A Few Minutes with the Mayor – March 2021

We have been lucky to have fire protection in Jacksonville for many decades. Organized in 1883, Jacksonville’s original volunteer fire department, Engine Company #1, responded to the call of the Jacksonville Fire Hall bell well into the 1950s. Eventually, it was re-organized into a professional department with full-time fire fighters, interns and volunteers who continue the mission of protecting the lives and properties of all of us.

This month I would like to recognize Fire Chief/EMT-Intermediate, Wayne Painter, who was promoted from Interim Fire Chief to Fire Chief in January. Chief Painter has been a fixture in the Rogue Valley more than thirty years, and he brings a wealth of experience to Jacksonville.

Since he came on board two and a half years ago, Chief Painter and some of our firefighters have been instrumental in helping Jacksonville procure more than a dozen separate opportunities for bringing our fire department into the present-day… as far as equipment and services necessary to save lives, and aid in emergencies.

Some of the grants received include:

  • Oregon Volunteer Association–Received Wildland Gear
  •  Fire House Subs Grant–Holmatro Extrication Tool
  • West Family Foundation Grant–Firefighting Turnouts
  • SAFER Grant–Four Interns for Four Years
  • Josephine County Foundation Grant–Turnouts
  • Dubs Foundation Grant–Cardiac Zoll Monitor
  • Homeland Security Grant–Portable Radios for Police and Fire
  • Seismic Grant for Fire Station Renovation
  • Title Three–Fuels Reduction
  • Chaney Family Foundation Grant–SCBA Bottles
  • Josephine County Foundation Grant–Gas Monitors
  • Seven Feathers Grant–CERT Uniforms

Other grants that have been applied for include a Fire Engine Grant, Wildland Fuels Reductions Grants, Fire hose Grants, and a Thermal Imaging Grant for our SCBA Packs.

These grants were all obtained while the Fire Department was conducting its regular business of fighting fires, emergency calls and medical calls. This past year, our Fire Department responded to 832 calls for service that partially break down to:

  •  328 calls for fire related incidents, this includes fires within our jurisdiction as well as mutual aid responses.
  •  524 Emergency Medical Calls (EMS calls accounted for 64% of total calls and 21% of Medical Calls were Advanced Life Support Calls).
  •  467 Patients were transported to hospital.
  •  7 Cardiac Arrest Calls.
  •  61 overlapping incidents, where two calls were going at the same time.

In addition, the Jacksonville Fire Department spent 212 hours on the Almeda Fire and 262 hours on the Obenchain Fire. We are fortunate to have reciprocal agreements with other local Fire Departments for backing each other up in case of true catastrophes such as these wildfires. Chief Painter and his crew ensured we were well protected during this frightening event. He will also be working with City Council on our new Safety/Emergency Work Sessions. Chief Painter gives the credit for such a successful department to his crew, saying, “The efforts here are a combination of everyone, and everyone here deserves credit for their efforts to make this place what it is today.”

Our Fire Department has worked for years with outdated equipment in a substandard building. Our present Fire Engine is thirty-four years old with no modern features and no air conditioning. It needs to be replaced, along with our forty-year-old fire hoses. As mentioned previously, Chief Painter is applying for grants to replace this equipment. Our Fire Hall is in dire need of renovation. The building is not seismically safe, there are no separate male and female quarters, no ADA features, and the bays are not big enough for modern equipment. The City is in the process of this renovation. It is far less expensive to remodel, renovate, and seismically retrofit the present building than to buy property here in town and build a new building. That is, if we could find a large enough lot. To that end, the City has obtained grants for the seismic retrofit to complete the remodel. Again, Chief Painter has come to the rescue with the loan of a modular building for the Fire Department, from Fire District 3, to move into during the renovation. The cost for this to Jacksonville is minimal; replacing the carpeting, moving the modular here, and then moving it to a specified site afterwards for another department to use as a fire station. The modular will be moved next to the Public Works building, remaining in town during the renovation. The loan of this modular cuts down on our total costs by many thousands of dollars in rent for a building suitable as a temporary fire hall.

There are many reasons we choose to call Jacksonville home. For many, having Fire and Police services is a huge draw, along with the benefit of having reduced homeowner’s insurance costs due to the high rating of our fire services. Thank you, Chief Wayne Painter and the Jacksonville Fire Department, for the constant, vigilant dedication you give to protect our property and lives. Your prudent, fiscal attentiveness in bringing our Fire Department up to date with equipment and training, plus helping to create a safe environment to do this work from, is exemplary.