To the community:

We, the board of Central Oregon Coast Fire and Rescue, state in no uncertain terms that we condemn the reprehensible statements made by Chief Ewing of Seal Rock Fire District in his February 1 email, which was made public in a posting on Facebook on February 23.

The email, which was sent from Chief Ewing to 39 members between East Lincoln County Fire District and Seal Rock Fire District’s paid and volunteer staff, made many inflammatory, false, and abusive claims about other fire districts, including COCFR.

We are grateful to the one anonymous recipient of this email who had the courage to make the email public. This individual, “Concerned Citizen,” forwarded the email with their own statement of disappointment to many local officials, including the Lincoln County District Attorney, state and local officials, several journalists, other fire districts (including ours), and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. We do not know the identity of this individual.

It is clear that there is no place in the fire service for this type of hate, cruelty, vengeance, and sabotage represented by Chief Ewing’s February 1 email. It violates the mutual aid and professionalism the public relies on between fire districts for their personal safety and protection of property. No duty officer of any kind should ever spew this kind of rhetoric about another public entity, elected officials, or members of the public.

We hope and expect that the Seal Rock Fire Board will take immediate action and, with full transparency, report to the public on the steps taken to remedy the harm this ongoing attitude has done to the community, surrounding fire districts, and individual targets of the February 1 email.

We want to assure the public that COCFR will continue to provide the service you all have come to rely on and that it will continue uninterrupted in the professional manner you have come to expect. We will, as always, continue to support our neighboring districts through the mutual aid agreements that are in place and, indeed, due to a deep commitment to public safety and the value of every person in our district. Rest assured you are safe.

We will have more to say on the details of this incident and the underlying causes as it is investigated. We also will be reaching out to the noted authorities to provide any information or documentation as required to assist in the investigation.

For further background:

The February 1 email in question can be seen at this Facebook link, posted on February 23:
https://www.facebook.com/susan.swander/posts/pfbid0ZEKctoPLUGV1MW51tuNQ6dnEQ2n7Bmww7Su4XRULGT3KYdMdsMzunB2Cn4MoyovPl

Late January meeting referred to in the February 1 email:
https://yachatsnews.com/seal-rock-fire-board-meeting.../

Follow-up regarding that meeting:
https://yachatsnews.com/seal-rock-fire-board-member.../

Statesman Journal Article:
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/.../orego.../9164420002/...

Yachats News Article:
https://yachatsnews.com/seal-rock-fire-board-votes-3.../...