Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue
District Description Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue provides fire protection and emergency medical services to approximately 547,142 residents in one of the fastest growing regions in Oregon. The District’s 390 square mile service area includes eleven cities and unincorporated portions of Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties. The cities covered by TVF&R within Clackamas County include Rivergrove, West Linn, and Wilsonville.
TVF&R has 29 fire stations and employs more than 475 career firefighters. They also have a volunteer fire station, a Command and Business Operations Center (CBOC), a Training Facility, a South Operating Center (SOC), a full-service fleet maintenance shop, and a Logistics Service Center (LSC).
For information on the service area within Multnomah County, see the Multnomah County CWPP. For information on the service area within Washington County, see the Washington County CWPP. For information on the service area within Yamhill county, see the Yamhill County CWPP.
Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) The Wildland Urban Interface areas in the Clackamas County portion of TVF&R’s District are characterized by suburban communities and rural residential homes in proximity to grasses, brush, and some timber, with varying topography. In addition, many of the older neighborhoods share common characteristics including limited access, unique arrangements, and mature vegetation.
Much of the region contains some mix of grass, shrubs, brush, and timber that are common components in fueling vegetation fires. Along with projected inclement weather hazards to the area, the risk of impact from fire to our communities cannot be understated. TVF&R continues to evaluate the response to this risk and works hard to maintain an appropriate response to such hazards.
Structural Ignitability TVF&R promotes the creation of defensible space, use of fire-resistant roofing and building materials, and community preparedness in the WUI. TVF&R works well with Clackamas County and the cities of West Linn, Rivergrove, and Wilsonville to integrate these concepts at the regulatory level by providing input on access and water supply during land use reviews for new residential development.
Emergency Response A major wildland urban interface fire in West Linn, Rivergrove, or Wilsonville may exceed the immediate resources and capabilities of TVF&R. For this reason, TVF&R has mutual aid agreements in place to allow for the sharing of resources across the county in the event of a large-scale disaster such as a wildfire.
In the event of a large wildland fire, evacuations may be necessary. In rural residential areas this could present some challenges for evacuations where access includes long, narrow, and steep driveways. Some of the identified Communities at Risk have smaller local roads serving the area and/or have limited point of egress, making it difficult to manage incoming and outgoing traffic during an emergency.
TVF&R follows Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) burning policies for backyard burning. The majority of West Linn and Rivergrove are within the DEQ burn ban area, which does not allow backyard burning at any time of the year. Wilsonville residents are permitted only during designated burn seasons and on DEQ approved burn days.
TVF&R firefighters receive regular wildland fire training to remain current on qualifications. TVF&R also assists all of Oregon through mobilization requests from the Oregon State Fire Marshall (OSFM)’s office. Both training and deployment have boosted TVF&R’s readiness as it relates to wildland firefighting. However, new staff members have little to no live-fire experience and many Battalion Chiefs assigned to task forces have difficulty completing task books without being deployed. TVF&R has been working with Metro, Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District and Clean Water Services to identify opportunities for prescribed burns in Washington County that would benefit native ecosystems while providing live-fire experience to TVF&R staff (e.g., Cooper Mountain and Gardner Prairie). TVF&R would like to expand this partnership to the Clackamas County area by furthering relationships with Metro, Wilsonville, West Linn, and County Parks staff.
Community Outreach & Education TVF&R is dedicated to fire prevention, public safety, and community wellness and uses a variety of forums to promote residential fire safety, defensible space, and safe burning practices. The community is very supportive of TVF&R and participates in activities throughout the year, some of which include smoke detector, fire prevention, and community safety programs. TVF&R has a “Wildfire Can Happen Here” program that promotes wildfire awareness in high hazard areas. To date, most of the areas targeted for these programs have been in Washington and Multnomah Counties; however, efforts have been made in Clackamas County as opportunities were presented. TVF&R would like to continue to expand this effort to the Clackamas Communities at Risk.
Local Communities at Risk TVF&R has not identified any local Communities at Risk to wildfire. Instead, TVF&R uses a risk assessment process guided by their internally-developed 2023 Standards of Cover to evaluate and determine response to structure and wildland fires.
Fuels Reduction A core focus of the Clackamas County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is reducing hazardous fuels around homes, along transportation corridors, and in surrounding forested lands to minimize losses to life, property, and natural resources from wildfire. TVF&R has not identified any areas as potential fuels reduction project sites.
Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue Action Plan TVF&R has developed a list of actions to build capacity for potential wildland fires at the District scale. The action plan for TVF&R is provided in Table 9-24.
Progress since 2018 TVF&R has completed the following action items from the 2018 CWPP:
2018 Action Item: Continue to foster partnerships with natural resources managers to access and implement potential fuels reduction projects in natural areas adjacent to Communities at Risk.
2018 Action Item: Partner with the Clackamas County Fire Defense Board to participate in a WUI conflagration exercise.
2018 Action Item: Utilize TVF&R's "Ready, Set, Go" public outreach and education campaign in the high-priority CARs previously identified in Clackamas County.
2018 Action Item: Incorporate wildfire awareness and risk reduction strategies into TVF&R's “Ready, Set, Go” wildfire preparedness program.
2018 Action Item: Improve address signage for emergency response.
2018 Action Item: Partner with the Clackamas Wildfire Collaborative to create and distribute outreach materials that promote burning responsibilities, defensible space, and reduction of
structural ignitability within the Home Ignition Zone as part of the “Ready, Set, Go” wildfire
preparedness program.
2018 Action Item: Encourage communities to develop a community-driven pre-disaster plan,
including evacuation routes, telephone call down trees, and other strategies for strengthening community response, as part of the “Ready, Set, Go” wildfire preparedness program.
