Hillsboro Fire & Rescue
 |
|
| Operational area | |
|---|---|
| Country |
 United States
|
| State |
 Oregon
|
| City | Hillsboro |
| Agency overview | |
| Established | 1880 |
| Annual calls | 9,219 (2013) |
| Employees | 78 |
| Staffing | Career |
| Fire chief | David Downey |
| IAFF | 2210 |
| Facilities and equipment | |
| Battalions | 1 |
| Stations | 5 |
| Engines | 6 (including 1 volunteer) |
| Trucks | 1 |
| Rescues | 1 |
| Tenders | 1 |
| Wildland | 2 (Type 6) |
| Website | |
| www |
|
| www |
|
The Hillsboro Fire Department, also called Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, is the municipal fire department for the city of Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1880, the department operates five stations with six companies. The nationally accredited department has 120 members and is led by Chief Scott Magers.
On May 3, 1880, the City’s board of trustees (now city council) passed an ordinance to organize the first fire department, which was originally a hook and ladder company. The ordinance also authorized the digging of a well in the public square, and the department soon acquired a horse-drawn ladder truck for $1,600. The foreman of the Hook & Ladder Company requested the city council provide additional equipment in January 1894. Items requested included lanterns, a heavy iron hook, and axes with hooks on the pole, which was to add to the existing equipment that included the ladder truck and several hose carts. The city purchased a hand engine from Albany, Oregon, in 1890 for $400. In 1894, the Hillsboro Coffee Club organized to support what was then a volunteer fire department.
The department then bought a two-cylinder chemical engine in 1908, adding to the hook and ladder and two hose carts the department already had. The city also installed a steel water reservoir that year to improve water pressure. A nozzle belonging to one of the first pieces of equipment owned by the department was later uncovered during an excavation in 1911. The nozzle had been part of a pump engine originally used by the Sacramento Fire Department and later used by the Portland Fire Bureau and the City of Albany. One of the early fires was in January 1912 when the Commercial Hotel at Second and Washington burned, with two fatalities. The city built a new city hall in 1914 on Second Avenue, and the department moved into the building.
The city purchased its first self-propelled truck in 1924 for $8,000, which is on display at the Main Station. In 1928, the department received its first chief, Walter Tews, and first paid firefighter. The Ray-Maling Cannery burned in May 1929, that required assistance from neighboring fire departments, which was followed by fire at the Commercial Building at Second and Main in January 1933 that did $75,000 in damage.
In 1947, volunteers built a new home for the department on Southeast Washington Street. Another major fire came on July 8, 1947, when the Imperial Feed & Grain Company’s elevator burned along with warehouses and the Southern Pacific’s Hillsboro depot. The Hillsboro Rural Fire Protection District (now Washington County Fire District #2) is created in 1952, at which point the new district takes on fire fighting duties for the areas surrounding the city. Another, five-alarm blaze in October 1964 destroyed the new Western Farmers’ buildings at the same location. Other major fires included loss of the Venetian Theatre on September 8, 1956, followed by a three-alarm fire at Tektronix in April 1966.
...
Wikipedia