The Knappa Fire District protects about 100 Square Miles of Clatsop County. Our District runs from Bradley Summit on Highway 30 to the city limits of Astoria.

In 2020 the Knappa Fire District responded to over 550 calls for service. This included fires, medical, public assists, HAZMAT, wildland fires, and Automatic/Mutual Aid calls.

The District was formed in 1955. Our first fire calls were answered with a volunteer crew and a Crown Zellerbach Corporation tender. In 1956 the District purchased it’s first apparatus, a 1948 Ford with 1000 feet of 2 1/2” hose and 40 feet of 1 1/2”. To initially have the Fire District respond to your home you had to dial GLobe 8-3651. This number would ring to six different residences and the Fire Hall. These people, in turn, would then activate a phone tree to active the District’s volunteers. In 1955 the District responded to six fires with an average of five volunteers per call.

The District was also supported by the “Volunteer Firemen’s Ladies Auxiliary” or “Ladderettes.” This organization helped the District fundraise for equipment by hosting costume dances, smorgasbords, carnivals, and rummage sales.

In 1957 the volunteers participated in the Districts first “Standard Course on First Aid.” This qualified 13 personnel as “First Aid Men.”

The District has had several annexations over the years and two mergers (one with Brownsmead and more recently with John Day-Fernhill).