2020 Clackamas Wildland Fires

A series of large wildfires starting in mid-August 2020 and burning throughout Oregon coalesced into the state's largest deployment of wildfire response resources and one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in Oregon's history. Clackamas County was particularly impacted. "The two large fires that impacted Clackamas County were the Clackamas Fire Complex (11,210 acres) and the Riverside Incident (138,054 acres, 139 structures lost and 4 injuries)." On request from Clackamas County Emergency Management, NET volunteers operated an evacuation center from September 11 to September 18. This deployment was the first time NETs operated independently on a large incident, covering multiple response capabilities. This article is an After-Action Report for the deployment.

Scope

This after action report (AAR) focuses on the response of Portland’s Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) volunteers to 2020’s wildfire siege of Clackamas County . Wildfires raged in Clackamas County from August to December, but (as Clackamas County is outside NET’s service district) NET volunteers responded to support Clackamas response efforts only as needed, from September 11 to September 19, 2020 .

This AAR mostly recounts NET deployment to the Clackamas Town Center evacuation site . However, NET volunteers also served briefly at other evacuation sites: the Oregon Convention Center and United Methodist in Oak Grove . This AAR makes observations and recommendations relevant to NET volunteers, NET Team Leaders, and NET Coordinators for future deployments and exercises.

Clackamas Fire District #1 completed a more comprehensive AAR of the Clackamas Fires, available at https://clackamasfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-01-21-AAR-Executive-Summary-Final.pdf.

Methodology

Assessments were requested by participants immediately after the deployment, but the AAR was not completed until June of 2021 (COVID response delayed completion) . This AAR includes the following inputs:

• 

  Card handed to evacuees at the Clackamas Town Center before the evacuation center closed.