Canby Rural Fire Protection District
District Description The Canby Fire District is a special service district that provides fire, rescue, and prevention services to the Cities of Canby and Barlow as well as the rural areas around those cities. Canby Fire is also the ambulance service provider for the service area, providing emergency advanced life support transport to its residents. Over 30,000 people live within the 54 square miles that the District serves. Currently the Fire District has 50 members who consist of 24 career, 20 volunteer, and two administrative personnel. The District passed a new levy in 2023 that funded the addition of new staff, increasing administrative capacity and improving the District’s ability to respond to emergencies.
Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Some areas in the Canby Fire District 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. Canby has a heavy agricultural influence, so there is a great deal of controlled field burning, but there is not a significant history of large wildfires.
Structural Ignitability Canby Fire promotes adequate access and water supply, the creation of defensible space, use of fire- resistant roofing and building materials, and community preparedness in the WUI. Although the City of Canby has a Planning Department, it now contracts with Clackamas County for land use planning and building permit services. Canby Fire has an excellent working relationship with Clackamas County and integrates fire-safety concepts at the regulatory level by participating in land use reviews for new developments to provide input on access and water supply.
Emergency Response A major wildland urban interface fire in Canby would quickly exceed the resources and capabilities of the District, as the District’s priority for service is in transport (i.e., ambulances and other similar response) and not large-scale firefighting. For this reason, Canby Fire has mutual aid agreements in place that allow for the sharing of resources across the county during a large-scale disaster such as a wildfire.
Burning of yard waste and debris is challenging in the Canby Fire District, as most wildfire ignitions are the result of escaped debris burns from agricultural lands. Agricultural burning is regulated by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and fire districts may only ban burning if certain humidity, temperature, and wind conditions are met. Agricultural operations may burn all year, which makes enforcement of the backyard burning program difficult because local area residents do not understand why they cannot burn while others can. The majority of Canby is within the DEQ boundary, so there is a burning season, but response from DEQ for violations is inconsistent.
Radio communications are good throughout Canby, although there are some gaps in coverage across the District. Canby Fire received an AFG large grant to address communication issues in these areas. Canby Fire would rely on two primary water supplies for wildfire response: one on Dryland Road and one on Elisha Road. The Canby Ferry also has a fire pump that could be utilized in an emergency. Canby Fire would like to continue developing rural water supply sources to be a recognized water supply by ISO.
The District employs 24 career and 20 volunteer firefighters who receive regular wildland fire training to remain current on qualifications. Although the District can support the S-130 and S-190 training, lack of live fire experience makes it difficult to retain wildland qualifications. Canby Fire is working with NAFT and WFTA to conduct a live fire exercise (potentially in Molalla area) to address the fire component of wildland task books. Canby Fire received grant funding to purchase wildland PPE and received a Fire Act FEMA grant for structural and wildland PPE five years ago, but likely will need additional wildland gear (turnouts and footwear) due to volunteer turnover.
Community Outreach & Education Canby 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 in-classroom school programs, public presentations, fire station tours, media events, safety fairs, and joint Town Hall meetings with Clackamas County Disaster Management in both English and Spanish.
Canby Fire is a member of the Clackamas County Wildfire Collaboration, which is a consortium of structural and wildland fire protection professionals that work together to deliver outreach and educational programs (such as grade school fire safety programs), home assessments, fuels reduction projects, and essential GIS mapping services.
The District has also obtained $35,000 grants in 2022 and 2023 from the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office, which it has used primarily for direct WUI community engagement as well as to increase engine staffing.
Canby Fire also recognizes that there are smaller-scale Communities at Risk that have unique wildfire hazards to be addressed at the more local scale. Communities that have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to wildfires are listed in Table.
Canby Fire professionals considered the following factors to determine the local CARs including:
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 Fuels reduction projects can and should be accomplished at the local scale, which involves the creation of defensible space around homes, as well as the landscape scale, which extends vegetation treatments onto adjacent forested land and natural areas. Canby Fire will assist in facilitating cooperation between public and private organizations to ensure that fuels reduction work occurs strategically and benefits homeowners as well as adjacent public and private lands.
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 Identified by Canby Fire.
Fuels Reduction Priorities
• Sundowner • Molalla River State Park
Aurora Fire District Action Plan Canby Fire has developed a list of actions to build capacity at the District scale and has identified actions that can help to make the local CARS more resilient to potential wildfires. The action plan for Canby Fire and the local CARs therein is provided in Table 9-4.
Progress since 2018 Canby Fire has been busy working with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) to limit the number of illegal burns by developing a daily burn call-line. They would like to continue this work by developing a media campaign but will need additional resources and capacity. They successfully installed two additional pump sites and numerous hydrants outside of the city within the industrial park area. Their staff have been attending the annual Metro Advanced Wildland School (MAWS) and would like to fund additional positions for future MAWS training.
In their community, Canby Fire hosted two Community Preparedness meetings, with one session in Spanish, and participated in a virtual Community Preparedness session since 2018. It is difficult to monitor all the private burns in the spring and fall and they would benefit from more resources from DEQ and ODA as well as increased regulatory authority.
