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DAYS CREEK RURAL VOL FIRE DEPT, DAYS CREEK OREGON
Great to meet you all. I was asked by FireBoy to join this group and share a bit about our little department here in Douglas County.
We have been an "official" fire district since the late 60's. Our service area includes approx 400 residences, a high school, a post office, a small store and at least 2 churches.
Our membership is very small - less than 10 regular volunteers. Although at times of large wildland fires...several past members can be counted on to show up and help in anyway they can.
My husband and I moved here in 2003. He joined the dept in the spring of 2004 as an Engineer/pump man. After the Bland Mtn Fire in Aug of 2004, (over 4000 acres of timberland lost) I joined as a secretary and was later roped into trying on some turn outs, next thing I know I am sitting through First Responder training. LOL
After a year though - personal commitments made it far too difficult to keep up with all the misc medical calls. This community is 35 miles from the nearest hospital and folks around here know you get faster service in the ER if you show up in an ambulance so they call 911 for the littlest thing.
However I didnt want to just quit so when my First Responder expired I was put on inactive and then joined the Board of Directors.
We have very old but decent rigs - a 2800 gallon Freightliner Tender/Ground Tanker that looks like a big red Semi with a tank. Very old, very rough to drive, my husband is one of only 2 qualified to drive the thing.
1958 Western Star - A 1000 gallon Pumper with a 5 speed tranny, split rear end. A bit of a dog in the low gears.
1960's International 6 wd automatic 1000 gallon pumper with air brakes that we got from the Forest Service. This rig currently in the shop as someone burned up our pump. WE have another rig on loan but I dont have the specs. I like this rig as it will drive up the side of a tree if necessary and we have some steep gravely driveways around here.
1987 Ford 1 Ton Brush Rig with 250 gallon pump on the back. This is also our medical rig.
We are not insured for ambulance service.
95% of our calls are medical related. We probably get 5-10 calls a month on average. The fires tend to be either Flue or Wildland. The last structure fire we had was a planned burn of a condemned house behind the post office.
And we get a few MVA's also.
We have standing Mutual Aide agreements with our neighboring departments. To the West is Canyonville - they have about 40 Vol members and a brand new million dollar facility thanks to a casino that was required to upgrade the local fire dept (vol) to be able to handle the situation should the casino need it. Those boys get paid by the call I believe, but are still volunteers. To the South we have Milo (Vol) which gets their funding from the 7th Day Adventist Academy across the street. And south of them is Tiller (Vol) another small dept similar to ours.
Wildland fires are an automatic dispatch for the Forest Service. Our responsibility lies in protecting homes and people. But we will fight any wildland fire, if possible, until they arrive.
That is about it. We are not very busy - although some times all the calls come in at once. And with all our volunteers having day jobs - often only one or two are even available during the day - so it is good we have the other departments as back up.
Trish
We have been an "official" fire district since the late 60's. Our service area includes approx 400 residences, a high school, a post office, a small store and at least 2 churches.
Our membership is very small - less than 10 regular volunteers. Although at times of large wildland fires...several past members can be counted on to show up and help in anyway they can.
My husband and I moved here in 2003. He joined the dept in the spring of 2004 as an Engineer/pump man. After the Bland Mtn Fire in Aug of 2004, (over 4000 acres of timberland lost) I joined as a secretary and was later roped into trying on some turn outs, next thing I know I am sitting through First Responder training. LOL
After a year though - personal commitments made it far too difficult to keep up with all the misc medical calls. This community is 35 miles from the nearest hospital and folks around here know you get faster service in the ER if you show up in an ambulance so they call 911 for the littlest thing.
However I didnt want to just quit so when my First Responder expired I was put on inactive and then joined the Board of Directors.
We have very old but decent rigs - a 2800 gallon Freightliner Tender/Ground Tanker that looks like a big red Semi with a tank. Very old, very rough to drive, my husband is one of only 2 qualified to drive the thing.
1958 Western Star - A 1000 gallon Pumper with a 5 speed tranny, split rear end. A bit of a dog in the low gears.
1960's International 6 wd automatic 1000 gallon pumper with air brakes that we got from the Forest Service. This rig currently in the shop as someone burned up our pump. WE have another rig on loan but I dont have the specs. I like this rig as it will drive up the side of a tree if necessary and we have some steep gravely driveways around here.
1987 Ford 1 Ton Brush Rig with 250 gallon pump on the back. This is also our medical rig.
We are not insured for ambulance service.
95% of our calls are medical related. We probably get 5-10 calls a month on average. The fires tend to be either Flue or Wildland. The last structure fire we had was a planned burn of a condemned house behind the post office.
And we get a few MVA's also.
We have standing Mutual Aide agreements with our neighboring departments. To the West is Canyonville - they have about 40 Vol members and a brand new million dollar facility thanks to a casino that was required to upgrade the local fire dept (vol) to be able to handle the situation should the casino need it. Those boys get paid by the call I believe, but are still volunteers. To the South we have Milo (Vol) which gets their funding from the 7th Day Adventist Academy across the street. And south of them is Tiller (Vol) another small dept similar to ours.
Wildland fires are an automatic dispatch for the Forest Service. Our responsibility lies in protecting homes and people. But we will fight any wildland fire, if possible, until they arrive.
That is about it. We are not very busy - although some times all the calls come in at once. And with all our volunteers having day jobs - often only one or two are even available during the day - so it is good we have the other departments as back up.
Trish
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