The U.S. state of Oregon has an extensive history of firefighting. [1] [2]
The U.S. state of Oregon has an extensive history of firefighting. [1] [2]
Fire departments include Forest Grove Fire and Rescue, Hillsboro Fire Department, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue, Portland Fire & Rescue, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, and Washington County Fire District 2.
Notable stations include the Grants Pass City Hall and Fire Station, Portland Fire Station No. 7, and Portland Fire Station No. 17. Defunct stations include Astoria Fire House No. 2, the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, Portland Fire Station No. 23, and the Woodstock Community Center.
Notable fireboats include the David Campbell (1912), the David Campbell (1927), the Eldon Trinity , and the Karl Prehn .
Notable lookout towers include the Waldo Mountain Fire Lookout and the Watchman Lookout Station.
The public artwork Ascension and the David Campbell Memorial are installed in Portland.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) provides firefighting and emergency medical services for the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, California, as well as 59 cities through contracting, including the city of La Habra, which is located in Orange County and is the first city outside of Los Angeles County to contract with LACoFD.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue (PBCFR) is one of the largest fire departments in the state of Florida. With 52 stations, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue provides fire protection, Advanced Life Support, emergency medical services, technical rescue, hazardous materials' mitigation, aircraft rescue/firefighting, fire investigation, and 911 dispatching for unincorporated parts of Palm Beach County, Florida as well as 19 cities under contract.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to firefighting:
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing destructive fires. A firefighter fights these fires with the intent to prevent destruction of life, property and the environment. Firefighting is a highly technical profession, which requires years of training and education in order to become proficient. A fire can rapidly spread and endanger many lives; however, with modern firefighting techniques, catastrophe can usually be avoided. To help prevent fires from starting, a firefighter's duties include public education and conducting fire inspections. Because firefighters are often the first responders to victims in critical conditions, firefighters often also provide basic life support as emergency medical technicians or advanced life support as licensed paramedics. Firefighters make up one of the major emergency services, along with the emergency medical service, the police, and many others.
The Watchman Lookout Station No. 168 is one of two fire lookout towers in Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. For many years, National Park Service personnel used the lookout to watch for wildfires during the summer months. It is also a common hiking destination because of its views of Crater Lake and the surrounding area. The building is unusual because it serves the dual purpose of fire lookout and museum. The Watchman Lookout Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Fire museums, also known as firefighting museums are prevalent throughout the world.
Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue is the fire protection, emergency medical services, hazmat, search and rescue, and extrication provider for The Dalles and northern Wasco County in the state of Oregon. The department is made up of both paid staff and volunteers. They protect about 16,000 people that cover an area of about 120 sq mi (310.8 km2). Formed in 1995, the department has two fire stations and serve a primarily residential area. They have an ISO rating of 4–8.
The David Campbell Memorial is located in southwest Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, immediately south of West Burnside Street, which is the dividing line of the north and south sections of the city. The memorial is located on a triangular traffic island bordered by Alder Street. Southwest 19*^ Avenue on the west side, and a strip of landscaped park along Southwest I8”’ Avenue on the east. Although the strip of park is located within the triangular traffic island, it is considered a non-contributing resource because it was constructed after the period of significance.
Portland Fire Station No. 7, located in southeast Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon, is a two-story structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1927, it was added to the register in 1989. It was the last of numerous Portland firehouses to be designed by fire chief and architect Lee Gray Holden, who died of a stroke while visiting the No. 7 firehouse in 1943. The building continued to be used by the city's Fire Department until the 1980s, when it was sold off and used as an automobile garage. It was acquired by a local developer in 2009, and was restored and remodeled for office and retail use.
Hillsboro Fire & Rescue is the municipal fire department for the city of Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1880, the department operates five stations with six companies. The department has 123 members and is led by Chief David Downey.
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue (TVF&R) is a special-purpose government fire fighting and emergency services district in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon. Established in 1989 with a merger between Washington County Fire District 1 and the Tualatin Rural Fire Protection District, it primarily provides fire and emergency medical services in eastern Washington County, but also provides services in neighboring Multnomah, Clackamas, and Yamhill counties. It serves unincorporated areas along with the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, West Linn, Wilsonville, and Sherwood, among others. With over 450 firefighters and 28 fire stations, the district is the second largest fire department in the state and has an annual budget of $197 million.
Forest Grove Fire and Rescue is the municipal fire department for the city of Forest Grove, Oregon. Started in 1894, the department has two stations used to provide fire fighting and emergency medical services to both the city and the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District. The department also provides administrative support to the neighboring Cornelius Fire Department.
Hager Mountain is a volcanic peak in Oregon in the northwest corner of the Basin and Range Province in the United States. The mountain is located south of the small unincorporated community of Silver Lake in south-central Oregon, and it is in the Fremont–Winema National Forest. On the summit, there is a fire lookout operated during the summer and fall by the United States Forest Service. There are several hiking trails that lead to the lookout station.
The Barry Point Fire was a wildfire that burned over 92,977 acres (376.26 km2) of Oregon and California forest land during the summer of 2012. The fire began on 5 August 2012, the result of a lightning strike. The fire consumed public forest and rangeland as well as private forest and grazing land located in Lake County, Oregon and Modoc County, California. The public lands affected by the fire are administered by the United States Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Forestry. The largest part of the private land was owned by the Collins Timber Company. At the peak of the firefighting effort, there were 1,423 personnel working on the fire. It took 22 days to fully contain the fire and then an additional three weeks to mop it up.
Portland Fire and Rescue, also known as the Portland Fire Bureau, and sometimes unofficially as the Portland Fire Department, is the principle fire suppression, prevention, and rescue agency of the City of Portland, Oregon, United States. The department is the largest fire protection and emergency medical services provider in the state of Oregon, responsible for an area of 151 square miles (390 km2), serving a population of over 635,000. Oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City Commissioners. As of 2023, Mayor Ted Wheeler has assigned the Fire Bureau to Commissioner Rene Gonzalez. The current fire chief is Ryan Gillespie, who replaced former chief Sara Boone after she retired in 2023.
The David Campbell was a fireboat built in 1912 for Oregon's Portland Fire and Rescue. She was a steam-powered vessel, built in a Michigan shipyard, disassembled, shipped in pieces, and reassembled in Portland. Her engines could develop 1,200 shaft horsepower (890 kW).
The Eldon Trinity is a fireboat operated in Portland, Oregon, United States, by the Portland Fire Bureau. She was launched in 2010. She is named after two children, Eldon and Trinity Smith, whose mother threw them off a bridge into Portland's Willamette River. Authorities recognized that the attempts to rescue the children exposed weaknesses in the city's rescue infrastructure. Eldon died, while his older sister Trinity survived.
The Portland Fire Bureau of the city of Portland, Oregon owns and operates Fireboats in Portland, Oregon.
The David Campbell was a long-serving fireboat built in 1928 for Oregon's Portland Fire & Rescue. She underwent an extensive rebuild, in 1976. In 2010 Portland acquired a new smaller, faster fireboat, the Eldon Trinity, named after the two children who were thrown off the Sellwood Bridge in 2009, when it took the David Campbell 44 minutes to get to scene to provide medical care.
Harrisburg Bureau of Fire (HBF) is a firefighting agency that is located in and serves Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is a career firefighting agency with at least 15 firefighters and fire officers on duty at any given time, supplemented with volunteer staffing as well. Everyday duties for the Bureau include fire suppression, emergency medical services, tactical rescue, urban search and rescue, water rescue, hazardous materials response, fire prevention, fire codes enforcement, and public safety educations.
