PLEASANT HILL — The end of wildfire season may warrant relief for most Oregonians, but the fire department is a year-round service that doesn’t take days off in the colder season. A rural fire district like the Pleasant Hill and Goshen Fire & Rescue (PHGFR) works year-round to keep its firefighters involved and equipped for emergencies.
Andrew Smith, Fire Chief for the PHGFR, works closely with Pleasant Hill High School in its Emergency Medical Response class to help the students prepare for their EMR certification.
Smith said that many people in his industry can teach through mentorship and relay their personal experiences in the industry, whether they’ve hit some bumps along the way or not.
“It’s a great tool to help continue legacies of strong professionalism in our industry,” he said.
At the PHGFR, an 18-year-old with EMR certification can start ahead of the game as a volunteer firefighter. After volunteering, Smith said there are employment opportunities across the industry.
“As you start to dive into it, you find every industry has a lot of unique options for where you could potentially go,” Smith said.
Smith’s program helps strengthen the industry by bringing students on-site to see what careers in fire and EMR look like and providing them with an early opportunity.
“It’s about helping find the students, and hook the students that are right for this industry, and catch them at a time where the future is very bright for them,” he said.
The PHGFR, like many other fire departments, offers free housing, a monthly stipend, and an option for offsetting school costs for those who join their volunteer firefighters.
Garrett Olsen, engineer and EMT at PHGFR, has spent over seven years in the volunteer program. He graduated from Pleasant Hill High School in 2017. He said that he had decided to become a firefighter by his junior year. Right after his graduation, he became involved in the academy program that the station runs to prepare recruits.
Now, Olson is a key leader in that academy.
“It’s been a large chunk of responsibility, but it’s one I am actually very excited and very proud of,” Olsen said.
After his official hiring in April, Olsen has prepared academy students for their EMR certifications. Although this is not a state requirement for a station as small as PHGFR, Olsen explained that his team decided it was important for all of their firefighters.
“We felt it would give them not only a better understanding of what the full scope of the fire and EMS really is but also it would give them a good start in their medical training,” he said.
With the EMR certification, academy graduates can have a leg up when pursuing other careers in the medical field, and the fire department encourages it by offsetting many volunteer firefighters’ higher education. Olsen said that the station will see a dip in staffing during the fall because many volunteers are going to Lane Community College to complete the paramedic program.
The academy program is typically three months long, and anyone over 18 can join it to start their career in firefighting.
In this session, 32 students participated in the program, and many of them were able to watch a fire simulation put on by the department at the old Pleasant Hill fire station.
In 2023, voters passed Measure No. 347 to merge the Pleasant Hill and Goshen fire departments and then build a new facility in Pleasant Hill.
“We’ve been ready for this, becoming a solidified thing for a while,” Olsen said, explaining that he’s only seen the team grow together since the merge. “I am seeing that no matter who it is at this point, everyone tries to strive for the motto of one team.”
Almost a year after the measure passed, the fire department tore down of the old Pleasant Hill Fire Department with an emergency simulation for academy students to watch.
Smoke billowed out of the building’s doors as the firefighters went in to test their equipment. Although the smoke was from a machine, and the stretcher they carried contained a human-shaped bundle of rope, the academy students would witness firsthand what emergency they might be presented within the field.
The old Pleasant Hill fire station still stands despite the crew knocking at it in their simulation. The new station will be rebuilt in the exact location, but the timeline still needs to be determined. Until then, the department still operates two fully functioning stations, one in Goshen and another in Fall Creek.