News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
(Left-right): Doug Maahs, Jeff Joston, James McNellis and Rob Spear are among the GFP Enterprises firefighters who are battling Oregon's wildfires.
As raging infernos blaze out of control across Oregon, a Sisters company is supplying equipment and manpower to attack the fires.
GFP Enterprises of Sisters operates with a low profile out of offices on the corner of Main Avenue and Larch Street. But the company's contribution out in the field is significant.
"We run a wildland firefighting company," said Don Pollard, owner of GFP Enterprises.
The company has eight full-time employees and 140 on-call firefighters during the spring-fall fire season.
They've been plenty busy.
"We started in early May this year and haven't stopped," Pollard said.
Private contractors are becoming more and more common in the world of wildland firefighting, as the federal government cuts back funds that used to pay full-time firefighting teams.
With private industry operating on an as-needed basis, taxpayers are seeing a more cost-effective approach to firefighting.
"It's a competitive industry," Pollard said. "I would say 1999 was the year private industry really started to take off. Of course 2000 was a huge fire year, and that's when the industry really got on its feet."
Firefighting may be steadily becoming privatized and competitive, but federal guidelines and regulations still hold sway and safety is the number-one focus.
"You don't cut any corners; you do things right because you're dealing with people's safety," Pollard said.
GFP Enterprises firefighting recruits are put through an intensive four-day course that teaches safety and survival techniques and provides hands-on experience digging a fire line.
That's not as simple as its sounds.
"There's an art to it so that you don't die after six hours doing it," Pollard said.
Wildland firefighting is physically demanding work, conducted under the most difficult conditions in heat, dirt and danger.
"It's very hard work and all these guys have a very strong character to stick to it," Pollard said.
The real test comes on the fire line, where long hours, back-breaking labor and exhaustion test the mettle of the most determined firefighter.
"They find out if they can do it -- if their heart's there -- when they get out there," Pollard said.
For those who succeed in becoming pros, wildland firefighting becomes a kind of calling.
"It is a way of life," Pollard said. "The guys who do this have to make a sacrifice."
That sacrifice is not only the heavy physical toll. Wildland firefighters can be away from home for weeks at a time, sometimes with no contact with their families.
"It's demanding from a family standpoint -- basically the whole family makes a commitment," Pollard said.
To make sure that he keeps in touch with the hard work his firefighters do, Pollard gets out on the line himself every year. This year, he spent a week on the Durango Fire in Colorado.
Pollard is quick to emphasize that he is not the only one who makes GFP Enterprises run. He eagerly sings the praises of his leadership team of co-owner Doug Gannon, Paul Asher, Brett Miller and John "Doc" Brown -- all experienced firefighters and strong leaders.
"They make my job a heck of a lot easier," Pollard said. "I don't have to hold their hand. They make this company run as much as I do."
Manpower and expertise are not the only resources GFP Enterprises offers. The company has seven brush engines and one tender that are also contracted out on fires. GFP had engines on the Geneva 2 fire near Sisters and elsewhere in the state.
The Sisters Ranger District has contracted for one of the GFP engines to put on its strike team for the whole season.
Pollard came to contract wildland firefighting by a circuitous route. His background is in accounting (he still maintains a modest accounting practice). His first contact with the business was a position as a controller at Ferguson Management Company, the largest fire contractor in the nation, where he eventually became an owner.
Both Pollard and Gannon grew up in Prineville, where Pollard graduated from high school in 1985. Wanting to locate in Central Oregon, the men chose Sisters as a base.
"The community here is excellent, the schools are excellent," Pollard said. "God's blessed us to be here."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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