Wildfire Preparedness

Because evacuations often result in normal traffic patterns being severely disrupted, keeping our Arterials and Collectors free-flowing will be a focus for emergency responders during an evacuation.

Current street design requirements focus on minimum widths for emergency response vehicles to get to an emergency. Having appropriately sized streets for emergency vehicles, designing gridded neighborhoods that have multiple exit and having requirements for connected roads (as opposed to cul-de-sacs) are some of the ways Bend’s roads are prepared for emergencies.

For people who live within city limits, the City of Bend is just one provider of water. Other providers include Avion Water and Roats Water System. Having the redundancy of multiple water service providers in our area is a huge benefit in a large-scale emergency.

The City of Bend water infrastructure includes 15 water reservoirs, six booster pump stations and over 440 miles of pipe that feed into 5,000 hydrants throughout the city.

While there is a lot that the City can’t control with natural disasters, we do have emergency plans and redundancies in place that will help us last as long as possible in the event of a large-scale emergency.

Some of the ways we prepare or respond to an emergency:

• Water Services staff are always on hand to monitor the City of Bend’s water infrastructure and keep in close communication with first responders during an emergency. Not only can our systems be managed on the ground, there is also technology in place that allow us to control infrastructure from afar if a facility can’t be accessed.
• Reservoirs are dispersed throughout the water distribution area and placed at differing elevations. This so that the reservoirs administer appropriate flow rates to our hydrants in town, and it also create redundancies in our water system by having our water sources spread out. Should one of our reservoirs be threatened by fire or begin to run low, staff can advise responders on water access immediately.
• Reservoirs are filled automatically using groundwater wells, limiting the need for human intervention. The groundwater wells pump groundwater into the reservoir and then water leaves the reservoir and enters the distribution system as demand occurs. As the water level in the reservoir drops to a specific level the groundwater wells turn back on and refill the reservoir.
• Back-up diesel generators are maintained and ready to be positioned at specific groundwater wells to keep them running in the event of power loss. Several wastewater lift stations also have generators built into the design to keep wastewater flowing the right direction if a loss of power occurs.
• If there was a wildfire that threatened water resources, the City of Bend would follow our Water Curtailment Plan. This plan helps us to prioritize the emergency at hand by shutting down water use that is not directly related to responding to the incident, meaning we would immediately and temporarily restrict all non-essential water use like landscape irrigation.

Emergency planning is ongoing. In addition to what’s mentioned above, the City routinely meets to discuss emergency plans and utilizes real world events, like what is currently happening in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, to improve our own emergency response plans to mitigate the impact of a natural disaster.

Municipal water systems are required to meet specific operating criteria. This means that water providers like Avion and Roates must follow the same requirements the City does when it comes to meeting required water and hydrant flow rates and determining hydrant types and placement.

Reservoirs are engineered to deliver a specific water flow for a period of time that equates to typical structure fire in our water service area – not a wildfire. It is typical for these reservoirs to hold 3-5 million gallons at a time, and they are placed at very specific elevations designed to deliver flow rates of 2,500 or 3,500 gallons per minute depending on the location of Bend’s hydrants (residential hydrants will have a different flow rate than those in commercial areas).

New developments have stricter hydrant location and fire flow standards than neighborhoods built over 30 years ago. Our current standards for developments require hydrants spaced at a maximum of 400’ apart, and that they be located in spots that are easily accessible and protected for first responders. As far as hydrant functionality, there is only one type of hydrant allowed that is in conformance and functions with the types of hoses and apparatuses that Bend Fire & Rescue uses.

Regardless of the hydrant owner and location, Fire crews have mapping that tells them where the nearest hydrants are in the city during an emergency response.

Water is only one way to fight wildfire. Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface, or the area between rural forest land and a municipality, are combated using a variety of firefighting techniques.

While structure fires rely heavily on hydrant systems, the firefighting techniques for a wildland fire are much different (think aerial attack; fire lines cut into the ground with bulldozers and wildland crews).

Many wildland and some structural firefighting apparatus like Water Tenders have the ability to pull water from natural sources as well as from hydrants – Bend has an abundant supply of natural water sources that could be used in the event of a wildfire.

If a fire event grew beyond the water system’s capability, there would be communication between Water Services staff and responding agencies regarding our system limitations, and a transition plan would be put in place.

Bend Fire & Rescue is staffed to respond offensively to mitigate a single large structure fire. If there are multiple structures on fire simultaneously, Bend Fire would respond using defensive tactics (preventing the spread of fire to other structures), mobilizing all department resources, as well as all available regional mutual aid resources that are coordinated through Deschutes County 9-1-1. This coordinated response system means that regional agencies will be called to respond when additional resources are needed for an emergency, so our neighboring fire departments from Redmond, Sisters, La Pine and beyond would be dispatched to the fires. If all local and regional agencies have been asked to respond and there is still a need for more resources, we would rely on the Oregon State Fire Marshal to determine the level of the emergency and whether it requires a formal declaration, which would then mobilize additional units across the state and – if determined necessary – other states.

Unfortunately, when there is a large-scale emergency, the potential people being taken advantage of is greater. Community members should stay diligent and aware that there may be scams and misinformation circulating. Verify what is being shared on social media with trusted and vetted resources like government sites (agencies with .gov, .org and .edu are typically trustworthy sources).

See what the American Red Cross says about scams and rumors during an emergency and recovery effort.