New Blog Address

If you are subscribed to updates or regularly follow our blog you might have noticed a new logo at the top and a new web address for this page.  A little history and why we made the change.  In 2010 when longtime Fire Chief Chis Asanovic retired from the Cornelius Fire Department, the City of Cornelius and the City of Forest Grove entered into an agreement to share administrative services.  This sharing of the Fire Chief eventually led to increased cooperation between the neighboring agencies, allowing for more firefighter training and standardization of practices and equipment then ever before, all for the good of the entire community.  For decades before this, the two fire departments routinely supported each other on fire calls but rarely practiced together and both had different styles, procedures, and equipment that at times led to less than desirable situations on emergency scenes.  With this new partnership we were able to break down some of these walls and eliminate differences, eventually getting to a point where the two agencies can work seamlessly on calls, thus allowing for a more efficient response to emergencies in both cities and rural fire districts.  

One of the benefits of this partnership is the sharing of specialized resources and that's what gets us to this blog.  With the retirement of Chief Asanovic, Cornelius lost their Public Information Officer, while at Forest Grove the Fire Chief assigns this information and education duty to the staff of the Fire Prevention Division.  With an already established, effective, and well regarded, public information program in place in Forest Grove, the natural step was to share the efforts with the Cornelius Fire Department so there was one voice from the agency when discussing an incident or a department program.   

We hope you enjoy the change, hopefully we'll be blogging a lot more about the things you want to know and the things we hope will make our entire community safer in the future.  As always, don't hesitate to comment here or drop us a private email to let us know what we can do better.  Our Fire Prevention Chief David Nemeyer can be reached at 503-992-3177 or via email at dnemeyer@forestgrove-or.gov

 

Family Practices Fire Escape Plan and Escapes Unharmed

On the evening of Sunday, September 8, Firefighters were dispatched to a house at located at 1112 Alyssum Ave in Forest Grove. Firefighters arrived a few minutes later to find heavy amounts of fire coming from the garage and spreading up the wall as well as into the attic. At this time the incident commander called for a 2nd Alarm bring additional fire crews from neighboring departments. Using multiple hose lines, firefighters were able to quickly extinguish a majority of the flames. After approximately 15 minutes, all flames in the garage and the attic were extinguished. Firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading into the living por tion of the house.

At the time of the fire, a mother and four children were home, they were able to get out of the house unharmed. When the mother discovered the flames shooting out of the garage, she instructed the two older children to follow their fire escape plan, which was to get out of the house and meet at a mailbox across the street. While they did this, the mother was able to get the younger children from the dinner table and exit the house. The children had been taught to do this and practiced many times, and helped prevent anyone from getting injured by the fire. 

Firefighters remained on scene for multiple hours making sure all hot spots were put out. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the probable area of origin is located near a refrigerator in the garage. The fire is initially estimated to have caused at least $40,000 in damage.

Forest Grove Fire and Rescue urges parents to practice a fire escape plan with their children. Teach children to get out of the house and stay out, to meet at a pre-determined place like a mailbox, a tree, end of a driveway or a neighbor's house. Also practice knowing two ways out of your house. It is suggested to practice a fire escape drill every few months like children do at school. Tonight's fire is a good example of how a fire escape plan worked and prevented harm.

Forest Grove Fire & Rescue was assisted on scene by Cornelius Fire Department, Hillsboro Fire, Banks Fire and Gaston Fire.  

Popular young shift Lieutenant promotes to Captain role

After a process that saw five extremely talented individuals compete for the position, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue is pleased to announce the promotion of Tony Carter to the rank of Captain.  A local "Grover", the 35 year old Carter grew up here and along with his wife Samantha and their two little boys, they still proudly call Forest Grove home.  After graduating from Forest Grove High School in 1996, Tony came to the fire department initially as a volunteer who wanted to help in his community.  He entered our college student "sleeper" program shortly after that, and gained valuable practical experience living at the fire station while attending Portland Community College and the College of Emergency Services where he completed his coursework in Fire Science and Emergency Medicine, earning certification as an Oregon Paramedic.  During the summers of his college years Tony also worked for the Oregon Department of Forestry out of the Forest Grove Protection Unit working as part of a wildland firefighting crew.  In October 2005 Tony went to work full time for our agency and the promising young man continued to shine, leading the revamp of our wildland firefighting program that eventually saw the purchase of our first ever apparatus that were specifically designed to combat wildfires in our area.  Captain Tony Carter will take the reigns of our C Shift starting on September 1st, where he fills the vacancy of left by Captain Dwight Lanter when he retired earlier this summer after 28 years of service to Forest Grove. 

