City resource preparation, other agency cooperation, watershed risk reduction, evacuation preparation, joint operations center, public communication all underway or planned

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news

Good news: A late fire season is predicted this year and Ashland’s fire staff have prepared a multi-faceted approach. That’s what Ashland Fire & Rescue Chief Ralph Sartain, along with the city’s emergency manager and fire marshal, told the Ashland City Council at the beginning of a joint presentation at its study session Monday.

Fire season will still technically begin June 1, but fire danger should start later this year, thanks to a wet winter, Sartain said.

Two new brush rigs are coming to AF&R: one type-6 brush rig and type-3 heavy brush engine. An ambulance previously damaged in an accident will also return to the department next month, bringing the fleet back to full strength, he said. 

The department will also have two ways to increase its adaptability and responsiveness. It has received a $35,000 upstaffing grant from the Oregon State Fire Marshal, supporting additional overtime to keep a minimum of nine firefighters on staff with two additional brush rigs on red flag or high wind days. New single-role EMS staff will also begin work and keep firefighters from becoming bogged down responding to medical calls, Sartain said. 

Other agencies with resources available for the region include the U.S Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM is conducting controlled burns on its lands. The ODF has numerous cameras to detect wildfires while various resources including aircraft including helicopters and small engine aircraft will be regionally available from the ODF and the Forest Service, he said. 

“I’m hopefully optimistic for a good fire season this year,” Sartain said. 

Ahead of fire season, Emergency Management Coordinator Kelly Burns said he has installed an additional 50 signs throughout Ashland to keep residents oriented to which evacuation zone they are in. He hopes to install 100 more through next year.

The city’s evacuation zone map is also being updated and further refined. While the city’s evacuation study identified arteries and main roads for possible escape, individual residents could and should do more to prepare, Burns said. 

“If you haven’t gone out and driven our streets and found side streets, it’s everybody’s responsibility to do that,” he said. 

Evacuation planning is particularly important for those with access challenges such as not owning a car or limited mobility. Burns said he has devised three levels of drills for residents to practice. First he encourages residents to gather everything they would want to take in an evacuation — medications, pets or other valuables — and time how long it takes to get in the car ready to evacuate. Residents can then time themselves using various routes to leave Ashland. 

Some city staff will receive additional training on Everbridge — or Nixle — messaging to be used during an emergency, he said. Interim City Manager Sabrina Cotta said Ashhland has also learned from the Almeda Fire that “radio silence” can be not only disorienting but dangerous. The city intends to keep messaging frequent and consistent even if it is only to report that there is no new information. 

Thanks to an intergovernmental agreement signed last year between the city of Ashland, the Ashland School District and Southern Oregon University, there is also a joint operations center at SOU to provide a centralized location to coordinate a disaster. The center has already been put to use to manage large events such as the Fourth of July and SOU commencement, he said. 

The city of Ashland’s helicopter logging project to reduce the number of dead and dying trees and related fire danger in the watershed is ongoing and on budget, said Fire Marshal Mark Shay. The project is expected to move into the “critical areas” near the city’s borders and around the water treatment plant at the end of this week and is scheduled to be completed — and nearby trails reopened — before the Memorial Day holiday, Shay said. 

Unavoidable delays to the project coming from the contractor’s need to certify the helicopter with the FAA for fire season have caused some delay. But the late start to fire season should allow work to continue without being interrupted by fire season limitations on tools such as chainsaws, Sartain said. 

Weed abatement in Ashland will also be more coordinated this year as AF&R employees work more closely with the city’s Community Development code enforcement staff to stay on top of notices to properties with weeds representing a fire risk, Shay said. 

The city’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has more volunteers trained to operate an ambulance and CERT will also hold its annual evacuation training in June in collaboration with the city’s emergency management and police, he said. The city’s WRAP (Wildfire Risk Assessment Program) has also been merged with CERT and has 18 volunteers trained to provide free assessments of wildfire risk for Ashland residents. 

Community education for wildfire is robust this year with one exercise for Ashland businesses completed last week and two workshops available for the public in May while a family oriented event at ScienceWorks will be held May 18. AF&R will also hold an open house at the end of the month at Fire Station No. 1 (455 Siskiyou Blvd.), Shay said. 

In other council business Monday, Public Works Director Scott Fleury presented an update on the proposed new water treatment plant. 

While he advocated for the necessity of the plant to mitigate the risks of flood, fire, toxic algal blooms and seismic events that threaten the current plant, Fleury stated the project remains something for the future. 

Due to a citizen’s referendum to put the project on the ballot for the November election, Ashland Public Works has not taken steps to finalize a proposed bond — or federal loan — through the Environmental Protection Agency. In the event the project is finalized, he said he did not expect construction to begin prior to spring of 2025. A discussion on scheduled water rates and cost of service should be anticipated this summer, he said.

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.