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State Fire Marshal highlights 2024 wildfire mobilization, engine program and community risk reduction
Summary
The Oregon State Fire Marshal's office briefed the Senate committee Jan. 21 on mobilization costs from the 2024 wildfire season, the agency’s community risk reduction efforts, and policy bills to stabilize funding and recovery cost recovery authority.
Travis Madema, chief deputy for the Oregon State Fire Marshal, told the Senate committee Jan. 21 that the department is focused on mobilization funding, community risk reduction and modernizing systems after a historic 2024 wildfire season.
Madema said Oregon’s fire service comprises roughly 306 fire agencies and 11,000 firefighters. He reported 2024 wildfires burned about 1,900,000 acres in the state, generated 17 conflagrations and produced 27 immediate response or prepositioning assignments. The state’s engine program, funded through 2021 legislation, funded construction of 75 engines to be strategically placed across the state, he said.
Madema emphasized the value of prepositioning and immediate response in limiting the size and cost of conflagrations and said the department has asked its analytics and intelligence unit to quantify return on investment with case studies comparing incidents with and without prepositioned resources. He also described public-facing programs that support mitigation and preparedness, including a defensible-space assessment program (2,825 assessments completed and 97 fire agencies trained) and an Up Staffing Grant that helps fire agencies increase summer capacity.
Madema outlined agency legislative priorities that include four bills (SB 860–863) to clean up statutes, clarify mobilization funding and cost-recovery authority when fires are caused by gross negligence. He said the Department of State Fire Marshal incurred about $34,600,000 in cost during the recent fire season and is seeking stable funding sources to reimburse local fire agencies promptly.
Committee members asked about technology such as drones and artificial intelligence; Madema said drones are used routinely for situational awareness on wildfires and that AI and private-sector expertise may inform future analytics and risk modeling.
