Wildfire Safety & Prevention

In Oregon, fire season is a period of time when the combination of environmental factors and human activity increases the risk for wildfire. It usually starts around late spring (May or June) and lasts until fall (October or November).

Annually, PGE makes an internal fire season declaration, which initiates operational changes and different system protections that help reduce wildfire risk:

• Heightened safety protocols and changes to the way we operate our system in certain areas.

• Changes to work practices including the addition of fire-related tools and equipment on trucks for our crews.

• Enhanced monitoring and communication in coordination with fire agencies, other public sector resources and utilities.

Preparation is a year-round effort, and everyone has a role to play. Planning checklists and resources are available on portlandgeneral.com/be prepared:

• Have an emergency plan that includes where you can go in the event of an extended outage, especially if you rely on electricity for a medical condition or medication.

• Create an outage kit with items including flashlights, headlamps, extra batteries, battery-powered clock or watch, car chargers for phones and electronic devices, bottled water for people and pets (including livestock, if your water pump relies on electricity), frozen cold packs or frozen water (bags or bottles) to help keep food cold.

• Update your contact information with PGE so we can send you proactive notifications in the event of a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). You can update your information online at portlandgeneral.com, use the PGE app or call PGE’s Customer Service team at

  503-228-6322 or 800-542-8818.

• Contact your city or county emergency management office to learn how you actively reduce wildfire risk by establishing defensible space around your home or business. Defensible space is the buffer you create between your home or business and the grass, trees, shrubs, or any wildland area that surrounds it.

The safety of our customers and communities is one of PGE’s top priorities. We proactively and comprehensively work year-round across our service area to reduce the risk and impact of wildfires.

• System hardening and equipment upgrades. We proactively maintain and upgrade our equipment to increase resilience, reduce outages and mitigate wildfire risk.

  • Deliberate and targeted approach to converting overhead power lines to underground power lines in High Fire Risk Zones.

  • Since 2019, we have installed almost 1,000 iron utility poles in specific areas to make our system more resilient against wildfire.

  • Installing covered conductor, which is an insulated overhead power line designed to bolster power reliability and reduce wildfire risk.

• Vegetation Management. Our service area includes more than 2.2 million trees and approximately 12,000 miles of overhead power lines. We conduct routine, year-round tree-trimming and vegetation management. In addition to routine tree-trimming, we also conduct enhanced vegetation management in High Fire Risk Zones.

• Remote monitoring. We have a network of high-definition AI fire detection cameras that provide 24/7 visual observation of our High Fire Risk Zones as well as large portions of PGE’s service area. These systems alert PGE and public safety partners to potential wildfire ignitions and provide 360-degree fire detection triangulation capability, accurate to within 100 yards.

• Weather monitoring. PGE’s meteorologists monitor weather conditions daily. Our network of weather stations provides detailed weather data, which supports making operational decisions, including when we should initiate a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). We share our weather station data publicly to improve regional forecasting and aid in the analysis of extreme weather events.

• Smart Grid technology. We have protective devices in our High Fire Risk Zones that sense when there is a problem on the line (for example, if a branch or other debris contacts it) and automatically shuts off the electricity to prevent damage.

  • These smart switch devices can also be controlled by grid operators to increase operational flexibility, reduce outage duration and minimize the number of customers experiencing a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS).

  • These devices generate additional benefits by improving reliability in all seasons for customers and providing additional situational awareness for PGE.

• Coordination. We work closely with local, state and federal agencies and Tribes to plan for wildfire and other emergencies. Collaborating with and maintaining strong relationships with these organizations helps us coordinate and plan for emergencies before they happen, so if an emergency happens, we are ready to work together.

High Fire Risk Zones (HFRZ) are areas within PGE’s service area that are at higher risk for wildfire and more likely to experience a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). The pre-identified areas include:

1. Mt. Hood Corridor / Foothills

2. Columbia River Gorge

3. Oregon City

4. Estacada

5. Scotts Mills

6. Portland West Hills

7. Tualatin Mountains

8. Northwest Hills

9. Central West Hills

10. Southern West Hills

11. Salem Hills

12. Chehalem Hills

Visit portlandgeneral.com/psps to view an interactive map that shows the high-risk areas.

We have a network of 37 high-definition AI fire detection cameras that provide 24/7 visual observation of our High Fire Risk Zones as well as large portions of PGE’s service area. Over 215 users across 50 agencies (fire, emergency management, communications) are actively using this network.

These systems alert PGE and public safety partners to potential wildfire ignitions and provide 360-degree fire detection triangulation capability, accurate to within 100 yards. The camera network’s real-time data feeds, predictive capabilities and machine learning algorithms automate fire detection, awareness and notifications, allow PGE to proactively manage risks and enable a faster response by emergency response agencies,

Our network of over 80 weather stations provides weather data at a granular level. This real-time data delivers deeper understanding and forecasting about how weather could impact our system as well as broader weather awareness across our service area. We share our weather station data publicly to improve regional forecasting and aid the analysis of extreme weather events. You can find PGE’s weather data on the National Weather Service’s Weather & Hazards Data Viewer and MesoWest Surface Weather Maps.

In addition to the weather station data, our meteorologists closely monitor fire activity briefings, fire potential forecasts, and fire weather forecasts before and during fire season from National Weather Service offices around the region, including Portland, Seattle, Pendleton, and Medford.

Watch: High-tech weather stations

To help prevent wildfire, we operate our electric system more conservatively in select locations during fire season and on days when there is increased fire risk due to factors like high winds, dry conditions, or high temperatures. This results in power turning off more quickly when faults occur.

While this approach increases safety for customers, it may lead to more frequent or longer outages. We will always do our best to minimize impacts to customers while prioritizing safety during dangerous wildfire conditions.

We have powerline protective devices that detect when there has been contact with a powerline, which can be caused by branches, animals, or debris. These devices will automatically shut off the electricity to that section of powerline to prevent damage.

In normal system settings, these protective devices will make up to three attempts to automatically restore power when there has been contact with the powerline. During times of higher fire risk (usually during fire season), we increase the sensitivity settings of the protective devices, so it only attempts to automatically restore power once.

On red flag warning days or when there is extreme fire risk, we disable the automatic restoration feature of the protective devices, so the power turns off after a contact is made with the powerline. When this happens, we send crews out to inspect powerlines and other equipment before the power can be safely turned back on. And while this approach increases safety for customers, it may lead to more frequent or longer outages.

We focus these system settings on our High Fire Risk Zones (HFRZ) and communities located in heavily forested areas like the Wildland Urban Interface. PGE also can adjust system settings across our service area based on weather, heat or other variable risk conditions to increase protections from wildfire in areas that may not be in our HFRZs.

Sensitivity settings are all about safety. Due to the increased sensitivity, particularly during fire season, customers in areas at higher risk for wildfire may experience longer outages, especially when we need to send crews out to inspect powerlines and other equipment before power can be safely turned back on.

However, the historical impact of these enhanced settings on system reliability has been minimal. Since 2019, PGE's high fire risk zones have expanded significantly, with line mileage quadrupling and the number of customers in these zones tripling. Even with this growth, the average number of minutes customers experienced outages has not increased proportionally.