New C Shift Captain Tony Carter

Though Tony just recently became a Lieutenant, the choice of promoting him to Captain has been a popular one with the firefighters he works with.  Senior Firefighter Ted Penge said "Tony is a great guy to work for, he truly lets his people feel empowered to do their jobs and do them well.  He supports your projects and work without micro managing, and he is fair with everyone he meets, he's an excellent pick for a leader in our department.".  Firefighter Rick Ilg is also excited for Tony mainly because of what he has accomplished during his short time as a Lieutenant "Look at what he's done already, so much positive stuff comes from that man, and I expect nothing else than for him to continue building on things now that he has full charge of his shift."

Tony Carter is the Vice President of the non profit Forest Grove Firefighter's Association, and also serves as a shop steward with the Tualatin Valley Professional Firefighters Union Local 1660. With the promotion of Tony to Captain a vacancy is left in the department at the Lieutenant level.  Fire Chief Michael Kinkade expects to have a process in place in the next couple weeks and to have an announcement in place by the end of September as to who will fill that role.  Due to the confidence that there were adequate in house candidates for these leadership positions, the department did not have to await the hiring of another firefighter so since hiring Jordan Ruiz on July 1st Forest Grove Fire & Rescue has been able to maintain full staffing of all positions in their current fiscal year budget. 

C Shift photo from Captain Lanter's retirement party in July

As the sun sets on one marvelous career, it rises on another at Forest Grove Fire & Rescue

FF Dwight Lanter (left) and Lt Gary Maxwell (right) C Shift 1986

 

The year was 1985, Ronald Reagan was President, you could buy a ticket to the new Michael J. Fox "Back to the Future" movie for $2.75, and a gallon of gas cost $1.09 at the pump where you still had to say leaded or unleaded.  At that same time, a young Dwight Lanter put on the baby blue uniform, climbed on a bright green fire engine, and began his fire service career as a full time firefighter with FGF&R.  Bringing with him years of experience as  an intern with the Astoria Fire Department, and a volunteer with the neighboring Cornelius Fire Department, the home grown boy from the family farm south of town who built fire engines for local company Western States Fire Apparatus, was a perfect fit to be Forest Grove's newest firefighter.  Over nearly three decades, Dwight's career blossomed as he went through the ranks, serving at one time as the Department's Training Officer and finally as a Shift Captain.  On July 1, 2013, the sun sets on an honorable twenty-eight years of serving the community where he was raised, and where he raised his own family (his son's are both currently involved in the fire service), for Captain Dwight Lanter when he retires from Forest Grove Fire & Rescue.

Captain Dwight Lanter 2013

Looking back on Dwight's career, his firefighters shared fond memories of a man who was more then a coworker, but also a mentor and friend along the way.  "When I came here from Polk County he made sure I knew about the community of Forest Grove and the history of this department, he's like an uncle to me" said Ted Penge, who currently works as one of Dwight's firefighters on C Shift.  Another C Shift Firefighter, Brad Shinpaugh, added "This is a guy that I have always looked up to, as a new firefighter he would reinforce me with positive comments, and this is something that I try to carry on with our new people."  Lieutenant Tony Carter echoes Dwight's ability to mentor over the years: "He literally feels like my third dad, when I came here as a straight out of high school teenager in our resident volunteer program, Dwight helped me tremendously to understand that being a quality firefighter is as much about compassion for your community as it is about fire hoses and ladders."  

