Firefighters spraying water

At 8:12pm on Thursday October 3rd, Forest Grove Firefighters were dispatched to a reported barn fire in the 45000 block of NW Hillside Road, approximately two miles Northwest of Forest Grove in rural Washington County. Crews arrived approximately 10 minutes later to find a 3,500 square foot metal barn with heavy fire involvement throughout the whole structure. Due to the size of the structure and amount of fire, the incident was upgraded to a 2nd Alarm to bring additional resources to the scene. While firefighters worked on beginning to extinguish the fire, they also had a priority of preventing the fire from spreading to nearby structures as well as four 1,000 gallon propane tanks that were 15 feet away from the structure. As fire crews began to fight the flames, it was discovered the barn held a large hazelnut drier and was at 90% capacity, holding approximately 250,000 pounds of hazelnuts and it was the nuts burning and not structural components. The drier was it's own metal structure inside the metal sided barn which made accessing the burning nuts difficult. Firefighters had to use saws to cut large holes in the side of the barn to be able to spray water onto the fire. 

Approximately an hour and a half after arriving on scene, firefighters had the fire under control. But continuously had to spray water on the large bins as deep seeded heat was causing flare ups. At approximately 1:15am on October 4th, crews cleared the scene with an irrigation sprinkler spraying water over the burned hazelnuts. At 5:40am, fire crews returned to the scene to continue to spray water and cool down the hard to access hot spots in the large bins of hazelnuts. Over the entirety of the incident, approximately 100,000 gallons of water had to be used to extinguish the burning hazelnuts. Because of the rural location without a municipal water system, fire crews had to bring water to the scene using water tenders. Each water tender carries 3,000 gallons of water and makes trips to and from the scene to the closest fire hydrant. The incident had received close to 30 deliveries of water from seven water tenders.

The involved hazelnut drier was propane fired, but the property owner was installing a brand new biomass burner that would’ve used the husks from the hazelnuts to generate heat to dry the nuts. The operation is used by several farmers in the area to process hazelnuts from their orchards, the property owner has a second drier that is still operational and will be used to continue to process the seasons harvest, which lasts through the end of October. After the season is over, the property owner is retiring after a life of growing hazelnuts and is selling the operation to a new owner. 

At time of release, the area will continue to put off smoke and steam throughout the day. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Forest Grove Fire & Rescue was assisted on scene by Cornelius Fire Department, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, Banks Fire District, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Gaston Fire District, Carlton Fire District, Yamhill Fire District, Washington County Sheriffs Office, AMR and Forest Grove Light & Power.

Fire Scene Stats:
Engines - 8
Water Tenders - 7
Chiefs - 3
Total Fire Personnel - 49

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At 1:27pm on Tuesday October 1st, Forest Grove Firefighters were dispatched to a reported brush fire in the 10000 block of NW Shearer Hill Road, near the rural community of Gales Creek. Crews arrived at 1:41pm to find a fire burning in a cut wheat field and spreading into thicker vegetation, two minutes after first arriving incident command upgraded the incident to a second alarm due to the size of the fire. As units arrived on scene there was priority to stop the forward progress of the fire as well as protecting nearby structures. Due to the rapid spread of the fire in thicker, harder to access vegetation, at 1:48pm incident command upgraded the incident to a third alarm to bring in further resources.

Approximately an hour after the first units arrived on scene, the fire was deemed under control. In total, the fire burned 4 acres of field, brush and trees. Due to the quick actions of the firefighters, no evacuations were needed and no structures were damaged. The cause of the fire was a burn pile that spread due to dry, windy conditions. No civilians or fire personnel were injured.

Currently Washington County is still in fire season and under a burn ban and will remain in a burn ban until at least October 15th or longer depending on weather conditions. Some burning regulation websites that are run by Oregon DEQ might say that burning is now allowed, based off of air quality considerations, but Burn Bans established by fire departments overrule their allowances. It is the responsibility of the property owner to always check burning regulations with their local fire department before burning, no matter what time of the year it is.

To check on the current burning regulations for residents protected Forest Grove Fire & Rescue, visit burndaymessage.com.

Forest Grove Fire & Rescue was assisted on scene by Cornelius Fire Department, Banks Fire District, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Gaston Fire District, Yamhill Fire District, Oregon State Fire Marshal and Oregon Department of Forestry. Also two community members assisted firefighters by using an excavator and tractor to help create a fire break around the fire. We thank our partnering fire departments and community members for assisting with extinguishing this fire. 

Fire Scene Stats:
Brush Rigs - 9
Engines - 3
Water Tenders - 6
Chiefs - 6
Total Fire Personnel - 47

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