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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 2018)
2A ܂ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 ܂ APPEAL TRIBUNE Garden Continued from Page 1A New this year Visitors can expect new design and light displays this year, including scenes like Candy Land with soundactivated lights and Princess Castle Land. Some displays will be familiar to re turn visitors, including giant flowers and Candy Cane Tunnel, which was the first light display created at Christmas in the Garden. “People love the lights, and I would say those flowers are a big hit,” Hatteb erg said. Christmas in the Garden truly has something for everyone — singles, cou ples and families alike. To better accom modate families with smaller children, they have added feeding chairs, chang ing tables and outlets to the Family Pri vacy Lounge. If your kid is getting antsy, let them run wild in the new Kid Corral, adjacent Firefighters Continued from Page 1A white ash.” The crew of four stuck together at all times, constantly checking on each oth er. The hardest part, mentally, was see ing the devastation, he said. “You were always on the edge,” Rush er said. “It was a fear of the unknown. You’d search one property and you’d be relieved you didn’t find anything. But you were always asking, ‘What am I go ing to see?’” Fighting fire, searching for life The wildfire ravaged Paradise in about three hours, knocking down tele phone poles and wires and leaving piles of rubble where a hospital, grocery stores and homes used to be. Fighting burning eyes and raspy throats, Koenig and his team spent their first 24 hours searching street by street for signs of life. “It was like coming into any ordinary suburban neighborhood you could think of,” he said, “except nine of the 10 homes were completely burnt to the ground.” Koenig was the engine boss. His team consisted of apparatus operator Scott Mateson and firefighters Joe Jacobucci and Brandon Madura. The Marion County Taskforce was made up of crews from Mount Angel, Woodburn, Jefferson, Silverton and Marion County fire districts plus the Sa lem and Keizer fire departments. Their days were scheduled in blocks — 24 hours on, 24 off. While offduty, Koenig’s team retreated to a Chico fair ground called the Silver Dollar where about 5,500 firefighters repaired equip ment, sharpened tools, ate and slept. Every morning, they drove 10 min utes to Paradise wearing fire resistant uniforms, eye protection, helmets, gloves and laceup boots. After 26 years of fighting fires, Koenig said butterflies still attack his stomach when he heads to a call. “I wouldn’t be telling you the truth if I said it didn’t give me a little anxiety,” he said. “When we’re starting fires or standing on dozer lines and 80foot trees are on fire, that’s a little bit excit ing.” The crew started fires to thwart the wildfire’s advance — one of many con tainment tactics. The crew used torches and ignition pistols to shoot out flames, applying force in the opposite direction to make the Camp Fire lose momentum. The fire “sounds like a freight train, or large jet is right next to you — and it’s hot,” Koenig said. to the Family Privacy Lounge. It’s cov ered and fenced in, allowing kids to get out of their strollers and explore. The Europeaninspired event has had Germanthemed food in past years. But the menu has been expanded for 2018 to include tacos, tamales and pizza, along with bratwurst, fondue and pret zels. Other new additions include a larger ice skating rink, a holiday concert by The Trail Band and a Christmas Market Season Pass, which allows unlimited access to the event for the season. And to make it easy for visitors to have the best experience, organizers have created itineraries tailored to cer tain demographics. “There (are) just so many things here, it is hard to communicate all of the op tions,” Hatteberg said. “We just figured that would be an easy way to get it out.” The five options include: Koenig and his wife talked every oth er day and texted regularly. Lynne — who coaches teachers at Woodburn High School — also received updates from another firefighter’s wife. Lynne said she doesn’t worry about her husband’s ability to battle fires. “He knows how to do his job,” she said. She’s more concerned about the emotional toll. When he’s on the front lines, “I al ways ask him for details,” she said. “I need to know what he’s coming home with.” For Lynne, there’s no room for doubt. “I just expect that he’ll come home.” But she said their 17yearold daugh ter — one of two children — seemed more affected by her father’s deploy ment this time because of all the media attention. Koenig’s family greeted him Sunday as the crew returned to the Woodburn Fire Station. “The first words out of his mouth were ‘Happy anniversary’,” Lynne said laughing. “It can be celebrated at any time — it’s just a date.” Firefighters recover veteran’s medals Rob Martell’s inlaws fled their Para dise home of 25 years on Nov. 10, aban doning most of their possessions. A few days