    

FGF&R's newest paid firefighter, Jordan Ruiz

Even though the sun is setting on one firefighter's career, it's starting to shine brightly for the start of another, as current FGF&R Intern Jordan Ruiz begins working full time on July 1st.  Jordan, a 27 year old native of San Jose, California, is another pick from the current crop of volunteers and interns for the department from over the nearly 100 applicants in a hiring process that began last fall.  Jordan moved to Portland with his girlfriend Kellen while she completed her nursing degree program at University of Portland; himself a graduate of Santa Clara University with a bachelors degree in biology, he currently holds certification as an Oregon Paramedic and will add another advanced life support responder, as well as a fluent Spanish speaker, to our staff.  When asked how Jordan felt about coming to work full time, he talked about the positive family atmosphere at FGF&R and how family is one of the most important things to him.  In fact, his eyes shined brightly as he related joyous stories of traditional Italian holidays making over 300 homemade ravioli with his entire family.  It's not all about that wonderful Italian food for this young man however, who as a high school student competed in the Colt Baseball World Series, defeating the Puerto Rico team to win the championship round; Jordan remains physically active and recently competed in an Iron-man Triathlon competition.  "It's tough to lose three decades of experience with Dwight's retirement, but while we are wishing Dwight the best at the same time we are super excited to be able to add a quality young firefighter in Jordan to our firehouse family.  He's really an excellent fit for our department and will be an asset for the community for years to come." said Fire Chief Michael Kinkade.  Jordan is one of three new firefighters hired by the fire department in the last twelve months, where he joins Chad Toomey, and Cassie Knierim as the newest members of the department's shift response force.         

No lightning, no problems right?

We are fortunate to call northwest Oregon our home.  When summertime lightning storms burst to life over the Cascades we can usually breathe easy knowing that a lightning bolt in our sky is about as rare as seeing Bigfoot himself.  So what exactly is our fire problem here, and who or what is to blame when we do have a wildfire?

More often then not we need to point the finger at ourselves and blame our fellow human beings for the wildfires that burn during northwest Oregon's summers.  If you have lived around here for any significant amount of time, you have likely already heard the stories of the "Tillamook Burn", and how on August 14, 1933 a logging company outside of Gales Creek wanted to haul one last log out before the Forestry Department closed the woods for the day due to high fire danger.  As that final log was yarded up to the landing it rubbed either a steel cable, or another tree, and the friction that ensued sparked one of Oregon's largest wildfires right in the very Coast Range Mountains we watch the sun set over every night.  Our modern experience with wildfires in this area has not been as dramatic as that 311,000 acre first Tillamook Burn fire, but our causes are consistent in that humans are still at fault for a majority of our wildfires; as we grow and more people make the woods their backyard, we can only expect that the number of human caused wildfires will grow too.  So what can we do to prevent our own behavior from creating a wildfire tragedy this summer?

The aftermath of the Tillamook Burn can be seen in this Wikipedia photo

Burn piles

The elephant in the room so to speak for our area is when we use fire outdoors.  Oregon's backyard burn season ends June 15th and doesn't start again until October, so all backyard debris fires are closed during summer months.  Beyond that once the weather hits the point where we expect it to stay dry, the County will almost always ban agricultural burning as well.  It's that grey area of the year, like we've had with this dry spring, when burning is still technically allowed that it gets dangerous.  That's why it's so important to always have a fire break of bare dirt around your burn piles, and to attend them with firefighting tools and water at all times.  When you are done burning, you must make sure that your burn pile is out.  This can be easily done by soaking the burned area and stirring it to create a cold and wet mud that won't allow a fire to continue to burn.  Some burn piles can ignite underground roots, so it's essential that you soak your burning area when you are through with your debris fires.  

Power tools and equipment

Next to burn piles, one of the other significant causes for our wildfire problem is the things we use outside.  It's very important that you check your power equipment like tractors, lawn care tools, motorcycles and ATV's, and others to make sure they are in good working order before using them outdoors during fire season.  Be it a motorcycle without a spark arrestor, or a farm tractor with a worn out bearing, not having a properly maintained powered tool or toy is just as risky during fire season as not using this equipment properly.  

Open flames and fireworks

During fire season 2011, a resident using a cutting torch to work on a car near a grass field nearly destroyed an entire rural neighborhood when sparks ignited the tall and dry grass nearby.  Fire crews stopped the fire literally feet away from one home, and prevented it from spreading to a brushy stand of timber nearby.  Each year fireworks, kids with matches, and cigarettes dropped by motorists are also to blame for unnecessary fires in our area.  Now is the time for parents to lock up those matches and lighters before the kids get out of school for the summer, and make sure that when you purchase your fireworks you only choose those that are legal in Oregon and you keep all fireworks out of the hands of unsupervised children.  If you must use the welder or torch outdoors the same rules that apply to your burn pile apply here too, have water handy and regularly watch the area for hours afterwards to make sure that the smallest ember has not ignited the brush around your work area.  

