2A ܂ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2018 ܂ APPEAL TRIBUNE
Controlled field burn is
complete south of Silverton
Wildfires
Continued from Page 1A
critical need across the state for what I
would call a combat firefighter, some-
one who can go in a burning house and
put it out.”
Olivia Heersink
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Role of volunteer fire
departments today
Decades ago when a fire bell rang in
any small town, the town’s barber, gro-
cery store owner and dozens of other
citizens would drop what they were do-
ing and run to the fire station.
Volunteer firefighters were vital to
the survival of the community, and
nearly every able-bodied man took part.
The percentage of paid full-time fire-
fighters has increased in major metro-
politan areas, but in rural areas the role
of a volunteer firefighter is not as well
known as was a century ago.
“My next-door neighbors assume all
you guys are paid,” said Nic Schrock,
who has volunteered at the Aumsville
Rural Fire District for six years. “This
whole area, Salem is about your only all-
paid spot.”
According to the National Volunteer
Fire Council, volunteers make up about
70 percent of firefighters in the United
States.
Cities such as Stayton and Silverton
have a mix of volunteers and paid staff
to fight fires.
The volunteers can go from eating
dinner at home to knocking down a
front door to put out a fire in five min-
utes.
“The common thing we heard was we
don’t know you guys needed us,” said
Roy Hari, fire chief for the Aumsville Ru-
ral Fire District. “The volunteer fire ser-
vice across the nation is struggling right
now.”
When Odis Coleman started as a vol-
unteer firefighter in Aumsville in 2003,
the staff of volunteers was so large – 35
– it was almost a competition among the
volunteers to make it to the first engine
out of the fire department.
He lives five blocks from the station
and couldn’t make it on the first engine
out to most fires.
“We had volunteers who lived in that
house, that house, we had Mark and we
had two who lived in the apartments
right there,” Coleman said, pointing to
locations immediately around the
Aumsville Rural Fire Department build-
ing.
“They would just be gone. Now it’s a
little different.”
Role in wildfires
As wildfires blaze across the state,
volunteer firefighters play significant
roles.
As most large fires are in remote
areas, rural fire departments are often
the first on the scene in the critical early
moments of a fire when it can grow ex-
Aumsville Rural Fire Department
volunteers Odas Coleman, Nic Schrock
and Ryan Stevens are among the 10
volunteers who staff the department.
The department has one paid
firefighter.
BILL POEHLER/STATESMAN JOURNAL
ponentially in minutes.
Aumsville and many other rural fire
departments sent engines and crews to
help fight the Substation Fire outside of
The Dalles last week.
They fought the fire alongside full-
time firefighters from other agencies
and private firefighters.
“Really, you look at this and when
those firefighters responded to Sher-
man and Wasco county last week, no-
body looked at them and said, ‘You’re
getting 10 bucks an hour and you’re get-
ting 25 bucks an hour,’” Dunkel said.
“They look at what you can do to help
us mitigate this. The volunteers play a
huge role. They are what we call boots
on the ground.”
Dunkel said while many larger mu-
nicipalities will send fire engines to help
with fires such as the Silver Creek Fire or
the Substation Fire, their engines are
not capable of going on the remote,
hard-to-access land.
Many of the rural fire districts have
fire engines that can.
What it takes to be a volunteer
firefighter
Most fire stations, such as Aumsville,
offer introductory classes for people in-
terested in volunteering.
But the training is rigorous and re-
quires long hours and sacrifice.
“We got to do the same thing that Sa-
lem Fire does, we got to have the same
standards, same training,” Coleman
said. “We pick our training up as volun-
teers.”
The fire departments pay for the
training of their volunteers, and once
they get in the fire engine headed to a
call, they are fully insured as any em-
ployee of the department would be.
Some volunteers leave shortly after
the training is over, and many have oth-
er pursuits that require their time.
Around 389 acres were torched Fri-
day afternoon during a field burn south
of Silverton permitted by the Oregon
Department of Agriculture.
John Byers, head of the depart-
ment's Smoke Management Program,
said seven or eight fields were set on
fire at 2 p.m.
Despite Marion County's burn ban,
Byers said, these types of controlled
fires are permitted because of the "in-
ordinate" amount of safety precautions
set in place by those involved, who only
have an hour to light the targeted area.
Several meteorological factors come
into play when issuing a permit, Byers
said. Officials look at wind speed and
direction, as well as the potential
height of the smoke.
Byers said field burning is not al-
lowed if two of the following three con-
ditions are present: temperatures 95
“We have people that are here every
single call and man, I’d put those guys
up against anybody out there,” Hari
said. “It’s all about how often you get
down to the calls.
