Hillsboro Fire & Rescue Names First Recipients Of New Paramedic Education Scholarship (Photo) - 06/18/26

Kiyah Parker and Nate Pratt are the inaugural winners of a scholarship that covers the full cost of paramedic education at Portland Community College.

Hillsboro Fire & Rescue has announced the first two recipients of its newly established paramedic education scholarship: Kiyah Parker, a graduate of Liberty High School, and Nate Pratt, a graduate of Glencoe High School. The inaugural awards mark a significant milestone for the department's investment in growing local talent for careers in emergency medicine and firefighting.

Both Parker and Pratt completed the Liberty Fire Science Program, a key step toward scholarship eligibility. The award will cover the full cost of their paramedic education program at Portland Community College (PCC), allowing them to pursue an associate's degree and a paramedic license without the burden of tuition.

The scholarship is funded through a partnership between the City of Hillsboro and Hillsboro Fire & Rescue. Two scholarships will be awarded each year to students who attend high school within the Hillsboro School District and complete the Liberty Fire Science Program.

“We’ve been planning this as a department for a long time. Go to PCC, earn an associate’s degree and paramedic license, and ultimately become paramedic firefighters. This is the first of what we hope is a long and successful story we get to tell as we keep the youth in our community working and thriving. We see this as a partnership between the department and the students themselves,” said Fire Chief David Downey.

Parker and Pratt will begin their studies at Portland Community College, working toward associate's degrees and paramedic licenses, and hopefully choosing to serve as paramedic firefighters in Hillsboro. Their achievement lays the foundation for what the department hopes will become a lasting pipeline of homegrown talent that will serve the community for years to come.

About Hillsboro Fire & Rescue

The City of Hillsboro Fire & Rescue Department is a career fire department serving the residents, businesses, and visitors of Hillsboro, Oregon, providing emergency fire suppression, paramedic-level emergency medical services, and life-safety outreach across the city. Firefighter-EMTs and paramedics respond from stations strategically located throughout the City, ensuring rapid response to calls ranging from structure fires to medical emergencies. Beyond emergency response, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue is committed to fire prevention and community risk reduction, offering safety education and outreach programs designed to keep Hillsboro a safe place to live, work, and play. Fire Chief David Downey leads the department, whose mission is to respond to the needs of the community with professionalism and excellence in every aspect of its fire and rescue service delivery system. For more information, visit Hillsboro-Oregon.gov/Fire.

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Washington County Fire Agencies Enact High-Fire Danger Burn Ban (Photo) - 06/10/26

Contact: For Hillsboro Fire & Rescue’s service area, contact Piseth Pich at 503-615-6666, FirePIO@hillsboro-oregon.gov. Refer to the respective fire agencies for other areas.  

Washington County Fire Agencies Enact High-Fire Danger Burn Ban 

Beginning Monday, June 15, 2026, at 12:01 am, all fire agencies within Washington County will enact a High-Fire Danger Burn Ban, based on a recommendation made by the Washington County Fire Defense Board and in alignment with the Oregon Department of Forestry. Washington County fire agencies include: Banks Fire District #13, Cornelius Fire Department, Forest Grove Fire Department, Gaston Rural Fire District, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue. Burning restrictions are authorized under Oregon Revised Statute 478.960 and Oregon Fire Code 307.

The burn ban prohibits all the following: 

• Backyard or open burning (branches, yard debris, etc.). 
• Agricultural burning (agricultural wastes, crops, field burning, etc.). 
• Any other land clearing, slash, stump, waste, debris, or controlled burning.

The burn ban does not prohibit: 

• Small outdoor cooking, warming, or recreational fires. These include portable or permanent fire pits, fire tables, and campfires, with a maximum fuel area of three feet in diameter and two feet in height in a safe location away from combustibles or vegetation and are fully extinguished after use.
• Barbeque grills, smokers, and similar cooking appliances with clean, dry firewood, briquettes, wood chips, pellets, propane, natural gas, or similar fuels.

Wood and debris burning is limited year-round within the City of Hillsboro. Learn more at Hillsboro-Oregon.gov/AirQuality. More restrictive fire safety rules may exist on and within 1/8 mile of Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF)-protected land throughout much of rural Washington County. ODF restrictions may include prohibitions on campfires, smoking, target shooting, powered equipment, motorized vehicles, and other public/private landowner and industrial fire restrictions. More details about ODF fire restrictions are available at https://gisapps.odf.oregon.gov/firerestrictions/PFR.html.

Outdoor fires in violation of this burn ban may be immediately extinguished. If a fire agency responds to a fire that has been started in willful violation of this burn ban, the person responsible may be liable for all costs incurred, as well as legal fees per ORS 478.965.

Fire chiefs in Washington County encourage the public to use extreme caution with activities that could start a fire. It is everyone’s responsibility to prevent and be prepared for wildfires.