How to Prepare for Wildfire Season in Oregon (2023)

As summer months continue to grow hotter each year, the risk of large-scale wildfires in Oregon continues to increase. Many people in Oregon live in high wildfire-risk areas. It’s essential to prepare ahead of time for wildfires to ensure you and your family can safely evacuate. In this blog, we lay out how to be informed of utility shut-offs, how to prepare for wildfires, and planning for emergencies.

Be Informed on Utility Shut-Offs

Oregon electric utilities will be using public safety shutoffs as a last resort. Shutting off power during fire season is itself a public hazard. Shutoffs can interrupt cell phone service, delay emergency response, and endanger the health of residents. Many people need home cooling and electricity access to manage medical conditions. Shutoffs are particularly hazardous when they coincide with extreme heat waves.

Not all areas are subject to these preventative outages. Only customers in certain high-risk zones will see public safety shutoffs.

At the time of high wildfire risk, utilities may shut off power to try and mitigate the risk of a fire. In order to stay informed on utility shut-offs in your area, each utility company has a different way of receiving alerts.

Portland General Electric:
Sign up for text alerts through your account.
Download the PGE app for up-to-date alerts.

Pacific Power:
Sign up for text alerts through your account.
Download the Pacific Power app for up-to-date alerts.

Idaho Power:
Sign up for text alerts through your account.
Download the Idaho Power app to receive real-time alerts.

For more in-depth information on wildfire emergencies and alerts, Download the FEMA mobile app to receive details on large-scale wildfires. During an emergency declaration, FEMA updates its app to ensure people have access to up-to-date evacuation information.

Prepare Ahead of Time

Having a clearly laid out emergency plan that everyone in your household knows is very important. There are many ways to develop an emergency plan with your household and each household is different. The Department of Homeland Security has created a helpful, interactive outline for disaster planning.

Make sure once you have your plan in place, everyone in your household understands the plan and reviews it every few months.

It’s Time to Evacuate, What’s in Your Go-Bag?

It’s essential to have a go-bag ready in your house in case of an emergency. Each person’s go-bag contents may vary, but there are some essentials that every go-bag should have:

• An N95 Respirator for every household member
• 1 gallon of water for every person, per day, for several days
• A five-day supply of nonperishable food for every person in your household
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and an NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
• Flashlight
• First Aid kit
• Extra batteries
• Whistle
• Hand sanitizer, moist towelettes, and toilet paper
• Can opener
• Solar cellphone charger or a fully charged battery-powered cellphone charger
• A five-day supply of any important medications

These items should be placed in an easily accessible space in your home. If you are able to, it is recommended you grab any important personal documents like your passport along with your go-bag.

Stay Up to Date on Oregon Utility Issues

CUB will continue to advocate for people in Oregon on major utility issues. Sign up for the CUB email list for the latest updates, action alerts, and news on policies that affect the utilities your home relies on.

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