Aurora Rural Fire Protection District

District Description The Aurora Rural Fire Protection District #63 is a full-service fire and rescue agency with a force of eight career employees, 20 volunteer firefighters and six resident student firefighters who serve the District's 6,000 residents from two fire stations. The District organized on May 4, 1948, with 26 volunteer firefighters. It is a special service district that serves an area of 64 square miles in both Marion County and Clackamas County and is governed by a board of five publicly elected officials. For information on the service area within Marion County, see the Marion County CWPP.

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) The Aurora Fire District has areas that are excellent examples of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). These areas are characterized by residential homes surrounded by heavy fuels and steep slopes. In addition, many of the neighborhoods have only one way in and one way out with narrow, steep driveways and poor address signage. Heavy and continuous fuels dominate these areas, so fires that begin on public land or on smaller private residential lots can quickly threaten the communities and natural resources that thrive in the Aurora Fire District.

Structural Ignitability Aurora Fire promotes the creation of defensible space, use of fire-resistant roofing and building materials, and community preparedness in the WUI. However, the District is not always given the opportunity to provide input to cities, the county, and the state regarding access and water supply for new development. Using the State Fire Code as a regulatory tool in establishing adequate access and water supply is critical to reducing structural ignitability. The need for the District to increase capacity for participating in land use reviews regarding new development is identified as an action item in the Aurora Fire Action Plan.

Emergency Response A major wildland urban interface fire in Aurora would quickly exceed the resources and capabilities of the District. For this reason, Aurora Fire has Mutual Aid agreements in place that allow for the sharing of resources across the county in the event of a large-scale disaster such as a wildfire. Aurora Fire employees and volunteers receive somewhat regular wildfire training. The District would like to work with ODF to support regular S-130 and S-190 training.

In the event of a large wildland fire, evacuations may be necessary. Evacuating this rural area safely presents some access and safety challenges due to the large number of one way in and one way out roads and bridges.

Burning of agricultural waste and yard debris is a very common occurrence in this area that is dominated by agriculture. District residents would benefit from periodic reminders of safe burning practices and techniques to ensure that debris burns do not escape to cause wildfires. This is identified as an action item in the Aurora Fire Local Communities at Risk Action Plan.

Community Outreach & Education Aurora Fire is dedicated to fire prevention and uses a variety of forums to promote residential fire safety, defensible space, and safe burning practices. The community is very supportive of the Fire District and participates in activities throughout the year, some of which include smoke detector, fire prevention, and other programs.

Aurora Fire recognizes that there are smaller-scale Communities at Risk that have unique wildfire hazards to be addressed at the more local level. Communities that have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to wildfires are listed in Table 9-1.

Aurora Fire professionals considered the following factors to determine the local CARs:

  • Need for defensible space.

  • Access limitations (narrow driveways, lack of address signage, one way in/one way out).

  • Steep slopes that can hinder access and accelerate the spread of wildfire.

  • Lack of water available for wildland fire fighting.

  • Heavy fuels on adjacent public lands.

  • Potential ignition sources from recreationists and transients.

  • Agricultural and backyard burning.

  • Lack of community outreach programs to promote wildfire awareness.

  • Communications difficulties.

Fuels Reduction Effective fuels reduction projects include the creation of defensible space around homes as well as vegetation treatments (shaded fuels breaks, thinning, liming) onto adjacent forested land and natural areas. To ensure that landscape-level treatments are paired with projects to create defensible space around vulnerable communities, priority fuels reduction projects have been overlaid with the Communities at Risk (CARs) identified by Aurora Fire.

Fuels Reduction Priorities

  • Champoeg State Park Campground Area

  • Eilers Road Area

  • Cedarbrook Lane

  • Whiskey Hill

  • Butteville Road

Aurora Fire District Action Plan Aurora Fire has developed a list of actions to build capacity at the Department scale and has identified actions that can help to make the local CARS more resilient to potential wildfires. The action plan for Aurora Fire and the Local CARs therein is provided in Table 9-2.

Progress since 2018 The District has made significant strides on WUI training and preparedness, with all firefighters trained to at least be a wildland firefighter type 2, with several at the a type 1 level. The District has also purchased proper wildland firefighter PPE and two new type 6 engines. As a result of this increased experience and improved equipment, the District has been able to participate in fighting more state conflagrations and with intercounty mutual aid since 2018.

Additionally, the District recently received a grant from the OSFM to purchase a woodchipper and start a sustainable chipper program to process vegetation and debris collected during fuels reduction projects. This grant is also funding improved home addressing in rural areas and within the WUI.

The District has completed the following action items from the 2018 CWPP:

  • 2018 Action Item: Increase capacity for communicating with other fire agencies by obtaining 3-4 portable 800 MHz radios.

  • 2018 Action Item: Work with Marion County to update map numbers.

  • 2018 Action Item: Conduct Community Meetings to educate the community and solicit feedback

    on wildfire prevention projects that the community would support.