Eight fire departments in Lincoln County have received state grants totaling nearly $270,000 to increase staffing during key summer months to better react to potential fires, especially wildfires.
The departments are among the 180 fire districts and departments across the state that received $6 million through a bill passed by the 2021 Legislature.
Fire agencies were able to request up to $35,000 to support staffing during the summer and early fall, the height of Oregon’s fire season. Departments are allowed to use it for overtime for additional firefighter shifts or to hire temporary firefighters to augment their current staff.
State officials voiced concern this spring that Oregon could be in store for a difficult wildfire season because of a multi-year drought and because a national labor shortage has made staffing fire crews a challenge. Additionally, a wet spring has increased potential fire fuels, like grass.
Here’s how local departments plan to use the grants:
- Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue, $35,000: Chief Jamie Mason has hired two volunteers to work Wednesday through Sundays beginning Aug. 3 through late November. They will staff the department’s brush rig, responding to calls along with the district’s “first out”engine but be able to break away for other calls. They will not fill open shifts when the district’s six firefighters are on vacation, sick or in training, Mason said, but are added personnel to help respond to multiple calls.
- Yachats Rural Fire Protection District, $35,000: Administrator Frankie Petrick said the district was not able to find volunteers or outside staff to hire, so it will use the grant to pay overtime to firefighters working extra shifts.
- Seal Rock Fire Department, $24,824: Chief Will Ewing said the district will use the grant to have more staff on duty during the summer, especially key tourist weekends or during hot weather. The district currently is without its own paid firefighter staff, Ewing said, and uses a roster of seven part-time paid firefighters and 13 volunteers to fill shifts. “The grant allows for two paid persons being on shift at a time during peak travel, recreation, and weather events,” he said.
- Newport Fire Department, $35,000: Chief Rob Murpy said the department hired two volunteers to augment its regular staffing.
- North Lincoln Fire & Rescue, $35,000: Chief Rob Dahlman said the district hired four firefighters from its volunteers corps to staff a vehicle from noon to midnight Friday, Saturday, Sundays for three months to respond to burn complaints, smoke sightings in forested areas, and to patrol beaches to put out unattended fires.
- Depoe Bay Fire Department, $35,000: Chief Bryan Daniels said the department will use the grant to pay overtime to current staff working extra during hot weather or busy weekends and plans to pay firefighters from other districts to augment current staffing.
- The Toledo and Siletz departments also received grants of $35,000 under the program.
