8
community
march1
2018
Into the Inferno
“In 2007 after the flood the State Emer-
gency Management team that deploys us
came here to Vernonia for almost three
weeks,” says Davis. It’s a big deal for
me that Vernonia has personally benefit-
ted when we had resources from all over
the state here. We had firefighters from
all over the state come here and man our
station so our firefighters could go home
and take care of their own families and
properties. That’s personally why I am
happy to go on these assignments, be-
cause I’ve personally benefitted from
them, and I know the importance of it.
And we saw it firsthand
when we rolled in to some
of those small towns in Cal-
ifornia where their own fire
department is either over-
whelmed or personally ef-
fected and had to be evacu-
ated themselves.”
Davis says he has
been deployed to about
eight different wildfires
during his years as a fire-
fighter, working on fires in
Baker City, in The Dalles
on several occasions, Troy,
Oregon, and now Califor-
nia. Steinweg has been
deployed to Warm Springs,
and also spent time work-
ing for the Oregon Department of For-
estry where he fought wildfires in Baker
City, Vale, and Caynonville, Oregon.
Steinweg says a lot of thought
and planning goes into deciding who to
send and which resources can go when
a request comes from the state for a de-
continued from page 7
ployment. “We did have questions from
our community this summer when fire
danger was so high here and we had re-
sources out of District,” says Steinweg.
“We always have a game plan for how
we are going to fight a local fire if we
send resources away. We don’t take
something out of District if it’s going to
hurt the community.”
Davis adds that a lot of thought
and planning happens between all the
County agencies when assembling a
strike team for deployment. “Typically
they might send a tender from Mist, a
smaller engine from Vernonia, and some
bigger engines from Scappoose, and Co-
lumbia River because they don’t want to
deplete any one agency of personnel or
resources. They try to balance it among
the agencies.” Steinweg adds that Ver-
nonia will contact other regional agen-
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cies, like Banks or Mist and
let them know they are short
handed and which apparatus
they might need in the event
of a local fire.
Davis and Steinweg
say the makeup of a strike
team can depend on a num-
ber of factors, including
who is available, their past
experience and familiarity
with particular apparatus as-
signed to the deployment,
and the need to get experi-
ence in a par-
ticular role on a
strike team. Da-
vis explained
that, like struc-
tural firefight-
ing, wildland
firefighting and
management
requires
the
personnel to show hands-
on understanding and pro-
ficiency in certain skills
under the guidance of a
trainer before they can as-
sume certain roles on a
team. As an example, Da-
vis says that at a wildland
fire in The Dalles, he served
as the Engine Boss on a Vernonia fire en-
gine, while Vernonia Chief Smith served
as the engine operator while complet-
ing tasks that would allow him to serve
as Engine Boss. “Vernonia didn’t have
anyone qualified to serve as Engine Boss
at that time, so I was placed on the Verno-
nia engine to sign off on the skills Chief
Smith needed for certification,” explains
Davis. “That’s actually very common.
In California this December Captain
Steinweg was riding with a Lieutenant
from Columbia River and had a chance
to train and gain experience towards cer-
tification in other wildland applications.
Once you get activated the County has
to assemble a team based on who has
qualifications for what, and our rank at
our home agency can shift based on the
training and experience fighting wild-
fires of each individual.”
“It’s a great training experience
because we don’t normally see those
kinds of wildland situations around
here,” says Steinweg.
“As a resident of Vernonia it’s
important to me that we get people like
Will and Chief Smith and some of our
volunteers out working on these wild-
fires because there is really no other way
to get that training and experience,” adds
Davis. “If we ever do have that type of
fire activity around here you have some-
one who has seen it before and has some
kind of experience, which will make
things go so much smoother here.”
Davis notes that VRFPD could
send personnel and pay for them to re-
ceive training in fighting wildland fires.
Instead, when local firefighters are de-
ployed on wildfires, Oregon Emergency
Management foots the bill for invaluable
hands-on training.
Steinweg points to the 30 acre
fire just outside Clatskanie last summer
as an example. “We just don’t see that
many fires like that in Columbia County,
but there certainly is the potential for it
to happen,” says Steinweg.
“When we do, the officers and
firefighters that show up and do a good
job handling it are ones that have been
on these strike teams and have seen it
before, and instead of being faced with
something they’ve never seen before,
they know what to do and can develop a
plan to handle it,” adds Davis.