Controversy Simmering in Seal Rock, OR, Fire District

A power struggle in an Oregon coastal fire district erupted this month after a fire chief who accused a board member of corruption said in a leaked email he was “after blood.”

In an explosive Feb. 1 email to fire district employees, Seal Rock Fire District Chief Will Ewing accused board member Mike Burt of undermining his leadership and conspiring with the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue district to sabotage Ewing’s efforts to recruit volunteers.

“Mike Burt,” Ewing wrote in the email, which became public last week, “has no ability to see himself as being wrong. But he is so wrong.”

The controversy has led to a request this week for the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to weigh in and concerns among some community members of a toxic environment at the rural fire district, which is located in Lincoln County, 10 miles south of Newport.

“I don’t feel safe in my own agency, let alone my community,” an unnamed recipient of one of the fire chief’s emails said in an anonymous message to officials and media outlets last Friday.

YachatsNews first reported on the fire chief’s controversial email and the ethics commission request.

Reached by phone Friday, Ewing said he does not regret sending the email or targeting a board member. “I may have said something that was a little bit too colorful, but I don’t think I’ve said anything that’s not true,” he told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

A contentious history between the two fire districts and their boards dates back to at least 2020, when they began sharing equipment and firefighters, according to YachatsNews. At times, board members of each fire district have rallied together to challenge chiefs over disagreements about agency priorities. Those fights resulted in the 2021 firing of the previous Seal Rock fire chief and the attempted ousting of the Central Coast fire chief, according to YachatsNews.

The Seal Rock Fire Board of Directors hired Ewing as fire chief in 2022 and directed him to reduce paid staff and expand the agency’s volunteer firefighter program.

In the email, Ewing defended his initiatives to build the volunteer program and accused Burt of conspiring with the Central Coast fire district to “sabotage Seal Rock.” He compared his battle with the Central Coast fire district to the Tet Offensive, a series of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong attacks across South Vietnam in 1968.

The email came one day after a heated Jan. 31 Seal Rock board meeting in which Ewing and another board member made similar accusations against Burt and threatened to initiate a recall campaign against him, YachatsNews reported at the time.

“Last night was my first counter attack,” Ewing said in the email. “We have taken the hits silently for three years. Now I am after blood.”

At a Feb. 20 board meeting, Burt called the accusations “meritless” and said he would not resign, YachatsNews reported. He also offered Ewing a chance to move forward from the controversy.

“I am asking Will Ewing to take command, to chart our course,” Burt said, according to the news outlet. “I am giving him a choice. He can continue this battle, with probably no winners, or end it right here. I hope he will choose to inspire me once again.”

Ewing told The Oregonian/OregonLive that his conflict with Burt has been resolved. “We are back on an operational basis, as far as that’s concerned,” he said. “There’s no real issue at this point between board members and the fire chief.”

But that hasn’t marked the end of the controversy.

Ewing’s email prompted the Central Coast board on Thursday to issue a public statement condemning his statements and asking the Seal Rock board to take “immediate action” to address the harm caused by the email.

“It is clear that there is no place in the fire service for this type of hate, cruelty, vengeance, and sabotage,” the board said in the statement. “No duty officer of any kind should ever spew this kind of rhetoric about another public entity, elected officials, or members of the public.”

The Central Coast board also asked the state ethics commission to investigate the ongoing situation.

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