In the month of December, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue, which also provides service to the surrounding Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District, responded to 457 calls for service across their combined territories, averaging nearly 15 calls each day.
Of those calls, 60 were in the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District, which includes Gales Creek, parts of Hillside, Dilley, Verboort and other outlying rural areas, according to Forest Grove Fire & Rescue spokesperson Matt Johnston.
In the Gales Creek area, the fire agency responded to 17 calls.
The overall numbers represent an increase for the agency over the same month in 2021 (401 calls) and 2020 (284).
For the entire year of 2022, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue responded to 4,942 total calls across their service territory.
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“As we close the door on 2022, we have gathered call info for the year. We averaged 13.5 calls per day,” the fire and rescue agency said in a social media post.
In the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District in 2022, there were 644 calls or just over 13% of the total call volume for the year, Johnston told the Gales Creek Journal. Numbers for the Gales Creek region alone were not available.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
