Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire Protection District and Fishhawk Lake Recreation Community

Past and Present

Interview with the Chief and Assistant Chief

By: Diana Mahar and Gayle Rich-Boxman

Annexation: A brief history

Back in the early 1980’s, the area that Fishhawk Lake is located in was not within boundaries of any rural fire district and was therefore considered to be unprotected. A concerned group of residents at Fishhawk Lake Recreation Community (FLRC) approached the Mist-Birkenfeld Fire District and asked to be included and in essence, protected. A committee “answered the call,” according to Chief David Crawford and they said yes, they would take us in, giving us a fire engine, equipment and training if we would provide volunteers and a place to house the apparatus. FLRC had to provide enough people to man the engine with a 3-1 ratio (one paid person to every three volunteers) to meet insurance industry standards. It all came together with a total of 6 FLRC volunteers being the first crew in 1982.

Some money was donated for the building of the Fishhawk Substation and we became the proud owners of a 1957 American LaFrance fire engine! Some of those first six are still around and some have moved on.

Present:

Now to fast forward, we have a grand total of 10 volunteers who do continuous training, often on weekends, which shortens the downtime of some of those who are weekend residents. Actually, it wasn’t too long ago that we had less than six total. Then the word got out. Fire Chief, David Crawford described how they attended one of our annual meetings and discussed the wildland fire danger, which included a film of the Aubrey Hill fire. Diana Mahar remembers that this is what made her sign up. “It was pretty graphic,” the Chief said and he also recalls, when folks were viewing the film; “I saw eyes open and…sparks start flying.” (No pun intended there, right, Chief?) Also during this time, there had been many horrific pictures of other wildland fires in the news. This certainly spurned others on to take up the challenge to volunteer. What kind of training do our volunteers receive? The answer to that is rather complex and we would like to address that in particular in a future newsletter, but it has been advantageous not only here at Fishhawk Lake for our local residents, but reaches much further than that, as Asst. Chief Mary Lou Busch describes: “An example of the benefits of training and experience is recently when Arlene Stauning saved someone’s life who was having cardiac arrest at an event she was attending. She just received a Life Saving Award.”

Another training exercise was held on 6/14/06. As the Asst. Chief said, “[It was] a great exercise of working together.” This was called a Tip-off Drill and was a Homeland Security exercise. If someone were to come and contaminate our water, for example the volunteers were given ideas and training on improvements and how to contain the contamination. Other training sessions have included: weapons of mass destruction, RIT Aware (Rapid Intervention Team) and HAZMAT training.

A wildland interface drill was held on the 2^nd of August at Fishhawk Lake Substation with our crews as well as crews from other fire departments from the county. They did surveys on homes to advise homeowners on things they could do to minimize the risk should a wild fire approach their property. They spoke with some of the residents who live on Northshore Drive, whose properties butt up against forestland and gave us advice on low-hanging branches that could carry fire to our roofs, as a potential hazard, as just one example of helpful information dispensed.

Not only do the volunteers learn how to safely enter a burning home, but they get basic medical training and are often first responders to motor vehicle accidents and other crises that occur because of weather, for example.

We asked both the Chief and Assistant Chief to walk us through the process of what happens when someone calls 911.

Chief Dave: Columbia 911 answers the call and after determining the nature of the emergency, they send out dispatches to the appropriate responders.

Asst. Chief Mary Lou: The volunteers all carry pagers and have two-way radios.

We then talked about an example of just how both teams work as one. On 12/7/05 at 9:58am a call came in about a cement truck rollover on Fishhawk Rd. At 10:09am, Mary Lou arrived with the engine. By 10:50am, the patient had been extricated and transported to Astoria with serious injuries, but not life threatening. Arlene Stauning was one of our FLRC responders who helped on scene with the patient, along with Bob Yoder and Jose Borquez ; a total of seven crew, who all assisted in stabilizing the truck. As most of us know, many of our responders and other helpful FLRC residents spent hours and hours afterwards with traffic control, communication to residents as to what had occurred and carpooling to help get people home who were stuck there far into the night.

And as Asst. Chief Mary Lou put it, “Responses always occur with downed powerlines and fallen trees.” We all work as one unit, and both Chiefs look at the volunteers and paid employees as one team.

A prime example of a yearly event that the Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire Protection District paid employees and volunteers are heavily depended upon for help is the Hood to Coast run/walk that has approximately 12,000 total participants many of which will go along Hwy 202, for example. Our coverage area is a range of 15 miles and had 3 First Aid stations. This year, alone there were 433 “contacts”, i.e., hands-on treated people. There were sprains, cuts, abrasions as well as lots of blisters, but as the Chief said, there were a “surprising number of GI (gastro intestinal) issues. We transported one patient because of cardiac problems. There were 11 other possible transports that were able to be stabilized and released in district because of our First Aid Stations.” Recognize that this all takes place in a 24-hour period on a weekend in August.

There are several other programs either up and running or in the works, as the Chief is a big one for getting grants for our community to financially support programs and even new “turnouts” (uniforms) for our volunteers. We have the Community Wildlife Protection Program, for example, which involves FLRC being a target area for improving the survivability of wildlife in case of a wildland fire.

Another positive to add to our credit is the Campfire Program. The Lake Manager, Tim Couch, FLRC’s board, The Fire Chief and the Forestry Department all agreed on a fire safety program that is the only one in the state and one of the few in the nation, which meets the same fire safety standards as those used by the state parks.

There is so much happening with this “team” that follow-up articles will be written detailing some of the specific programs and training that have been mentioned above. If you would like to volunteer, please call Mary Lou Busch at: (503) 755-2710. If you are a Fishhawk resident and would like to speak with one of our current volunteers, Bob Yoder, who is a Lieutenant, has agreed to share his number to be a contact: (503) 755-9311. Check out the website at: www.mbrfpd.xyz.com.