Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District
January 21
5
2021
Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District
Training and Other News
Another year has come and gone at Verno-
nia RFPD. This year was especially interesting for
everyone involved. With the continuing battles
we are having with COVID-19, training has been
tough to say the least. We have been doing our
best to continue the education of our volunteers
with different online training platforms.
This year was also our Maintenance Re-
certification year for the Oregon Fire Service.
Every two years the Department of Public Safety
Standards and Training (DPSST) asks for our re-
cords to re-certify our firefighters that hold any
firefighting certifications with the department. We
are happy to say we were able to re-certify every
one of our firefighters.
This year was also our DPSST accredita-
tion year. This is where DPSST sends out a rep-
resentative from their agency to audit our training
records and accredit the fire department to teach
classes in-house. We were able to pass our audit
with flying colors and we were able to add more
classes to the list of classes we, as a department,
can teach in-house. Currently we are now able to
teach: NFPA Firefighter I, NFPA Firefighter II,
NFPA Driver/Operator, NFPA Pump Operator,
and Wildland Firefighter (type 2). With this new
accreditation we will be adding NFPA Rope Res-
cue Operations Level, NFPA Rope Rescue Tech-
nician Level, Wildland Firefighter (type 1), and
Wildland Apparatus Operator to the list.
We are still moving forward as a depart-
ment and continuing to improve our training stan-
dards. With the addition of adding more classes to
our accreditation, we will be able to provide more
services to the community members of Vernonia.
Once again we would like to thank every-
one for supporting us in this endeavor by passing
the local operating levy and we will continue to
serve the community the very best we can.
Volunteer Update
Toy and Joy 2020 Wrap Up
The year seems like it is fly-
ing by, can you all believe we’re over
half way through January? Vernonia
Fire District has made a lot of changes
in the last year, and we have so much
more work to do, it feels as though
we’re just getting started. We have of-
ficially filled all six positions in the
joint Resident Volunteer program with
our sixth person moving up here from
San Jose, California! This program is
a massive undertaking and one that is
continuing to mold and change as the
program grows! We saw an instant in-
crease in daily staffing with the addi-
tion of our first two residents, and now
with our third member in Vernonia
starting in February we will be moving
our Resident Volunteers to a 24 hour
on, 48 hour off schedule giving us ad-
ditional staffing seven days a week!
Our long term goal is to be
able to utilize our in-district volun-
teers, our resident volunteers, and our
out-of-district volunteers, to get to the
The Christmas trees are
down, the stockings are put away,
and the season cheer has left us
once again. Which means that
Toy and Joy finished another
successful year. This year,
Vernonia Fire helped over 100
children get toys for Christmas.
While this is a low number from
seasons in the past, we were
happy to help each and every
one of them. We could not have
done it without the help from our
community. We picked up toys
three times from True Value, due
to the barrel overflowing and
received a wonderful donation
from the Free Wheelers. We want
to thank each of the business
locations that once again let
us put barrels up, and to every
point of having one engine staffed with
at least three people every weekend!
This doesn’t come without challenges,
one of the big ones being where do
we house these volunteers? These are
things we will be working on over the
next several months as our programs
continue to expand.
We pushed right up against 700
calls for 2020, continually increasing
the need to grow our volunteer ranks,
and ensure that we are getting enough
firefighters, and apparatus to every
emergency response. We also saw a
number of times throughout the year
where multiple emergency calls hap-
pened simultaneously, straining local
resources and spreading crews thin.
What does all of this mean? It means
we need more people to help, more
people that are willing to get up and
respond when the pagers go off, and
people that believe in our motto
“neighbors helping neighbors.”
Thank you from the bottom of
our hearts,
Your friends at the Vernonia Fire
Station
Calls responded to December 1-31
Winter Driving Safety Reminder
With Oregon winter weather
fully arrived and the possibility of
snow over the course of the nest cou-
ple of weeks, we need to remember
that time and patience are our friend
when driving. Highway 47 has pock-
ets of roadway that sees much more
shade than sunshine, where frost ap-
pears and disappears, creating slick
road surface conditions at different
times and in different places.
In addition, deer and elk sea-
son for our bow hunters has begun.
As the hunting season progresses,
and the eventual rut, our plentiful
wildlife will be on the move. Keep a
close eye out for deer and elk cross-
ing our roadways.
If you have a deer or an elk
run out in front of your vehicle, ap-
ply firm pressure on your brake pedal
and try to reduce your speed as much
as possible without locking up your
wheels. It’s never a good idea to
swerve in an attempt to miss the ani-
mal. Quite often drivers will attempt
to swerve around the animal and end
individual and family that donated
toys and money. We really
could not continue this program
without everyone’s help. Each
year, watching this community
give to help one another is a
heartwarming feeling and proves
the true meaning of Christmas.
While it seems that the season
is over, we are always thinking
about Christmas and how we can
improve on things for the next
year. Here is to a wonderful new
year, hopefully one better than the
last. We can’t wait to get things
going come November of 2021.
up losing control of their vehicle.
Hitting the animal will be
better for you than losing control and
possibly rolling your vehicle over
and off the roadway. No one wants to
injure an animal with our vehicle, but
it’s more important for you to take
action that will protect you and your
family from serious harm.
Please put together a survival
kit for your car and let people know
where you are headed. Leave a little
early if possible and be patient with
others. As always, if you see emer-
gency vehicles please slow and pull
to the side until we pass and if you
come across an emergency scene
please do not just drive through with-
out being directed. The VRFPD is
still limited in responders and may
not be able to secure the scene and
provide traffic control while tak-
ing care of the patient, and that is
when someone could easily be hurt
by another driver passing though the
scene.
Fire
Emergency Medical Service
Hazardous Condition
Service Call
Good Intent
False Alarm
Total
5
33
1
8
4
2
53
CAN YOU FILL
THESE BOOTS?
VOLUNTEERS
WANTED
Call Dean Smith
for more information
on free training
(503)429-8252