Hillsboro Fire & Rescue presented a five‑year review of call volumes, staffing and station deployment on July 1, telling the City Council the department is increasingly an EMS provider and will staff a new Station 9 this winter.

Chief Downey said the department has 148 full‑time positions citywide, about 114 dedicated to emergency response, and that roughly 82% of responses are emergency medical services (EMS) rather than fires. “We are as much an emergency medical services department as we are a fire department,” Downey said.

Why it matters: Hillsboro’s population and call volume have grown steadily; leaders told the council that deployment and station siting changes are driven by response‑time performance and projected growth. The department said total unit responses have risen about 5% per year and that the system’s busiest hours are roughly 10 a.m.–8 p.m., requiring more training and support work during daytime business hours.

Most important facts

- Station 9: A station in the South Hillsboro subdivision is under construction, roughly halfway complete and scheduled to finish in December; the department plans to hire a recruit class in August with the station staffed in January. “We should be staffed and ready to go January,” Downey said.
- Staffing and hires: The department reported it has hired about 57 firefighters in the last six years to meet growth and that the recruit‑class attrition rate is about 30%. The chief said when Station 9 opens the department will need 114 firefighters across six stations and that many promoted positions will be staffed by people with under two years’ experience in their new rank.
- Call mix and volumes: From 2020–2024 Hillsboro saw a roughly 25% increase in demand; the department expects about 15,000 incidents a year in 2025 if trends continue. EMS calls represent roughly 82% of activity; the remaining 18% include fire, hazardous materials and other non‑EMS responses.
- Response targets: The fire department measures turnout plus travel as “total response time.” Turnout expectations are about 60 seconds (80 seconds if additional PPE is needed); travel target is about four minutes, yielding a five‑minute total‑response goal for priority (Code 3) calls 75% of the time and six minutes 90% of the time. Downey said the city is “really, really close” to those targets but average times have lengthened 60–90 seconds since 2020 because of higher demand.
- Deployment and relocation: The department plans to relocate Station 2 north on Brookwood (closer to the center of the city) and add Station 9 to the south to reduce response “holes” along the Brookwood–Cornell corridor. Station 2 currently houses one engine company and four firefighters and is described as an older building that does not meet modern standards.
- Mutual aid and system integration: Hillsboro participates in automatic‑aid/AVL dispatching with Washington County and neighboring agencies; since March dispatchers have been sending the closest available unit across jurisdictional lines for Code 3 calls. The department also described large mutual‑aid mobilizations for regional wildland incidents and the countywide coordination that follows.

Quotes and context

Mayor Pace opened the briefing by thanking firefighters and acknowledging a recent out‑of‑state line‑of‑duty incident involving wildland responders: “You all have enough to worry about … and then that to be followed with a wildfire call here locally, and how that must have felt for you.” Chief Downey said Hillsboro is “part of a very large fire, EMS, and public safety system” and credited interagency partners and city departments for station and fleet projects.

Operational and training notes

The department described separate divisions for administration, fire prevention and investigation, training, community engagement and emergency response. Downey and division chiefs said training now covers recruitment, on‑the‑job development and professional promotions; the training division coordinates hiring and promotions from entry level through leadership. The community engagement team handles public education and community risk reduction, and the fire marshal’s office does construction‑related plan review and inspections.

Chief Downey emphasized the rise in cardiac‑arrest and unconscious calls that often turn out to be overdoses; he said the records management and dispatcher data allow the department to query for Narcan administration to identify overdoses. When asked about public driving behavior during responses, Downey said poor motorist compliance with yielding is a safety issue even if it does not drive average response time significantly, and he asked for periodic “pull to the right” public messaging.

Funding and next steps

Downey noted the department’s long‑range master plan (about one year old) guides requests for future biennium funding and includes items such as Rescue 6, a second truck company and continued professional development. He said the department and other public‑safety divisions expect to appear this fall with information about a local option levy. “Station 9 and hiring are on track,” he told the council, calling the station opening and the engine bulk‑order council approval “tremendously helpful.”

Ending

The briefing highlighted rising demand for EMS resources, an ongoing recruitment and training program, and near‑term facility additions that are intended to hold response reliability as the city grows. Fire leaders asked the council to consider the department’s long‑range plan and upcoming funding requests this fall.