(Dru and Leslie Pade | Photos by Jeff Spry)
Adding a flavorful facet to the lives of Central Oregonians, Dru and Leslie Pade’s Fire Proof Salt & Seasoning Co. offers a savory variety of small-batch smoked salt and spice blends inspired by the Sisters-area firefighters and EMS personnel that helped save their Whychus Canyon home from the devastating Flat Fire last year.
That dangerous wildfire that first erupted on August 21, 2025 just northeast of Sisters eventually raged across 23,000 acres and caused the evacuation of roughly 4,000 homes, including the Pade’s. Those daring fire crews, hotshot teams and first responders became the inspiration for this small business which just launched its products at the Sisters Farmers Market this summer.
“My husband and I come from a medical background, we’re both registered nurses,” Leslie tells CBN. “We wanted to pivot and try something new and different that we could do together up in our community. One of our bigger focuses and why we started the business is that we wanted to give gift baskets to fire stations to keep and use. We call it ‘Stock the Station’ and we have a space on our website where you can go to order and sponsor a station with however many seasonings and we’ll send them directly to them. We found out that very often firefighters pay for their own groceries. It depends on the fire station.”
All of Fire Proof’s natural salts and rubs are handcrafted with smoked sea salt or smoked spices and are free from MSG, gluten or any artificial flavors. The Pades also partner with local fire districts and national wildland firefighter organizations, with ten percent of their profits being diverted to firefighter and EMS crews in Oregon.
Another component of this spicy new business is to continue to build upon an online firehouse directory. Customers can go onto the official website and find a link to discover where all the regional stations are located, their phone number, and what areas they serve.
“After we were evacuated from the Flat Fire for about ten days, we came back to our neighborhood up on the canyon and everything smelled smoky like a campfire. So we came up with the idea that we would smoke our salt and use it in all our seasonings and have them fire-themed. So the names we use are all fire-related, like Hotshot Cajun, Campfire Catch, Wild Fire, and Five Alarm. Right now we have our plain smoked salts and seven other seasoning blends. I think where we’re heading is more seasonings and rubs. We’ve had some requests for some salt-free and sweet mixtures so we may expand upon doing some different varieties.”
Currently Fire Proof has been a regular vendor at Sisters Farmers Market all season this year and they recently started selling their wares at the La Pine Farmer’s Market. Plans are also in the works to be stocked at some area holiday boutiques come Christmastime.
“We use a cold smoke process which doesn’t have any heat and we smoke with applewood wood chips,” she adds. “So it’s a milder, less acrid type of smoke you get. We found a great company out of New Zealand that makes a good cold smoking process. We’ve been working on our recipes and our licensing since the beginning of the year. Our first product was our gift basket to the Oregon Wildland Firefighters in May and then in June when Sisters Farmers Market kicked off. We’ve had really positive response and we’re learning from other vendors. All our interactions with the fire teams have been amazing and getting to know more about our local fire station. It was so fun to go down there and take them their big barbecue gift basket.”
For event schedules and more information visit the Fire Proof Salt & Seasoning Co. website.
fireproofsalt.com • info@fireproofsalt.com • 541-907-1696
