Colton Rural Fire District

District Description With over 50 years of service, the Colton Rural Fire Protection District is made up of men and women, primarily volunteers as well as two full-time employees year-round and two additional full-time employees during fire season, who serve the residents of Colton and Elwood. The District was founded in 1956 and covers 46 square miles between Estacada and Molalla. The District protects the community with fire service and emergency medical care and gives mutual aid service to other agencies as needed.

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) This area is an excellent example of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) because it is characterized by steep slopes with residential homes surrounded by heavy fuels. In addition, many of the neighborhoods have only one way in and one way out with narrow, steep driveways and poor address signage. Water is limited throughout the District, especially in the Communities at Risk.

Heavy and continuous fuels dominate this area, and forests are actively managed for lumber and Christmas trees. Land ownership includes a variety of rural residential, private forest land, large industrial forests, and public lands (Bureau of Land Management). There are also many small woodlands that are not actively managed and are littered with dead and dying trees and ladder fuels that could take a fire from the ground into the crowns of the trees. Many local youth illegally access these forest landholdings to build campfires and use All Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s), which increases the likelihood of potential ignitions. Fires that begin on public land or on smaller private residential lots can quickly threaten the communities and natural resources that thrive in the Colton Fire District.

Structural Ignitability Colton Fire District promotes the creation of defensible space, use of fire-resistant roofing and building materials, home sprinkler systems, specialized wildland sprinkler systems, and community preparedness in the WUI. Colton Fire District works with the Clackamas County Department of Transportation and Development to provide input on access and water supply for new lots of record. Colton Fire District provides alternatives to property owners who cannot meet the requirements for access and water supply. Clackamas County has upgraded their web site so the District can look up all building permit applications. There are some opportunities for improvement and coordination between Clackamas County and Colton Fire District:

  • The Fire District is not notified of development that occurs on existing roads and or lots of record.

  • The Fire District is not notified of homes that are being remodeled that require new access and

    water requirements.

The Colton Fire District is concerned with some new developments not meeting District requirements.

Emergency Response Emergency response is challenging at times in the Colton Fire District because staff is almost entirely volunteer, with two full-time employees year-round (a Fire Chief and Assistant Fire Chief) and two additional full-time Firefighters brought on during the fire season. A major wildland urban interface fire in the Colton area would quickly exceed the resources and capabilities of the District. For this reason, the District has mutual aid agreements in place which allow for the sharing of resources across the county, and state if necessary, in the event of a large scale disaster, including wildfires such as the Pit Fire. The district has four type 6 brush rigs, three class 1 structural engines, and one 2,500 gallon water tender that may become inadequate on a large wildland urban interface until other resources arrive.

Burning of yard waste and debris is unique in the Colton Rural Fire District because it is outside of the DEQ boundary, which means that the area residents can burn until burn regulations are in effect. The Fire District adheres to the Open Burn Policy adopted by the Clackamas County Fire Defense Board. The lack of staff and resources make it difficult to catch every illegal fire.

Radio coverage is generally good throughout the District using the 800MHz system. The District’s radio system used for dispatching and altering volunteers to emergency calls has been upgraded twice since 2018 alongside the rest of the county: first from VHS to analog, and then again to digital. This upgrade included much-needed new mobile and portable radios.

Because the Colton Water District does not have an extensive hydrant system outside of four square miles of hydrant area, it is important to identify and improve water sites. This is especially important for homes with long narrow driveways that will not support water tenders. Since 2018, the Fire District and ODF worked together to complete updates to address signage in many of the most vulnerable areas and water sites.

Community Outreach & Education Colton Fire is dedicated to fire prevention and uses a variety of forums (e.g., social media and physical Fire Info Board spaces) to promote defensible space, fire-resistant building materials, and safe burning practices. The District partners with ODF to have wildfire prevention programs in local area schools and holds annual events at the main fire station that are paired with prevention messages, such as a Wildland Info and Open House held on the first Saturday in July in partnership with ODF.

The District would like to be more proactive about educating the public about the need for access, water, and defensible space and plans to use social media, postings on the Fire Info Boards at the main fire station and in the Elwood community, and direct conversations on a case-by-case basis to carry out a driveway outreach program to educate homeowners about lack of access and promote creation of turnaround space

Colton Fire District 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 9-7. Colton 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 should be accomplished at the local level, by the creation of defensible space around homes, wildland sprinkler suppression systems, and at the landscape scale, by extending vegetation treatments onto adjacent forested land and natural areas. The Colton Fire District will continue to facilitate cooperation between public and private organizations and local area residents to ensure that fuel reduction work continues and benefits homeowners, 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 the Fire District.

Fuels Reduction Priorities

High Risk:

  • Boomer Springs/Schieffer

  • Deardorf

  • Fernwood/Young Road Area

  • Walton/Tiffany

Medium Risk:

  • Dhooghe

  • Elwood/Engstrom

  • Hult Road

  • Hunter Road

Colton Fire District Action Plan Colton Fire District 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 Colton Fire District and the local CARs therein is provided in Table 9-8.

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

  • 2018 Action Item: Pursue grant funding to purchase Wildland PPE to replace old equipment.

  • 2018 Action Item: Work with Clackamas County to ensure coordination regarding the new

    development on Rolliewood Road. As new homes are built, ensure the District is notified as no

    parking signs must be posted on all new legal roads.

  • 2018 Action Item: Work with Clackamas County to ensure coordination regarding development

    on existing lots and roads of record.

  • 2018 Action Item: Work with Clackamas County to use the total square footage of a home –

    including any remodel expansion – as the threshold for contacting fire agencies for access and

    water requirements.

  • 2018 Action Item: Work with Clackamas County to receive notification of occupancy permits

    through monthly emails and request access and training to use the Velocity Hall System.

  • 2018 Action Item: Complete home addressing in Communities at Risk throughout the District.