later, Martell, his brother inlaw, Scott Rowe, and father inlaw, Stephen Rowe, returned to where the home once stood. A single wall re mained, the rest reduced to smoke and ash. The Woodburn crew was there, searching for latent fires, and pitched in to help the family look for surviving heirlooms. Sifting through the ruins, the fire fighters recovered 15 of 18 war medals that once hung on a game room wall. “They were in disbelief when we found them,” Koenig said. “We found one or two at the same time, and sud denly, there was a little spark as (Ste phen Rowe) began to remember where he’d received those honors.” Although they’d been damaged, Koe nig said the inscriptions were still leg ible. When they parted ways, Martell praised Koenig and his team on Face book — a post that has garnered more than 4,000 likes and 3,000 shares. “The kindness they showed was just invaluable,” Martell said. “I just want recognition for those firefighters. The impact they left was immeasurable.” ‘It looked like a bomb went off’ After 30 years as a career firefighter, Polk County’s Capt. Rusher said the Bank-issued, FDIC-insured 1-year 2-year Winter Break Hangout Tailored for: People who want to come during the day, families Activities: Ice skating, snowless tubing and warming up at Frosty’s Fam ily Room; option to come back at night for lights, market and Santa Tailored for: Visitors with young Tailored for: Family with teens Activities: Sign a waiver and drop your teens off, purchase a fun pass which includes admission, ice skating and unlimited snowless tubing, bring money to buy food and drinks while walking through the lights For more information, visit www.christmasinthegarden.com. Abby Luschei is the entertainment re- porter for the Statesman Journal; she can be reached at aluschei@statesman- journal.com or 503-399-6747. Follow her on Twitter @abbyluschei or facebook.com/luscheiabby. Interested in telling a story at one of the upcoming Salem Storytellers Project events? Submit a story here: storytellersproject.com/salem/speak. devastation in Paradise was unlike any thing he’d ever seen. “It looked like a bomb went off,” Rusher said. “I hope my newest fire fighter never sees anything like this again.” Rusher led three volunteers — engine boss Lt. Jim Burke and firefighters Lt. Stephen Hoem and Ryan Cox — from the Polk County Fire District. They joined 22 other crew members on the Lincoln County Taskforce. The firefighters worked in silence. “That was the eeriest part,” Cox said. “It was so quiet, because there was nothing. If you started your engine, that was probably all you could hear for blocks.” On one of their first nights they pro tected a cemetery from fires burning nearby, including a wooden tombstone dating to the 1800s. The cemetery “meant a lot to those folks,” Burke said. “There are families in there from forever.” For six days they protected a few hundred homes threatened near Para dise and Oroville. It was the same routine for each home: Blowing needles and parched leaves from the roofs, cleaning gutters and filling them with water and clearing the ground surrounding the structures. “We were basically this professional landscape crew,” Rusher said. “We knew that if a fire came through, I think it would’ve saved the majority of them.” The tactics can increase the odds of a home’s survival by 55 percent, he said. Other days were spent digging con tainment lines. Using a road as a fire break, the crew would strip away nearby wood, grass and leaves. “By taking away all of that fuel ... it will burn up to that point and stop,” Rusher said, although embers could oc casionally fly to the other side causing spot fires. Some things survived against all odds. Despite the devastation, Burke said many American flags were still intact. “Every flag we came to that was on a house — the house was gone, but the flag was somehow still there.” It inspired the team. Cox bought an American flag and draped it over the fire engine — a daily reminder to stay strong. “When something was hard, we’d say ‘America is strong’,” Rusher said. “I could imagine (Cox) flying that flag on his fire engine for the next 30 years.” Contact the reporter at vbarre- da@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399- 6657. 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OR-SAL0008134-35 kids, grandparents Activities: Enjoy hot chocolate, let kids go to the Kiddie Corral while adults watch from a Christmas Cabana, ice skating, take photos with Santa and eat at Frosty’s Family Room Skate Extravaganza Date Night Compare Our CD Rates 6-month even friends Activities: Ice skating, snowless tubing, shopping at the market, live mu sic in the Biergarten and sipping Gluh wein while walking through the lights Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309 To Place an Ad Phone: 503-399-6773 Classifieds: call 503-399-6789 Retail: call 503-399-6602 Legal: call 503-399-6789 Fax: 503-399-6706 Email: sanews@salem.gannett.com Web site: www.SilvertonAppeal.com Missed Delivery? 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