McMinnville Fire District welcomes new division chief

After more than 30 years of service in central Oregon, new McMinnville Fire District Operations Chief Jeff Blake could retire, but his passion for firefighting and desire to learn have him excited for a new challenge.

“I am a workaholic, I guess,” Blake told the News-Register. “I have a passion for the fire service, always have. I always like to do extra things. I want to learn.”

“I describe it like I’m kind of like a shark. If I stop swimming, I’m gonna die. You know what I mean?”

Blake started with Bend Fire & Rescue in 1993 and rose to the rank of battalion chief before leaving in 2021 to become chief with Jefferson County Fire and EMS. He served there for three years and joined MFD last month after taking time off.

“I think the six months that I was off, my wife and I realized that I needed to have something to do that I enjoyed. And when you’ve been in the fire service as long as I have, it’s really hard. I mean, it’s part of your identity,” he said.

“I still have friends whose kids were small when I met them, and I was Jeff the Fireman. And now they’re adults, and I’m still Jeff the Fireman. So, it’s hard to get that out of your system.”

As operations chief, Blake leads the daily emergency response for the district. He recognizes the need to increase staffing and improve run times and unit reliability by working with community partners.

“We are a growing community, we’re a busy community, we have a lot of tourism that comes through this community and a lot of traffic down (Highway) 99 and those types of things. So, this is a very, very busy system with limited manpower. I think that’s the big thing,” he said.

The district will eventually require enough responders to staff a second fire engine, he said.

“When I retired from Bend, we were running about 12,000 calls a year, and we had about 20 more people than what McMinnville has, and they’re running 10,000 calls. So, it’s a busy system.”

In the interim, opportunities exist to ensure MFD is sending sufficient resources on responses and operating as efficiently as possible.

“We live on run times,” he said.

Unit reliability measures how often staff are available to respond. When the district receives a call, everyone is available. However, if the district receives multiple calls in succession, it can strain response, Blake said.

“If all of a sudden you have five ambulances out and you have a fire call come in, we’re really only down to four people left, and that’s not enough to be what we would call an effective firefighting force,” he said. “That’s my fear. That’s the chief’s fear.”

Reliability can improve with communication, and Blake plans to work with dispatch and hospital staff to minimize vital seconds used on actions like patient transfers. Initially, he will be in the field learning operations first hand.

“I’m a pretty hands-on person, so I can only sit in the office so long,” he said. “You’ll see me on calls. A lot of it is just about learning. I trust my (deputy chiefs), I trust my engine crews, I trust my personnel. It’s just about me learning the system and getting a better understanding so that I can make it as efficient as possible. And I think that’s the key.”

Born in Southern California, Blake spent his formative years in Oregon and started his career in a student program at a station in Black Butte. After a stop in Sun River, he joined the department in Bend, where he spent most of his career.

“I worked every rank from firefighter to engineer to captain to (battalion chief),” he said.

The move to McMinnville places him closer to family and presents opportunities to learn a new environment, he said.

“My whole fire service career has been done in central Oregon, which is great, and everybody loves central Oregon. But for me, the valley’s attractive because I’ve never worked in this environment.”

Wildland firefighting is significant in central Oregon and, while fire risk is increasing locally, the Willamette Valley presents varied challenges, he said.

“There’s a lot of big differences between having a cheatgrass fire and a true full-blown field fire … in the agricultural lands.”

Differences in canopies and species will present new opportunities to learn; however, Blake has extensive experience with wildland fires as a former division supervisor in charge or organizing response teams.

“Last year, I had one of the largest fires in the nation in Jefferson County. It was 100,000 acres,” he said.

Communication with partners is critical when battling large fires, he said.

“It’s a high-level stress, but when you have familiarity of working with the Forest Service and (Oregon Department of Forestry) and your partnering agencies, including sheriff’s office and police departments and Red Cross and all that, it becomes easier because you know who you’re talking to,” he said. “I think it becomes more stressful when you don’t know who you’re talking to on the other side of the table and you’re trying to educate and build trust and relationships and stuff like that.”

He added, “We have to work together with our partnering agencies. So that’s one of the things that I really want to do well here is build — not only build our internal relationships, but also build our external partnerships and relationships, and make sure that we have good communication.”

While he has the experience necessary to assist with conflagrations, Blake said he will initially defer to others on out-of-district responses to start.

“I really need to concentrate on learning McMinnville,” he said. “I really need to concentrate on learning Yamhill County and everything involved with here and the different responses.”

In meetings with staff, Blake shared his philosophy of selflessness.

“You make your decisions based on what’s right for the community, what’s right for the organization, before what’s right for yourself,” he said. “And that’s the same standard that I hold myself to is, you know, we can’t be selfish. We are here to respond on calls; we are here to be to master our craft, if you will. And that’s what I’m trying to do, is I’m trying to continue to master my craft as I get older.”

Blake and his wife rolled into town in an RV and will be moving into an apartment this week. After settling in, they’ll look for a permanent home, he said. Blake expects to continue his career in Mac for at least several more years.

“I told the board three to five years, I think it’s going to be on the longer side because I enjoy this so much, and as long as things are going well here and I’m doing what I need to do, and, you know, the board’s happy, the chief’s happy, and the staff’s happy, that’s my goal.”

Blake joins MFD following the departure of former Division Chief Amy Hanifan. Division Chief Aaron Schoof will move to lead training and EMS and has agreed to remain with the district for two more years, according to Chief Reed Godfrey.