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Sunday October 16,2011 Cloverdale Fire District Fire Fighters Memorial
Law enforcement officials believe a small fire near Sisters on Friday was human-caused.
According to Deschutes County Sheriff's Office reports, at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday deputies responded to
the 69400 block of Hinkle Butte Drive regarding a brush fire. Upon arrival, deputies noted a fire approximately one acre in
size, burning slowly in an open field void of trees or structures. Sisters and Cloverdale firefighters were able to control
the fire quickly. No structures were immediately threatened.
(Click the picture above to read the full story
at Nuggetnews.com)
(Click the link to read the story & watch the video.)
Good Samaritans Step Up, Fight Cloverdale FireWind-Fanned Blaze Could Have
Spread Far, FastPOSTED: 10:19 pm PDT
July 6, 2011 / UPDATED: 11:34 pm PDT July 6, 2011
 3/15/2011 1:02:00 PM
Cloverdale firefighters take on test
| | | Cloverdale firefighters conducted testing that will determine insurance ratings for the rural district.
photo by Gary Miller
|  | | | Speedy deployment of water is a key element of tests the Cloverdale fire department faced last weekend.
photo by Gary Miller
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By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
For a rural fire district, one number looms large. That's
the ISO rating - the rating number by which the insurance industry measures fire risk. The amount the district's
resident pay for fire insurance depends on getting the best number possible.
Last weekend, the Cloverdale Rural
Fire Protection District faced a test that will determine whether they can hold onto their ISO 6 rating (ISO 1 being best;
ISO 10 being worst).
Maintaining a strong ISO rating is getting tougher and tougher out in the country, according
to Fire Chief Thad Olson. In recent years, wildfires in rural areas across the United States have brought structure loss
and changed the way the insurance industry calculates risk. That poses a big challenge for rural district's like Cloverdale,
where there are almost no fire hydrants and reserve equipment is not in the budget.
Actual performance of the
fire department is not the major part of a district's score. If it was, the Cloverdale district would be sitting pretty.
"In the past year and a half, we've had three house fires - and we've saved everything," Olson said.
Instead, the score is heavily based on infrastructure, equipment and staffing - water flows, hydrants, reserve equipment,
speed and efficiency of dispatch and proportion of at-station paid staff.
All of those considerations stack the
deck against the district, no matter how good its firefighters - mostly volunteers - are at fighting fire.
With
a tax rate of $1.09 per $1,000, the lowest for any district in the county, Cloverdale doesn't collect enough to fund
major equipment purchases, although the district did upgrade trucks through a loan.
And the district doesn't
have hydrants, which knocks about 40 percent off their score right off the top.
"We're doing the best
we can with the rules they've set against us," Olson said.
Rating methodology aside, Olson is very confident
in his department's capabilities.
"I guarantee you today we are better off and have more capabilities
than we did three years ago," he said.
The district firefighters did very well on last weekend's test,
which focused on how long it takes to get water to a fire, pumped into and out of vehicles and storage tanks, the deployment
of hoses the like.
"We've practiced this for the past seven months," Olson said. "Our times
were 15 percent better than they've been through our whole training. I couldn't be prouder of the people."
The outcome is uncertain. It'll take six months for the rating to come out and there is an appeal period following
that, if the district feels the need to challenge findings.
"How they rate is yet to be determined,"
Olson said. "I'm hopeful that we'll be able to maintain a 6. We'll stay a 6 for the time being, but the
deck is kind of stacked against us." |
NEW Water Tenders! We have replaced all three of our 1973 vintage water
tenders. The new Tenders carry 3,000 gallons of water each, on Kenworth heavy-duty chassis, with 750 gallon per minute pumps.
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