TO REPORT AN EMERGENCY: DIAL 9-1-1

Cost Recovery/False Alarms

In April 2022, the Board of Directors adopted Resolution 22-01 amending Ordinance 18-01 Section G adopting cost-based fees and rates for the Fire Marshal’s Office plan review fees and establishing flat rate fees for construction and operational permits. In November 2019, the Board of Directors adopted Resolution 19-06 amending Ordinance 18-01. Ordinance 18-01 adopts cost-based fees and rates for Fire District provided services. The Board of Directors has determined that it is fair, reasonable, and appropriate to collect the costs of providing certain services and limited such fees to cost recovery only and prohibits the generation of revenue from such fees.

Prior to initiating cost recovery for false alarms, you may receive a mailed or emailed warning letter that notifies you that you have had two or more false alarms during the calendar year. Emailed warning letters will come from costrecovery@clackamasfire.com.

Clackamas Fire District currently contracts with Systems Design West (SDW) for our cost recovery billing. If you have a question pertaining to a bill you have received from them, please call: 360.336.0420.

For false alarm billing, the invoices sent by SDW on our behalf will look like this, click here. These invoices will either be mailed to the business address or emailed. Emailed invoices will come from clackamasfd1@sdwems.com.

If you have received a bill for ambulance transport from Systems Design West (SDW), you can visit their website for more information or to make a payment.

The following are brief descriptions of the type of fees established and adopted by the Board of Directors. These descriptions are not intended to be the full text or explain all detail of the ordinance. The full text of the ordinance is available at the bottom of the page.

Alarms: Fees may be imposed for repetitive false (nuisance) responses to fire and medical alarms. No cost recovery fee shall be imposed for the first false fire alarm or medical response to any occupancy during a calendar year. Cancelled enroute false alarms are billable events.

Open Burning: Fees may be imposed for repeated, egregious, purposeful, or any violation during high and extreme fire danger.

Transportation Route Response: Fees may be imposed for responses on certain transportation routes against which no taxes or assessments for fire protection are levied by the District.

Unprotected or Inadequately Protected Area Response: Fees may be imposed for responses to incidents in unprotected or inadequately protected areas outside of District boundaries.

Ambulance Transport Fee: Fees may be imposed if the District transports a patient to an emergency room or helicopter landing zone using a District ambulance, it may invoice the patient and/or the patient’s insurance using the contracted ambulance transportation billing agent.

Non-Emergency Facility Response: Fees may be imposed for certain non-emergency requests for assistance from assisted living, residential care, or nursing facilities. Cancelled en route requests are considered billable events. The fee for providing a non-emergent lift assist to a resident at a licensed care facility shall not exceed $250.00 for the first lift assist. The fee for a second lift assist requested in the same calendar year at the same facility shall not exceed $450.00. The fee for three or more lift assists in the same calendar year at the same facility shall not exceed $850.00 per lift assist. Cost recovery fees would be billed to the facility, not the individual resident.

Fire Code Inspection and Enforcement Fees: Fees may be imposed for fire and life safety occupancy inspections, re-inspections, other documented actual costs of enforcing the fire code. May include the costs to obtain inspection warrants.

Public Records Request: Fees may be imposed for records request for public documents. The District will not impose a fee for public records requests for incident reports from residents or patients if the work entails less than one-quarter hour of staff time and the documents pertain to or involve the requester.

Facility Rental and Training Classes: Fees may be imposed for training facility rentals or training classes.

Hazardous Materials Response: Fees may be imposed for response to hazardous materials incidents and remediation. Fees may be imposed regardless of a State hazardous Materials Team response.

Utility Assistance: Fees may be imposed for responses to requests from utilities for assistance (e.g., wires down, gas leaks, water main leaks).

Technical Rescue: Fees may be imposed for responses requiring technical or specialty rescue equipment or training.

Acquired Structure Live Event (Burn-to-Learn): Each request for assistance to demolish an existing structure by fire will be evaluated on an individual basis. The fire district will charge the property owner a flat fee of $4,000 for acquired structure live fire events. Property owners will, also, need to establish a fire-watch at your property for 24 hours after the live fire event or burn-to-learn. You may designate yourself as the fire-watch or you may hire someone. There is no fee or need to for fire-watch if the Fire District conducts non-fire destructive exercises within your structure.

Fire Department Access & Water Supply: The flat rate fee will cover the Fire Marshal’s Office costs for the following services:

  • Commercial projects: pre-application meetings, plan review for fire department access and water supply, acceptance testing, building finals, and certificate of occupancy inspections.
  • Residential projects: pre-application meetings and plan review for fire department access and water supply. The fire department does not conduct building finals for residential properties.

For more detailed descriptions of the fees or for more information, click here for Resolution 19-06/Ordinance 18-01.

Skip to content