Since Memorial Day weekend, Umatilla County Fire District #1 has responded to several large fires across the District. While some originate from natural causes, many are human-caused. According to the National Park Service, nearly 85% of wildfires are human-caused, and in UCFD#1’s case, many occur as a result of not following District burn bans. Wildland fires like these stretch our limited resources, put our community and personnel in harm’s way, and are 100% preventable.

As a reminder, if you live within UCFD#1’s service area, burning is banned from June 1st to September 30th! Even if it is designated as a “good burn day” per Umatilla County’s Burn Line, no burning is allowed within district lines (See Map).

UCFD#1 personnel are highly-skilled & highly-trained first responders, led by an emergency management team of professionals with over 156 years of experience. As a District with limited personnel and financial resources, fires like these take most of our equipment and manpower out of service, leaving them unavailable to respond to other calls. With 69% of calls within the district overlapping with other emergencies, this can stretch our resources to their limits and delay response times. The District is immensely thankful for our amazing mutual aid partners across the region who answer our call for help when we need it most. UCFD#1 is committed to providing the highest quality of compassionate and professional care to the communities we proudly serve and we need YOUR help to do it!

You can help keep yourself and our community safe by:

Following UCFD#1’s Burn Ban

Creating Defensible Space Around Your Home: https://www.oregon.gov/.../wil.../pages/defensiblespace.aspx

Pulling Over for Responding Fire Crews

Practicing Firework Safety: https://www.oregon.gov/osfm/pages/fireworks-.aspx

Reporting Illegal Burning to Authorities

Sharing Information with your neighbors and loved ones

Together, let’s prevent fires from starting and have a great & safe summer!