A message from Assistant Chief Grimes

It is Saturday morning and I am sitting in my office reflecting on the week. This area has been dealing with (and many areas are still dealing with) what we are affectionately calling snowmagedon. The heavy snow fall caused many issues for North Douglas County residents and presented challenges to the systems that serve them. I cannot adequately express the pride and gratitude that I feel for the men and women of North Douglas Co. Fire and EMS. Paid staff and volunteers spent literally thousands of man hours responding to a wide variety of challenging events with professionalism, courage, innovative thinking, stamina, and expertise. I was also impressed with the many agencies that I was able to interact with or observe throughout this week. I hesitate to mention them, knowing I will omit some and wish to offend none, but I will offer my thanks to the Douglas Co. Sherriff’s Dept., Oregon State Police and all the City Police departments, all the Emergency Medical response agencies, ODOT, Douglas Co. Public Works, all the City Public Works Depts, DFPA, and all the Fire Departments throughout the area and special kudos to the Emergency Dispatch center dealing with the volume of calls as well as infrastructure failures of land lines, cellular system and radio towers. The equipment and manpower deployed by utility companies was awesome and the dedication and courage of their employees is greatly appreciated. Our ability to literally survive in some cases is due to their efforts and cannot be adequately recognized. In addition to these agencies the tremendous work done by individuals stepping up to help their families, friends and complete strangers has been inspiring to see. The communities of North Douglas county have, and still are meeting this challenge with strength and resiliency that they can be proud of and I certainly am. We live among some awesome people and they should know we see their contributions. Thanks to all of you Michel Grimes Asst. Chief North Douglas Co. Fire and EMS