community
june19
Meet Joe Kaczenski: Mist-Birkenfeld Fire Chief
Joe Kaczenski has been the Fire
Chief for the Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire
Protection District (RFPD) for almost
one year. So far things seem to be going
pretty well.
Kaczenski replaced long time
Chief Dave Crawford who retired last
June. Kaczenski
was hired in August
as the Fire Chief;
Crawford has re-
mained as the part-
time Administra-
tive Chief. “Chief
Crawford is still
here,” says Kaczen-
ski. “He still has
a title, still helps
me with the budget
and is still helping
me transition. He
and Mary Lou (As-
sistant Chief Mary
Lou Busch who also
retired last June)
are great assets to
have.”
Kaczen-
ski and his fam-
ily moved to the
M i s t - B i r k e n f e l d
area from Aloha in 2000, but Kaczenski
says his wife Ginger’s family have long
roots in the region. “My wife’s ances-
tors actually founded the community of
Knappa and were in the Jewell area in
the 1800s,” explains Kaczenski. “We al-
ways wanted to move into the country
and settled out here because of the way
the community is.”
For the Kaczenski’s firefighting
runs in the family. Kaczenski grew up in
the fire service – he is the fourth genera-
tion in his family to work professionally
as a firefighter. His great grandfather was
a firefighter for Portland, his grandfather
ra
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respond and they worked with Oregon
Department of Forestry personnel. “Our
folks did a great job,” said Kaczenski.
Kaczenski noted that the water pond the
District built last year next to their sta-
tion worked really well during that fire-
fight as numerous trucks were able to re-
fill and return to the
action.
Logs that were
burned in that fire
and could not be
processed were do-
nated to the Mist-
Birkenfeld RFPD
and are being cut
for firewood by
volunteer associa-
tion members. The
firewood is pro-
vided by the RFPD
to needy families
in their area; Kac-
zenski says there
should be enough
left over that the
department
can
sell to raise funds
to support the vol-
unteer association
and put back into
Ginger Kaczenski is a third gen- the community.
Kaczenski says his department
eration firefighter. Her father and grand-
father were both firefighters and she is is always short staffed and is always
a volunteer tender operator at Mist- looking for new recruits. “The volun-
Birkenfeld RFPD. The Kaczenski’s two teers we have are very dedicated,” he
children also volunteered with the Mist- says. “It so hard because our popula-
Birkemfeld department.
Kaczenski says his department
has handled a handful of fires in the last
year including a fairly large log deck fire
just inside the Clatsop County line at a
logging site in October. Kaczenski says
that, although the fire was actually out-
side of the Mist-Birkenfeld District, they
were the closest department that could
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ones we do have now are exceptional.
They put in a lot of volunteer hours.”
Kaczenski wanted to be sure to
invite the community to help the Mist-
Birkenfeld RFPD celebrate their 35 th An-
niversary this year at their annual picnic
on September 6. According to Kaczen-
ski, the Department was actually estab-
lished around 1956 but dissolved. It was
re-formed in 1979 and “...going strong,”
he says. He says they still have several
original members with the department.
Readings by Stacey Lynn
Family Dining
Dr. Carol McIntyre
9
A Soul Quest
n!
ces
vi
Na
tu
ne
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worked in Sweet Home and also worked
for the Oregon State Police in the arson
division, his father retired from the Port-
land Fire Bureau and Joe has worked full
time for the City of Hillsboro since 1997
as well as currently serving as the part-
time Mist-Birkenfeld Fire Chief.
2014
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