“The best thing that can happen to a
new recruit firefighter is to have a few
fires, because that always hooks them.”
Being a firefighter isn’t only about
fighting fires, either.
There’s also a sense of commitment
to the community.
“There’s so much more than what I
ever thought than just doing fires,”
Schrock said. “If you’re helping some-
one and you’re doing CPR or someone’s
kid got hurt, there’s a lot more to appre-
ciate as life goes on.”
Pilot program
in Aumsville
A year ago, there was a fire not far
from Coleman’s business, Transformer
Technologies, on Turner Road on the
edge of Salem.
Four of the employees, including
Coleman, are volunteers with the Aums-
ville Rural Fire District.
As soon as they got the call, Schrock
and Brad Buchholz drove their cars the
eight minutes to Aumsville to get a fire
engine then drove back to fight the fire.
It sparked something.
Buchholz and Schrock came up with
the idea of stopping in Shaw at Aums-
Field burning takes place at a grass
seed field in the Lyons area in 2011.
Field burning started Aug. 1 that year.
STATESMAN JOURNAL FILE
degrees or higher, humidity 30 percent
or less and wind speeds 15 mph or
greater.
Contact reporter Olivia Heersink at
oheersink@statesmanjournal.com,
503-399-6657 or follow her on Twitter
@heersinkolivia.
ville’s substation every day they’re
working and driving one of the fire
trucks to the Transformer Technologies
shop.
“We would have been like the first en-
gine on scene,” Coleman said.
The Aumsville Rural Fire District en-
compasses 32 square miles and in 2017,
the fire district responded to 813 calls.
They will be three minutes from the
boundary of Aumsville’s district — and
closer to the Turner Fire District — but
their response time will be significantly
quicker for any call in Aumsville
Some volunteer firefighters don’t
have employers who would let them go
to fight a fire in the middle of a work
shift.
Coleman certainly does: His employ-
ees are still paid their regular hourly
wage when they go fight a fire.
“I think that’s probably the most im-
portant part about this is that the em-
ployer supports it,” said Hari, formerly
with Marion County Fire District 1. “In
any other community, the taxpayer is
paying that firefighter.
“Here it’s a private employer paying
that firefighter. That’s something that
you can’t replace. That’s an absolutely
incredible offer for a company to do that.
I truly believe that the return comes
back.”
bpoehler@Statesman
Journal.com
or
Twitter.
com/bpoehler
Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309
To Place an Ad
Lake
History of 2018 health
advisories at Detroit Lake
Phone: 503-399-6773
Classifieds: call 503-399-6789
Retail: call 503-399-6602
Legal: call 503-399-6789
Continued from Page 1A
May 23: Tests show high levels of tox-
ins, alert issued
Web site: www.SilvertonAppeal.com
June 8: Tests show safe levels of tox-
ins, alert lifted
News Director
Don Currie
503-399-6655
dcurrie@statesmanjournal.com
Advertising
Terri McArthur
503-399-6630
tmcarthur@Salem.gannett.com
June 13:Tests show high levels of tox-
ins, alert issued
June 14: Tests show safe levels of tox-
ins, alert lifted
June 15:Tests show high levels of tox-
ins, alert issued
June 25:Three days of tests show safe
levels of toxins, alert lifted
June 28:Tests show high levels of tox-
ins, alert issued
Email: sanews@salem.gannett.com
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Silverton High School Scholarship Fundraiser
20th Annual
Friday, August 3 rd , 2018
Place: Festhalle,
500 S. Wilco Hwy. Mt. Angel, OR 97362
The no host bar and social starts at 5:00 pm along with the Silent
Auction and 50/50 Raffl e. The Wooden Nickel will start serving
buff et dinner at 6:30 pm.
Tickets cost $30 when purchased in advance at Silverton Realty
or $35 if purchased on the day of the event.
Dress casual and comfortable and enjoy the friendships – new and
old – while supporting SHS scholarships.
All ages are welcome
OR-0000397875
cologist with the OHA's harmful algae
bloom surveillance program.
“When kids swim in water, they tend
to swallow more water than adults
swallow."
Those who eat fish from waters
where the blooms are present are rec-
ommended to remove fat, skin and or-
gans and rinse the fillets with clean wa-
ter before cooking.
The current health advisory for De-
troit Lake issued by the Oregon Health
Authority has been in place since June
28, its fourth advisory since May 23.
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
or Twitter.com/bpoehler'
Fax: 503-399-6706
More info: mason@silvertonrealty.com or
503-873-3545