New Fire Station 6 Update

Hillsboro Fire and Rescue’s new fire station on Cherry Lane is on schedule and is expected to open in July. Contractors are finishing the roof on the 16,000 square foot station located at 21880 NW Cherry Lane, just west of Cornelius Pass Road. They are preparing to pour the concrete flooring for the three engine bays. Work should begin soon on the interior of the building.

The fire station will serve as the Fire Department’s new training center and will provide a base of operations for the Hillsboro Fire Department’s volunteers. It will also house a fire engine staffed 24/7 by career personnel.



City and Department staffs are making plans for a dedication event for late summer for which the public will be invited. Keep watch for announcements for the date and time. Funding for the $2.8-million comes from the general fund and the local option tax provides funding for the additional firefighters, apparatus and equipment.

Forcible Entry Drills

When firefighters respond to a reported fire, one of their first tasks upon arrival is to get into the building. During the day when the structure has been occupied, doors are usually unlocked. But at night or when the occupants are away, firefighters must forcibly enter the building. In some commercial buildings metal doors, heavy-duty locks and cross bars slow their entry to the fire. To ensure that firefighters have all the skills necessary to quickly make entry, they practice cutting open the metal doors, hinges and locks that can dramatically slow their fire attack.

This past week, Hillsboro Volunteer Firefighters drilled at Fire Station #3, located at 4455 NW 229th Avenue on these skills. The station has a number of training props located there. They include commercial steel man-doors that are designed to allow firefighters to practice their forcible entry techniques. The gas-powered circular rescue saw is among the most popular tools used to cut into steel doors, hinges and lock bolts. The saw can be fitted with the normal wood cutting blade, concrete cutting blades or a special blade that cuts hardened metal quickly. Firefighters recognize these doors are expensive and attempt to minimize damage to the doors and framework, but have to balance cost conservation with the need to access the building quickly to attack the fire.

The first step is to assess the type of door the firefighter faces, recognize the type of locking components, hinges and potential internal structure, and then begin to attack its most vulnerable points. Experienced firefighters can usually cut through these doors in a matter of minutes.

Mobile Water Supply

While spring is taking a break and winter is making its last gasp, Hillsboro Firefighters are preparing for summer. Brush and wild land fires are more common during the warm weather and to fight those fires, firefighters need a mobile water supply when they are operating in areas not served by a municipal water supply. Handling a Tender filled with up to 3,000 gallons of water can be a chore. Besides being heavy, water sloshes from side to side and dramatically affects the center of gravity of the vehicle.



Nearly 150 firefighters died while driving water tenders in the United States during the period 1998-2007. The National Fire Protection Association says four out of five of the fatalities occurred while responding to or returning from a fire emergency. Most were single vehicle accidents. That’s why our Firefighters are practicing driving Tender 104 in tight spaces and around obstacles at the Washington County Fairgrounds this week. We want them to be able to respond to your fire quickly and safely.

Celebrate Red Cross Month by Giving

From Red Cross Month

Governor Ted Kulongoski has issued a proclamation that March is Red Cross Month in Oregon. Hillsboro Fire and Rescue joins in celebrating this month and acknowledges the valuable support the Oregon Trail Chapter of the Red Cross continues to provide to our citizens. The Red Cross is the agency we call to provide immediate help and housing to residents whose apartment or home has been damaged or destroyed by fire and have no other means, such as insurance, on which to fall back.

The Red Cross provides volunteer Disaster Assistance Teams whenever we call them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These self-less citizens come to the aid of others who have just experienced one of the worst days of their lives. They work hand-in-hand with our Chaplains to provide food, shelter, health and mental health services.

They tirelessly have promoted and taught basic swimming skills and provided classes in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). In addition, the Red Cross joins Hillsboro's Emergency Managers in promoting emergency preparedness so that citizens will have the means and skills to survive in the event that Oregonians are faced with an earthquake of the magnitude that has occurred recently in Haiti and Chile. For more information on this non-profit organization and to make a donation that supports local disaster victims or those of international disasters, visit:
www.oregonredcross.org.

Airway Control

When a patient falls unconscious, there is a real danger that the tongue will slip to the back of the throat and block the airway or nasopharynx. When this happens medical personnel must quickly provide an advanced airway to keep the patient alive. They can assist the patient in breathing by forcing air into the lungs with a manually operated bag valve.

This week, Hillsboro Fire and Rescue firefighter/medics have been training on the use of the King Airway device. It’s a specially-designed tube with inflatable collars that medics can insert into the patient’s throat to provide a means to force air into their lungs. The device also contains a tube that provides a vent for gastric pressure and stomach decompression. It also channels any vomit outside the body rather than allowing it to be aspirated into the patient’s lungs.
Our Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediates have been using this device for some time now. EMT-Basics received their training and skill assessment on the use of this device this week. The device, which can be inserted even while medics are performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is just another tool in the tool box of firefighters working to save lives.

All firefighters at Hillsboro Fire & Rescue are trained Emergency Medical Technicians. There are three levels of training, EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate and EMT-Paramedic. An engine, truck or rescue company is dispatched on every call for an ambulance because they can often reach the patient first and begin life-saving treatment. Once the ambulance arrives, firefighter/medics hand off the patient to ambulance medics for transportation to the nearest hospital. If the patient is condition is critical, one or more firefighters will accompany the patient to the hospital to supplement ambulance medics. This provides the highest level of service to our citizens.

Rapid Intervention Team Drill

At any working fire, you may see a number of firefighters doing multiple tasks. The typical scene to the untrained eye looks rather chaotic. However, each team of firefighters has been assigned tasks to perform. One such team is the Rapid Intervention Team or RIT. A RIT team is tasked with being ready with the necessary equipment to rescue a firefighter should he or she become disabled or trapped inside a burning building. They may be assigned duties to provide a second means of egress for the crews operating inside and to walk around the structure to familiarize themselves with other potential escape routes. But, other than that, RIT team members are to stand by ready for deployment if one of their colleagues needs them.

This past week, Hillsboro Fire and Rescue conducted RIT drills in a modular building donated to us by a local business. The structure provided a series of rooms in which trainers constructed a simulated building collapse that required the RIT team students to crawl through, under, over obstacles to locate the simulated firefighter needing rescue. They have to perform these drills with Press –n-Seal coating their face masks to simulate smoky conditions. Successfully performing these drills give firefighters an idea of what it may be like to be looking for one of their own should the unexpected happen.

Burn to Learn

Hillsboro Fire and Rescue conducted a training burn at 1255 SE Walnut on Saturday (Feb 13) to teach new firefighters and volunteers needing additional experience about fire behavior and suppression methods. The burn was conducted at a locally owned home that is being demolished to make way for Habitat for Humanity to build several new homes on the property for low income residents.

The burn began at 8:30 am with a safety briefing. Experienced firefighters served as team leaders to guide the new recruits and volunteers through the paces. Safety officers were prepositioned within the structure and a fire was set in a pile of hay and pallet wood. A team was sent in to watch the fire’s growth and to knock down the flames to keep heat levels under control. The teams rotate personnel on the end of the hose line and attacked the flames again. As the fuels were depleted in one room, another room was prepared and set ablaze and the process began again. At the conclusion of the drills, all personnel withdrew from the building and the home was allowed to burn to the ground.

These burns are a win-win for the property owner and Hillsboro Fire Department. The property owner has less debris to haul away from the property and place in a landfill and the fire department gets a structure in which it can train new firefighters under controlled circumstances to provide the safest experience possible. More than 100 people from the neighborhood turned out at the height of the training.