In 1991, James Hall joined the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Eastern Oregon.
Today, Hall is the fire chief of the agency, leading its response to structural fires, wildland fires, and calls for ambulance transportation services in a coverage area spanning hundreds of square miles.
In February, Hall was appointed by Governor Tina Kotek’s Office to serve a three-year term on the Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council, making him the first tribal representative to serve on the council in its history.
A bill passed by the Oregon Legislature last year made changes to the council’s membership, including a requirement that one of its members be a fire agency representative from one of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes.
Hall shares his recent work on the council and efforts to advocate for all tribal fire agencies in the state.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I am Dave Miller. In 1991, James Hall joined the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter. Today, he is the department’s fire chief, leading its response to structural and wildland fires, along with calls for ambulance services in an area that spans hundreds of square miles. Earlier this year, Hall was appointed by Oregon Governor Tina Kotek to serve on her Fire Service Policy Council. He’s the first tribal representative in the council’s history. James Hall joins us now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
James Hall: Hi, good afternoon, David. It’s good to be here.
Miller: I mentioned that you started 35 years ago as a volunteer. Why did you want to become a firefighter?
Hall: The Tribal Fire Department was an all-volunteer department, and its conception was in 1990. I was going to Blue Mountain Community College, and I saw it as an opportunity to do something that I’ve really admired over a lot of years. My dad previously worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and he was on a fire crew, so it kind of extended on.
Miller: So all volunteer at that point. That’s not the case anymore. How much has the department grown just in the time since you started 35 years ago?
Hall: The first paid positions, we were solo shifts, one person on, backed up with volunteers. And then we went to two people on, and with a crew of two, we started operating an ambulance service. As that grew, all the way up till 2020, when I took over as fire chief … It’s very unique. In 2020, Umatilla County and Umatilla Indian Reservation got hit with a 100-year flood event. And the fire chief at the time, Rob Burnside, and I have had conversations about when he was looking at retirement and when I would be possibly moving into the position as fire chief. With a 100-year flood event, what I thought was six to eight years down the road, happened in two weeks.
So there’s been a lot of internal growth within myself. We’re currently staffed at 18. That is six people – firefighter, captain, paramedic – per shift.
Miller: Do you have enough people power overall, whether it’s paid staff or volunteers, to meet the demand?
Hall: So when you run an ambulance service – this is across the country – [they] provide about 80% of your call volume. So 80% of it’s emergency medicine. And today, with emergency medicine being after COVID, it really became social medicine. So a lot of our calls are not necessarily emergency medicine, it’s aches, body aches, not feeling good, and they’re using ambulance services for that.
Miller: But tying up … I mean, getting calls, and then those are calls for service that you have to go out on.
Hall: That is correct. We don’t have the option. Someone [fell] and maybe has an ankle pain or ankle injury, it could have been caused from the start of a heart attack. So, we treat every call as emergent until we deem otherwise, once we arrive on scene and do a patient assessment.
Miller: Do you face different challenges than non-tribal agencies?
Hall: Absolutely. One of the biggest challenges is how expensive it is to run a fire service, fire and/or EMS services. What’s unique about the tribes is we’re a non-tax basis. So where a municipal fire department or fire district would have either levies or property taxes, the tribes don’t have that ability to tax on reservations. It’d be taxation without representation. So, my service that we rely upon, it’s called a voluntary fee for service and helps offset the cost of our operations, but the majority of my funding comes from the tribe. A good portion of it also comes from grants and contracts.
Miller: I mentioned that you’re the first tribal member on the governor’s Fire Service Policy Council. You had your first meeting in April. What was it like?
Hall: I’ve been in several meetings. I was on the Oregon wildfire funding work group. It’s called the Fire 35, and it was very similar. I felt really privileged to be there. I’m a representative of all nine tribes, and I want to make sure that that representation is across the board. I reached out to all nine tribes prior to this meeting, asked all eight tribes, excluding myself, to do a questionnaire. I’m presenting that to the council in the next meeting.
Miller: What are some of the themes that emerged from the responses you got from the other federally-recognized tribes?
Hall: It’s a wide variety. So there are a few tribes that are just like the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation here that [are] considered in all hazards, meaning they respond to all types of hazards, whether it be wildland, structural, ambulance services, EMS services. And then there are tribes that are just very basic. They provide, maybe, a Department of Natural Resources, they do wildland fire – but that’s all they do.
So, every tribe that I spoke to during the questionnaire is looking at bettering their capabilities. The capabilities protect both Natives and non-Natives because the reservations are all checkerboarded. Ownership is crossed all [across] Oregon. And for myself and my department, we’re part of a Tri-County mutual aid agreement, which really spans 6,503 square miles. So the more capabilities I have in this department, the better off I’m protecting the state of Oregon.
Miller: Just before we say goodbye, how are you feeling broadly as we get into the heart of this year’s fire season – a season that, with historically low snowpack and a dry spring, could be really challenging?
Hall: Being in the fire service for 35 years, this is probably the mildest winter I’ve seen. Our snowpack isn’t there. So, the likelihood of catastrophic fires happening this year is pretty high. We have pre-fire season meetings with all the agencies. I just had one just a few weeks ago here in my fire department. And we talked about all the potentials. The potential is there, and it doesn’t take rocket science. You can just look out your window and see how dry it is, and we’re just starting the month of June.
Miller: James Hall, good luck and thanks very much.
Hall: Appreciate it, Dave.
Miller: James Hall is the fire chief of the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
