that you see are blackened trees, their bark charred from the raging fires that burned across the land; instead of sitting in your yard and watching a pink sky sunset on a summer evening the sun is obscured by billowing smoke clouds as the forest burns below. This hasn't happened in northwest Oregon since 1951, but it can and likely will happen again and it's our responsibility to be ready for it. That's why Governors from Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and California have declared this week to be "Wildfire Awareness Week" and even though we are hopefully a few weeks away from the traditional time when the first significant brush fires usually occur in our area now is the perfect time to get your home and property ready for fire season.

A US Agriculture Department photo of the 1933 Tillamook Burn Fire that destroyed 311,000 acres west of Forest Grove

Here's the deal for northwest Oregon residents, if we want to prevent a wildfire tragedy in our area the first step is that we choose to live responsibly. We just don't get the lightning storms that other parts of our state get, so when we have wildfires we have only ourselves to blame. A vast majority of our wildfires are caused by carelessness or poor decision making and it's up to us to make sure that we prevent this from happening during this summers fire season. In 2010 a campfire was left burning on David Hill Road and spread to nearly 14 acres of private timber land and came within a few hundred yards of nearby homes before firefighters could get a handle on it, during the highest fire danger point of the summer of 2011 a man using a cutting torch near Gaston caught a few acres of grass on fire and luckily firefighters stopped the fire within feet of a nearby home. Situations like these repeat themselves year after year in our area. We can do better, make sure our spring burn piles are out and never burn or use open flames outside once fire season starts. Pay attention to what we are doing and have tools handy to control a fire if you do have to work on your car or machinery with dry grass or brush nearby. 

We are a few weeks away from the traditional start of our fire season, but now is the perfect time to get your property ready for the summer months. Start by taking a look at your roof, if you live with the woods nearby we encourage you to consider fire resistive roof construction but if you can't afford a new roof right now you can still help by cleaning your roof, eaves, and gutters, and removing the build up of moss, leaves, and tree needles. Next take a look around the house and make sure that within 30 feet of your home you have an adequate fire break to protect your home from a wildfire. Remove all dead vegetation within this area, as well as any brush, trees, grasses, or even fire wood that come in direct contact with your home. Beyond this initial 30 feet take a close look at your "secondary fire break" and clear any dead vegetation, tall grass, and dense trees or brush, within 8 feet of the ground for 100 feet around your home. Finally make sure your driveway is accessible and clear enough (at least 12 feet wide and 14 feet of overhead clearance from limbs) for fire engines to get to your home and that you have a nicely marked address sign so that we can find your home quickly.