March 30, 2020 3:20 a.m.
In response to the impacts of COVID-19 on Oregon, the Office of State Fire Marshal has suspended regulations over self-service stations and has implemented measures to ensure the health and safety of gas retailers according to a release issued on Saturday.
State Fire Marshal Jim Walker said “during this unprecedented time of state emergency, we need to ensure that critical supply lines for fuels and other basic services remain uninterrupted”.
The release said through April 11th gas stations must prepare, implement and enforce social distancing policies consistent with guidance from the Oregon Health Authority. They must require an attendant to be on duty to supervise self-service refueling consistent with the social distancing policies and help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through sanitization measures. An employee must be designated at each station to implement and enforce the social distancing policies.
While the change means that gas stations can let customers pump their own gas during this time, it is not mandatory and can be decided by individual stations.
More information about the temporary measure is available through this link: https://www.oregon.gov/osp/programs/sfm/Pages/Self-Service-Rules-Change-FAQs.aspx