So, even though it's raining today, as fire season approaches remember what our old friend Smokey Bear says in this classic 1964 public service announcement: "Only you, can prevent forest fires!"

   

   

Daybreak Rotary Club honors our Fire Marshal with the Paul Harris Fellow Award

On the evening of Monday May 13, 2013 Forest Grove Fire & Rescue Fire Marshal David Nemeyer was honored by the Forest Grove Daybreak Rotary Club as one of five local people to receive the Paul Harris Fellow Award.  This award is given each year by the Rotary club to individuals that they feel best meet the clubs mission of service above self, and commitment to their community.  Though not a member of their club, the Daybreak Rotary choose Dave as one of this year's winners in honor of his work revolving around fire prevention and safety in Forest Grove.  Citing the department's efforts in social media, fire safety education for children and adults, and interaction with local and regional news media Dave was called to the stage and presented with a certificate, pin, and medal at the annual banquet of the club held at 1910 American Bistro on Main Street in downtown Forest Grove.  After the banquet Dave said "what an unbelievable honor to be called to that stage, with so many people in the audience who truly are involved with improving Forest Grove, and to have them honor me for what we do as a fire department.  Amazing!" 

On behalf of Forest Grove Fire & Rescue we wish to thank the Daybreak Rotary Club for bestowing this honor upon Dave, and especially for the work that they do in and around Forest Grove every day.  What a wonderful service club in our community! 

 

Home improvement projects for those at risk for wildfire

For the last few weeks we have taken the "cheap and easy" route on some of the tips we've offered for you to ready your home for wildfire season.  So hopefully you've gotten out and started clearing that defensible space, and removed those pesky limbs hanging low in your driveway.  If you are still sitting there on your couch, having a glass of iced tea and dreaming of what sort of projects you can do next to prepare your home for fire season, or if you are considering a major home renovation soon we suggest that you involve some of these larger projects for your wildfire preparedness efforts.

• Change your roofing and/or siding materials.  There is perhaps nothing more attractive than the look of  natural cedar shakes on the roof or side of your home.  Unfortunately, though it's beautiful, cedar is one of the worst things you can have on the exterior of your home.  Sparks and embers from far away wildfires can easily blow miles ahead of the flames, and once these red hots find contact in the nooks and crannies of your shake siding or roofing it's only a matter of time before your house is burning.  We suggest non combustible siding and roofing materials, like cement based products, metal roofing, or even composition roofing material is better than cedar. 
  
• Enclose your eaves, and underneath decks or porches.  These open areas are like candy to the sparks and embers of a wildfire and are another hidden area where a wildfire can easily spread to your home.  If you don't want to completely enclose these places, using 1/8" metal screen is another alternative that can prevent burning embers from entering the hidden areas of your home.
  
• Replace old single pane windows with new, more efficient, heat resistant, tempered glass windows.  Sometimes even the radiant heat from a nearby wildfire can ignite items inside your home without the direct contact of a flame, heat resistant windows can prevent that from happening.
  
• Consider improvements for firefighting water supplies on your home.  This is more than just having a swimming pool or a creek nearby.  We need to be able to get to within 20 feet of the water on an all weather surface such as asphalt or gravel.  Water tanks must have the appropriate connections to be effective, contact your local fire department if you have a water source that they can use, and have it evaluated. 
  
• Install residential fire sprinkler systems in your home.  These are the single most important fire safety tool out there to protect your home, and though they may not prevent a wildfire from damaging your home, they will likely prevent your home fire from becoming a wildfire.  Residential fire sprinklers are literally like having an entire fire department in your home 24/7.  The damage created by their flow of water is nothing compared to the damage of a fire and the water damage associated with our firefighting operations.  

So, if money isn't an option, you're planning a major home remodel, or you want to go the extra mile to make your home as safe as possible we hope that you consider these "big ticket" options for improving your home for fire season.