Forest Grove Fire & Rescue is proud to announce that after receiving the second grant in six months from the FEMA SAFER program, staffing changes are underway at the Forest Grove Fire Station. SAFER stands for Staffing For Adequate Fire & Emergency Response and is a grant program with the goal of enhancing the fire departments’ abilities to comply with staffing, response, and operational standards established by national guidelines. This $263,360 federal grant that was awarded in December 2012, will allow the fire department to replace one Captain position that was lost in the City hiring freeze of 2009.
After a competitive process Fire Chief Michael Kinkade has promoted Chris Woodford to the rank of Captain to fill the requirements of this grant. In 1992 Chris joined FGF&R as a volunteer, and in 1996 he became one of the first full time Paramedics for the agency. Chris has been a shift Lieutenant with the organization since 2007, and his new position as Captain will move him into a daytime schedule role where he will be assigned to the Fire Prevention Division. Having Chris on duty during the normal work day will not only allow for greater emergency response abilities during the daytime hours when our volunteer responses have become increasingly more difficult to maintain, but it will also enable Chris to work as the department’s only full time Fire Inspector (a position that was vacated in 2009) where he will be visiting businesses in an effort to prevent fires from occurring in the first place. Chief Kinkade said this about the Fire Inspector promotion: “Chris has an extensive background as a business owner, carpenter, and contractor that make him a perfect fit for our Fire Inspector position, the fact that we will now also have an additional Paramedic on duty during the daytime hours that can fill any role needed on an fire engine is huge for our ability to respond to calls during the day.”
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| New Fire Inspector, Captain Chris Woodford |
The trickle down of promoting Chris to Captain, opened up a shift Lieutenant position that will be immediately filled by Firefighter Tony Carter. This promotion is a long time coming for Tony who began as a college student “sleeper” with our fire department after he graduated from Forest Grove High School in 1996. Tony went to work for our department full time in 2005 according to Chief Kinkade “Tony is so well respected by our staff and volunteers, and he is the natural servant leader type that the modern fire service needs. His mentoring ability and experience in fighting wildfires for the Oregon Department of Forestry are some of the countless things that Tony brings to the table to improve the leadership team at FGF&R.”
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| New C Shift Lieutenant Tony Carter |
This $263,360 grant will fund one hundred percent of the wages and benefits for the Captain’s position for the next two years and will allow FGF&R to return to full staffing for the first time since 2009. Combined with the four year volunteer recruitment position that was grant funded in the fall of 2012 there will be a total of one additional full time employee on staff compared to previous years, bringing the total line firefighter staffing of the department to 15 sworn firefighters divided between three 24 hour shifts, in addition to the two grant funded daytime positions.
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