Oregon Emergency Management outlines SPIRE grant program and live equipment dashboard

Elena Mayfield, preparedness manager at the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, told the House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government and Veterans that the SPIRE program has grown from an initial 2017 appropriation and now has more than 100 awardees across the state.

"The intent of the SPIRE program is to provide much larger scale, much harder to acquire equipment," Mayfield said. She said the program began in 2017 with an initial installment and has had multiple subsequent appropriations; the program supplies deployable generators, rescue equipment, water and fuel support and other resources for life‑safety operations.

Mayfield described a recent change to regionalize awards so regions receive guaranteed awards rather than all applicants competing statewide. "We are increasing the distribution very intentionally," she said, adding the change aims to help smaller, single‑person jurisdictions and tribal partners that lack grant writing capacity.

Mayfield also noted a public dashboard accessible to emergency managers that shows equipment locations and allows users to request items for local deployments. Committee members asked about eligibility; Mayfield said current statute allows only governmental entities to apply but the agency can work with nonprofit partners that provide emergency services if the equipment will be maintained and deployed through a public partner.

Why it matters: SPIRE provides state‑funded, large‑scale equipment that jurisdictions can request during emergencies. Regionalizing awards and publishing an equipment inventory are intended to improve equity and access.

Next steps: The session was informational; no committee action was taken on SPIRE at the Feb. 6 meeting.