The Story of Captain Matt Hilliker, Jackson County Fire District No. 5
Interview by Debra Moon on 9/25/2022
“I never thought we’d see fires like those here at home,” he confided. “The winds that day of the Almeda Fire we definitely not typical. I was scheduled to be on duty that day,” he remembers, “but I had taken off to stay at home because it my kids’ first day of ‘distance learning’. I had a first grader and a third grader, and I wanted to be home to help them get started. We were in the pandemic, you know. I had just gotten the girls established in their classes when the phone blew up.”
Matt’s wife works for Mercy Flights Ambulance Service. He was talking to her in the driveway when he could see volumes of smoke pouring into the sky. He got called out to a location fairly south of town, and when they got there, the firemen realized that the fire had already passed them and was moving north, burning homes in Talent. They took a handful of engines and some strike teams and made it up to Talent. At that point every available agency was out fighting the fire.
Matt says there were engines were going everywhere. He was working out in the Suncrest area mainly trying to save homes and a care facility out there. They began to realize that the best they could do was protect the homes and structures on the west side of town. Those were the homes and structures they could save. They had to concentrate on that. The hydrant system had failed. Water was free flowing out the hydrants at 100,000 gallons a minute and the system ran dry. Water was being delivered in tank trucks from Jackson Wellsprings. Matt commented that they were fortunate to hook up to that water source from connections they’d had years before. He could not remember them having to rely on the wellsprings before in his career.
All firemen were hyper focused on what it was they could do. They had faced defeat after defeat and moved from plan A, to B, to C, and so on. “Adapt and Overcome” was their motto.
Matt said, “We’re used to winning, you know. We laid it out for 36 hours straight with loss after loss. It was a really hard pill to swallow.”
He remarked, “By the time we ran out of water, the fire was in Phoenix, well between Rose and South Stage, which is technically Phoenix.” He said, that had another individual not set fire in north Phoenix, that the overall damage would have been less.
“The damage north of Boles wouldn’t have even happened if that individual had not have started the fire up there,” Matt explains. That person was caught and incarcerated, but to date, no official determination has been made about how the fire started in North Ashland.”
“Talent took the bulk of the hit,” Hilliker admitted.
Dealing with the aftermath of Almeda has been difficult. Matt is involved in establishing peer support and training for all the compounded stressors that firefighters face. This is in addition to the normal stresses that people were all going through at that time with the pandemic, relationships, and kids in distance learning. When I interviewed him, he had just that day returned from a training in Colorado for psychological effects the work of first responders. Matt stated that it is a false belief that firefighters sit around and wait for fires. They are very busy doing home assessments, equipment checking, going to training, and learning medical services. Matt himself is an EMT in addition to being a firefighter.
Captain Matt Hilliker is extremely concerned with keeping a good firefighting force in the face of such fire danger as we have here in Southern Oregon. According to him, 1/3rd of the firefighters employed here right now are eligible for retirement. Recruitment is getting tougher. Matt emphasized that fire safety conditions are not getting much better. Despite attempts to mitigate fire danger, weeds are high, and drought is present.
However, Matt is very pleased with the initiative of the District No. 5 Fire Chief, Charles Hanley. Hanley has taken many steps in the state of Oregon to improve our force and to reduce fire risks in general. In an interview that I did with Chief Hanley on the one-year anniversary of the fire, he listed ways in which he’d supported legislation to prevent fire devastation in the future. The following is an excerpt from that article which appeared in the September 2021 Talent News and Review:
Charles Hanley, Fire Chief at Fire Station No. Five in Talent, explained that many issues we faced in the Almeda Fire have been addressed through state legislation. The new legislation provides guidelines and funding for mitigation efforts like reducing hazardous fuels, weed and brush abatement, hiring more fire fighters. Station Five here in Talent has 21 new fire fighters. The Talent Irrigation District (TID) is working with the state codes and funding to improve our water system. The state developed WUI, Wildland Urban Interface, to enforce a code that requires harder surfaces on any new buildings and homes in high-risk areas. There are stricter requirements for building to ensure that homes and commercial buildings will withstand fire better. Chief Hanley also said that the mutual aid system was following new procedures and regulations allowing the sharing of fire fighters and other resources for big fires sooner—even before the fire if possible. He mentioned that firemen at Station Five had experience with big fires by joining forces to fight fires in California in the past, and that did truly help them fight the Almeda Fire.
Matt said that Chief Hanley brought a model of an initiative to us from California: The Oregon State Firefighter Apprentice Program, in which apprentice firefighters are given funds for education and certification. The State provides the funds along with a financial commitment from the Fire District. For this reason, and many others, our firefighters need money to build our force and to protect us from the types of fires we are seeing in our area now. Our district has been able to increase numbers of strike team members per truck, provide training, and address firefighters’ other needs, such as the psychological wellbeing that was mentioned earlier.
Here is a more recent message from our Fire Chief, taken from the Jackson County Fire District No. 5 Website:
Message from the Chief
Citizens of Jackson County Fire District No. 5
Our Fire District has a history of providing service from three fire stations in the communities of Phoenix, Talent, and unincorporated Ashland. Last year, our firefighters responded to over 2800 calls for service, including fires, rescues, and cardiac emergencies. In addition, they assisted in wildland incidents and other mutual aid calls, helping our neighbors in Washington, California, and coastal Oregon.
Jackson County Fire District No.5, Ashland Fire & Rescue, Medford Fire & Rescue, and Medford Rural Fire District No. 2, participate in a regional cooperative arrangement between our agencies. This is a resource-sharing agreement that provides (2) two 24-hour battalion chiefs and staffed fire resources that respond to each of our respective jurisdictions. We enjoy a similar arrangement with our lead forest agencies Oregon Department of Forestry and CAL Fire in the wildland-urban interface and the Siskiyou Summit, along the state line. It is our belief that these relationships will be a harbinger of continued public partnerships that result in an efficient fire protection model that serves the District and the Greater Rogue Valley, well into the future.
Our relationship with Rogue Community College, the Rogue Interagency Training Association and its parent organization Rogue Valley Fire Chiefs Association has provided extensive specialized training opportunities, joint purchasing, equipment replacement, and other mutually beneficial endeavors. This example of public cooperation and assistance continues to be a shared benefit to all.
The Fire District continues to apply for grant funding that allows us to develop and train personnel, make energy-efficient improvements, and purchase equipment and apparatus to help us better serve the community. In addition, Jackson County public safety agencies have linked their communication systems through a “joint agency” central dispatch center called ECSO (Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon). These efforts not only improve our interoperability and the capability of our emergency radios but locate and dispatch the closest resources to a call for service.
Our CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) currently working under the City of Ashland’s innovative program, is led by dedicated community members. Over 100 citizens have received training in first aid, disaster preparedness, and fire safety. Our Volunteers and the companion Student Firefighter program remain the backbone of the organization. They provide needed assistance at fires and stand by ready to assist and support emergency operations and community events. Finally, the Firehouse 5 Foundation and their crisis team assist our neighbors and visitors when they experience the devastating effects of a fire or traffic collision by providing care and shelter throughout the painful recovery process.
As we progress, the Fire District including career and volunteer firefighters and elected officials are intent on bringing a fresh perspective and enterprising methods to meet the challenges facing the Fire District. We will strive to work with our community partners to provide the highest level of safety to the neighborhoods we proudly serve.
Charles Hanley,
FIRE CHIEF
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