OREGON CITY, Ore. (KOIN) — A now-defunct paper mill is getting a new life as a training ground for fire fighters before becoming part of a historic site.
The Blue Heron paper mill, which sits along the Willamette River near the Willamette Falls, can be used to practice all kinds of situations. Firefighters with the Clackamas Fire District trained there this week and will train again Sept. 5-7.
“This is what we call a ‘down and dirty drill,'” Lt. Steve Hoffeditz with the Clackamas Fire District said. “We make it so it’s hard to see inside and we have downed victims inside all kinds of scenarios.”
The space even allows trucks a chance to set up ladders in tricky spots.
“We love being able to use stuff like this,” Hoffeditz said.
The project is years in the making, and the fire fighters’ training ground will actually become something much different down the road.
Oregon City, Clackamas County, Metro and the state have been working on a revitalized look for the historic place through the Willamette Falls Legacy Project. The riverwalk centerpiece will connect downtown Oregon City to Willamette Falls, the second largest waterfall by volume in the United States.
“The design concept has us reusing a lot of the existing structures but also cleaning up a lot of the buildings that can’t be reused,” project manager Bryan Moore told KOIN 6 News.
The cleanup will take a while and groundbreaking on the project isn’t until next year. Phase one is set to be complete in 2022.
“It’s really an opportunity to reclaim the falls and to return them a little bit more to what they were before all the industrial activity,” Moore said.