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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2016)
Page 8A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Wednesday, July 6, 2016 KOVACH: Wants to focus attendance efforts on younger students Contributed photo by Ricardo Lara Extensive damage to a house on West Crockett Lane in Milton-Freewater can be seen after the home caught ire Monday night. An oficial cause is yet to be deter- mined but residents suspect ireworks. FIRE: District 1 responded to four ires cause by ireworks Continued from 1A never burned during a ire- works show before. “Usually with the prevailing winds and the way they shoot, we’re good,” he said. Stanton said there was only one truck on scene at the bottom of the butte when the ire started because District 1 was also standing by for the Stanield show, in addition to responding to a dumpster ire and a separate brush ire at the same time. In total the department responded to six ires, four of which were caused by ireworks. One not related to ireworks was a structure ire on Southwest 23rd Street early Monday morning, which caused signiicant damage to the attic of a home. Stanton said it seemed like a fairly average Fourth of July weekend. “We’ve seen busier,” he said. In Milton-Freewater, the cause of a house ire on West Crockett Road late Monday night is still under investiga- tion by the Milton-Freewater Fire Department, but one of the home’s residents, Ricardo Lara, believes it was caused by neighbors’ ireworks. He lived in the home — which is a total loss — with his mother and brothers, as well as two of his brother’s children that spend 50 percent of their time there. He said the family shot off some of their own small, legal ireworks before bed but heard other, louder ireworks late into the night. “We kept hearing them closer and closer,” he said. “I was dozing off and the next thing I know my brother is telling me the house is on ire.” They tried to hose down the house and pull out what possessions they could, he said, but “we didn’t get much.” The Red Cross assisted the family with temporary shelter, and Lara said family friend Lucy Munoz has set up a GoFundMe account for them and is taking donations while they work with the insurance company. Pendleton Fire Chief Mike Ciraulo said his department responded to a total of 11 ireworks-related ires over the holiday weekend. He said there was one “amazing” house ire save where a quick-thinking neighbor managed to put a ire out themselves before the ire trucks arrived, preventing what could have easily been a multi-structure ire. Ciraulo said only using legal ireworks, reading instructions carefully and keeping them well away from brush can help prevent most ires. “I would say that the majority (of ireworks-related ires) are caused by illegal use,” he said. “The second leading cause would be misuse of legal ireworks, or a misunderstanding of how “We kept hearing them closer and closer. I was dozing off and the next thing I know my brother is telling me the house is on ire.” — Ricardo Lara, resident of Milton-Freewater house destroyed by ire they work.” He said the ground bloom lowers, which emit sparks as they spin around on the ground, are some of the worst offenders because they have a tendency to go spinning out of control and into nearby shrubbery that is often highly lammable in spite of its green appearance. Ciraulo said ireighters would much rather see people head to the nearest commu- nity ireworks show instead of lighting off their own. Those shows tend to cause ires, too — Pendleton Fire Department put out eight different spots of ire caused by the city show — but at least the ire department is standing by ready to intervene the moment a lame is visible. In Ione, the ireworks show was actually cut off due to a ire sparked by falling embers. The all-volunteer ire department couldn’t be reached Tuesday, but a post on the Ione 4th of July Facebook page noted that the show was cut short due to a brush ire that started shortly after the show began, but “our volunteer iremen were on it quick and have it out.” Despite the ires, Nick Bejarano, spokesman for Good Shepherd Health Care System, said the Hermiston hospital didn’t see any ire- works-related injuries in the emergency room over the weekend this year, including smoke inhalation caused by ires. He said the hospital, too, urged people to carefully read the directions if they were going to set off their own ireworks. Less than an hour after the Fourth of July weekend oficially ended at midnight, ireighters from Hermiston and Pendleton were called out to a large brush ire on Highway 37 near Pendleton. Ciraulo said it grew to about 500 acres, and there was a lare-up again later in the day, but so far there was no indication that it was caused by ireworks. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian. com or 541-564-4536. Sale In Progress Saager’s Shoe Shop Up to 50% Off Milton-Freewater, OR Save 10 cents instantly when you use your Sinclair Green Card • With 3 sites to serve you • Sinclair Top Tier Gasoline with Dino Care • Quality fuels at competitive prices • Premium Non-Ethanol Gasoline now available ONLY at Blue Mountain Express 4412 Westgate Pendleton location Continued from 1A student performance. At his previous job as the principal of Ontario High School, Kovach helped raise graduation rates from the low 50s to a shade under 70 percent. Kovach said his transition to Pendleton will be made easier by the groundwork the district has already started. Answering questions during an interview at Lincoln Primary School earlier in the day, the evidence of this groundwork surrounded Kovach as workers from Kirby Nagel- hout Construction busied themselves converting the former elementary school into the district’s new central ofice. Thanks to a $55 million bond, Kovach is entering the district with two new elementary schools, an early learning center, a career technical education center and improved facilities across the district. Kovach said the district’s continuing focus on career technical education is important in making sure every child’s aspiration is addressed, whether that be a four-year university, a community college or entering the workforce straight out of high school. “We need to meet the children where they are,” he said. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Incoming Pendleton Schools Superintendent Andy Kovach chats Tuesday with Jason Terry, of Kirby Nagelhout Construction, about the renovation of Lincoln School into administrative ofices. Kovach also said the district needs to focus its attendance efforts on younger students who hadn’t been ingrained with absentee habits. “In short, it’s too late by the time they reach high school,” he said. At the meeting, Kovach also presented a plan for his irst 100 days as superinten- dent. The plan acted as a guide to the leader he wanted to mold himself into, opening lines of communication with the district’s various constit- uencies and identifying the best improvement methods for the district. “I have three promises,” Kovach told the board. “I want to tell the truth, I want to make decisions based on what’s best for kids and I want to keep an eye on the budget. My experience has been if you can do those three things as superinten- dent, you can go a long way towards running a successful program.” Having oficially started the job July 1, Kovach was only into his second workday of his irst 100 days as superintendent and is just starting to settle into his McKay Creek home. Kovach grew up in Salem but made a career in Eastern Oregon, having served as a teacher and administrator in Ontario, Nyssa, Harney County and Crane. “I’m not allergic to sage brush,” he joked. Kovach, 51, brings his wife Becki, his son Jeff, a high school senior and his 22-year-old daughter Gabri- elle. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0836. BRIEFLY ISIS tightens grip on captives held as sex slaves KHANKE, Iraq (AP) — The advertisement on the Telegram app is as chilling as it is incongruous: A girl for sale is “Virgin. Beautiful. 12 years old.... Her price has reached $12,500 and she will be sold soon.” The posting in Arabic appeared on an encrypted conversation along with ads for kittens, weapons and tactical gear. It was shared with The Associated Press by an activist with the minority Yazidi community, whose women and children are being held as sex slaves by the extremists. While the Islamic State group is losing territory in its self-styled caliphate, it is tightening its grip on the estimated 3,000 women and girls held as sex slaves. In a fusion of ancient barbaric practices and modern technology, IS sells the women like chattel on smart phone apps and shares databases that contain their photographs and the names of their “owners” to prevent their escape through IS checkpoints. The ighters are assassinating smugglers who rescue the captives, just as funds to buy the women out of slavery are drying up. UK’s Iraq War report could make grim reading for Tony Blair LONDON (AP) — Thirteen years after British troops marched into Iraq and seven years after they left a country that’s still mired in violence, a mammoth oficial report is about to address the lingering question: What went wrong? On Wednesday, retired civil servant John Chilcot will publish his long-delayed, 2.6 million-word report on the divisive war and its chaotic aftermath. The U.S.-led conlict killed 179 British troops and some 4,500 American personnel. It also helped trigger violence that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and still rocks the Middle East. And it overshadows the legacy of former Prime Minister Tony Blair. “Despite all the many other things he did — and many people would argue lots of positive achievements — he will always be remembered for this fateful decision in 2003,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director- general of defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute.