vernonia rural fire protection district
may21
2015
Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District
7th Annual Pancake Feed

This year’s Pancake Feed was a great success;
we served 221 people and received $1,549 in donations.
The total amount raised after food costs was $900!

Thank you for supporting our volunteer fire-
fighters!
15

We would also like to thank all the commu-
nity volunteers for helping our firefighters: Fire Board
Director Terry Lindauer, the Vernonia High School
Cheerleaders, Roby and Mindy Brewer. Your assis-
tance helped immensely! From the District to the vol-
unteer firefighters and family members who helped:
Thank you for always going above and beyond and
serving our community with pride!

New this year, the Vernonia Ambulance Asso-
ciation held a garage sale during the weekend of the
pancake feed. Fearless leader Trish Smith, Metro West
employee and VVAA volunteer, organized and ran the
sale. All the proceeds, $1,012 will go towards the 4th
of July firework show. Thank you to all those that do-
nated items, came by to shop and/or just stopped by to
make a monetary donation! Because of you, we will
have an even better firework show! Thank you Trish
for your dedication and taking the time to arrange this
great fundraiser!
Renovation, Remodel, Upgrades

What started out as a project
for a local citizen to pay towards their
community service hours, slowly
evolved into a kitchen/bathroom/
communications room makeover. The
fire station’s kitchen has always been
too small, with barely any useable
space. When prepping for any events,
two people could work side by side, but
three was a crowd. The kitchen has gone
without any upgrades, minus a stove and
microwave, since its inception years ago.
The bathroom was in the same shape. In
contrast, the communications room was
much too large, which lent itself to being
used for unorganized storage. Luckily,
all these rooms are along the same one
wall, which made remedying these
problems more attainable.

The project started out with a
good deep cleaning of all 3 rooms. It
was then confirmed that there was a
need to repaint. From there the decision
was made to go ahead and lengthen the
kitchen and shorten the communications
room simultaneously. Lt. Dan Hanson
took on this task and completed the
adjustment. While in the middle of the
de-construction a task foreman was
chosen.

Trish Smith, who works for
Metro West out of our station and
volunteers for the Vernonia Volunteer
Ambulance Association, took an
interest into the style and direction of
the project and ran with it. A meager
$1,000 budget was allotted for the entire
kitchen, bathroom, and communications
room remodel. The VVAA also made a
monetary donation to help out with the
project.

The current kitchen cabinets
were taken down, resized, painted and
rearranged. New countertops were made
available with large discounts through
the efforts of FF. Norm Brown. Trish
acquired used products to replace the
older worn out items. The bathroom
was cleaned, painted and also received
a new countertop and sink. The
communications room was cleaned,
painted and reorganized. The desk was
updated with a new countertop matching
the kitchen and bathroom.

This project would not have
been completed without the outstanding
group of volunteers who worked
countless hours on it. They were able
to finish the area just in time for the
7th Annual Pancake Feed, which was
extremely appreciated by the volunteers
who were a part of the event. Thank you
Lt. Dan Hanson, FF. Jason Smith, FF.
Norm Brown, Trish Smith and Michelle
Janson-Moe for showing what dedication
and volunteerism is all about! The time
CAN YOU FILL
THESE BOOTS?
VOLUNTEERS
WANTED
Call Dean Smith
for more information
on free training
(503)429-8252
and hard work you put in to make this
space functional will be happily enjoyed
by all for years to come!

Besides the renovation, the
station also had some lighting repairs
and upgrades in coordination with the
contractor and West Oregon Electric Co-
op. The program upgraded the building
to higher efficiency bulbs, ballasts and
some LED lighting. Occupancy sensors
were installed to turn lights off if there
is no movement in the conference room
and apparatus bays. Light sensors were
also installed to turn the outside lights
off during the day.
Calls and Responses

The volunteers have responded
to a whole array of calls the last few
months; from a broken carbon monoxide
detector and medical assistance calls, to
vehicle crashes/fires, illegal burns and
structure/natural cover fires.

Call volume continues to
increase with a total of 43 for April and
as of May 11 th , already 21. Back to back
incidents are no longer abnormal. This
often leads to an extended response
time for an ambulance since a second
crew has to travel from out of District.
VRFPD has fostered an outstanding
relationship with our neighboring
districts, Banks and Mist-Birkenfeld,
as well as our partnership with Metro
West.

We thank them for their support
in attaining our main goal to assist each
other in providing the best service for
all community members in need!
Calls responded to April 1- 30
Fire
Emergency Medical Service
Hazardous Condition
Service Call
Good Intent
Severe Weather & Natural Disaster
Special Incident
No Emergency Found
False Alarm
Total
1
31
4
3
2
0
1
0
1
43