Melissa Steele has seen firsthand the devastation a wildfire can cause. She not only lost her home in the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, but worked for Cal Fire at the time, trying to save other people’s lives and property. That fire was one of the deadliest and most destructive in California history. Now she’s the first Deputy Fire Marshal of Wildfire Preparedness for Bend Fire & Rescue.
“We have to change the culture of how we look at wildfire,” she told the Source. “Wildfire is on people’s minds, but not as much as it should be.” Steele has worked in the fire service industry for 24 years and for Bend Fire since 2022 as a fire inspector. A big part of her newly created position is providing homeowners with a wildfire risk assessment of their property through the city’s free “Own Your Zone” program. That teaches people steps they can take to protect their homes, such as storing firewood 30 feet away from structures and removing other flammable materials like bark dust within a 5-foot radius of a home. Steele says the number of home assessment requests went from 115 annually to 500 requests so far this year. Each assessment takes about an hour. Bend Fire & Rescue also provides services through Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District #2, expanding its coverage area to nearly 1,500 square miles. Steele’s job also includes applying for grants and keeping up to date on state and federal laws which may impact firefighting.
“The other aspect of it, which is kind of exciting, is that the City of Bend is now involved in an innovation project where we are meeting several hours a week — we meaning city officials, myself, another chief from the fire department — and we are trying to figure out how we get the education, wildfire education out to the community.” Steele says that’s expected to be a 10-month project.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler says the topic of wildfire preparedness has been a frequent topic of interest from the public during City booths at local events, comments submitted to City Councilors and from community organizations like neighborhood districts. The general feedback is about the need for more education about home hardening and creating defensible space. It’s included in the City Council’s goals, which Kebler says helped craft Steele’s new position.
“Having Melissa focused solely on wildfire preparedness will allow the City to be more responsive to the community’s wishes for education and resources and provide consistent service and presence that can foster impactful relationships and noticeable data-driven progress,” Kebler told the Source. “This work requires a subject-matter expert with greater capacity, who can engage the community as their priority, and Melissa is well-suited for this role.” The City has created a section on its website with information about wildfire preparedness, found at bendoregon.gov.
One way Steele is getting the message out is by meeting with various homeowners associations. She tailors the advice to specific terrain. The west side of Bend is surrounded by a thick forest while the east side is a flatter, Juniper woodland, which creates different fire behavior, Steele says. Within the city itself, many homes were developed with wooden fences directly connecting homes.
“There is currently no building code for wildfire at this time, so they [developers] pretty much can do whatever they want,” Steele says. “Now, a lot of developers have taken wildfire precautions and are starting to put rock around homes and develop homes in ways where they’re a little farther apart.”
“While there’s currently no required wildfire prevention code for new developments, upcoming 2026 policy discussions will include potential development code changes around such things as fence and landscape materials, flammable vegetation code and building code updates, as well as wildfire community engagement,” Kebler says. “Community members and neighborhood organizations have come forward to request specific changes to the City’s code that would address building materials and other regulations to make them more fire-adapted.”
“That first 5 feet of the fence should be removed and should be replaced with a metal gate,” Steele says, “or some kind of noncombustible metal privacy panel in that first 5 feet. Research has shown that as the fire burns down the fence line, it literally stops 5 feet away from the home and goes out.”
Steele was awarded the Bend Fire & Rescue Appreciation Award for exceptional service in fire safety and community outreach after only a year of working with the department. In 2023, she earned the title of National Fire Academy Instructor, teaching a Fire Adapted Communities Course at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Emmitsburg, Maryland, sharing her knowledge of how to create wildfire-ready communities on a national stage.
“I’m passionate about it. I see the need for it. I really do think that it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when we are going to have a big fire event, and it’s not going to be good. We have a lot of homes that aren’t prepared.”
Even though the City is taking steps to educate the public, look at building codes and create a new position focused solely on wildfire prevention, Steele says none of it will matter if homeowners don’t take action.
“I just think that it’s really important that people start to take some autonomy for what their role in becoming a Firewise community is… A lot of people are saying, ‘well, what’s the City doing to protect me?’ And it’s actually the opposite… The community needs to start protecting themselves, so that we have the capacity to go help them,” Steele says. “It’s very important to understand that if a firefighter is driving by your home, they only have 90 seconds to assess the structure. They have 90 seconds to say, ‘Yep, this is save-able or no, it’s not’ and move on to the next one. So you want your home to be the one that they stop at. We always tell people, you do your part and then that helps us do our part, and that’s where the community effort comes together.”
Kebler agrees. “We continue to rely on homeowner accountability and neighbors helping neighbors. To be successful, we need everyone to do their part to keep our community safe.”
This article appears in the Source October 9, 2025.
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