Bay doors opened for the public, community members meet staff, tour facility and connect with local resources

By Cameron Aalto, Ashland.News

The public toured facilities, examined emergency vehicles, chatted with professionals and connected with local volunteering and learning opportunities during an open house hosted Friday afternoon by Ashland Fire & Rescue at Station No. 1, where Siskiyou Boulevard, Lithia Way and East Main Street meet.

Fire Chief Ralph Sartain says that the open house was important because “this is (the public’s) fire department. They need to know what we do and how we take care of them and what their tax money is paying for.” Sartain says that there are “so many ways” for community members to be more involved with the fire department, “anything they want to do to better the community and learn more (and) be prepared for the fire season coming up.” 

Community members were able to engage with firefighters and community resources to learn more about how to keep themselves safe for the upcoming fire season, which officially launched the following day, Saturday, June 1. Sartain said that the event could help families “learn about their evacuation routes, just anything — they can clean up around their properties, get rid of the weeds and any lighter fuels to protect their homes, clean their gutters, everything we teach them to do.”

Residents aren’t the only ones preparing for the upcoming fire season. Sartain describes that the department is preparing as well: “all our guys are going through recertifications, we applied for a staffing grant and received that from the State of Oregon, (and on) our red flag days–our PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situations)–we will staff accordingly for any type of those weather events.”

The firehouse catered to children, sharing miniature versions of firefighting uniforms that children could wear, posing in front of and inside the fire truck for photo opportunities. Additionally, the department gave out plastic junior firefighter leatherheads and stickers. 

One of the young visitors was Dominique Parker, who said her favorite part of the event was the firetruck: “it had like cool stuff in it and it was really high.” She also enjoyed speaking with firefighters, and says that they taught her that the fire truck is used “to help somebody when they’re hurt or something.”

Firefighter Ty Haggard says the open house brought the public in “to see what we do … we like to have the community support and part of that is explaining and sharing with them what we do and what we have and what all the things are, and more importantly making the connections with the community.” 

Haggard said he met a child at the event who he had previously helped with a medical incident and was able to see that child now healthy. He describes that the open house was an opportunity to see the public, “at an event that is designed for fun and not the worst day of somebody’s life (which) is awesome.” 

He went on to say that the open house allowed public to meet their first responders and build rapport with them, “if somebody does have an emergency, maybe we recognize them, maybe we’ve met them before, maybe we’re a familiar face for them and it’s even more comforting when we show up when they’re having some sort of emergency than if we just showed up normally.”

Because Ashland Fire & Rescue receives revenue from taxpayer dollars, Haggard says, “this belongs to the public. Everything here belongs to the public, so it’s important that we get them in to the station to see what we do, how we operate, the things that we have, and explain it to them and make connections.”

Ashland.news intern Cameron Aalto is a senior at Southern Oregon University. Email him at aaltoc@sou.edu.