WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Volunteer recruitment gets unexpected boost
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Two months in, Marcus Andrews’ job became much
more difficult.
Hired in January through a FEMA grant to recruit
and retain volunteer firefighters for the fire depart-
ments in Stayton and Sublimity, Andrews was formu-
lating an aggressive plan for hitting every community
event in the two cities.
Then everything was canceled due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Even his backup plan for slow days of standing in
front of stores like Safeway, Roth’s and Ace Hardware
to hand out fliers and talk with people was no longer
viable.
But since the start of the year, around a dozen peo-
ple from the communities have showed interest in be-
coming volunteer firefighters through a combination
of social media outreach and the desire to help in a
time of crisis.
“Fortunately for us, what we found is there is a
number of people in the community who either have
past experience or are interested in being a volunteer
and with the coronavirus stuff, they wanted to find a
way to help,” Sublimity Fire Chief Alan Hume said.
Need for volunteer firefighters
Rural fire districts like Stayton and Sublimity rely
on volunteer firefighters for about 90% of their crews,
and many have seen their pools of volunteers shrink in
recent years.
With Andrews largely handcuffed to a desk at the
Stayton Fire District the past four months, he has had
to get creative to draw in potentials, using means like
social media to reach people who are largely trapped in
See RECRUITMENT, Page 3A
Stayton Fire District Chief Jack Carriger, left, and
Assistant Chief Jay Alley discuss an approaching
hot-weather weekend. Before them are two of the
district's new apparatuses, a command vehicle in the
foreground and wild-land fire-fighting rig next to
Carriger. JUSTIN MUCH | STAYTON MAIL
INVESTIGATION
Terwilliger
Fire was
human
caused
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Elisha and Joshua Nightingale outside of their restaurant, Cast Iron Cafe, in Mt. Angel.
CATHY CHENEY / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
A Mt. Angel cafe
is reborn, twice
Cathy Cheney
Special to Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Just a few miles into Silverton on North Water
Street, Joshua Nightingale and his wife, Elisha, were
finally living out their dream of owning and operating
a coffee house. For over three years, Live Local Cafe
has become a downtown staple, always bustling as
part of the heart and soul of this community. Think
“Cheers” only in a coffee shop.
Such success sparked an idea: Why have one suc-
cess when you can have two? So when a building
opened up in Mt. Angel, Nightingale pounced on the
opportunity.
The couple brought in former chef of Oregon Gar-
dens, Michael Guerrero, to run a menu of “comfort
food with a modern twist” while the restaurant as a
whole would have a “classic and rustic feel.” By the
end of 2019, Cast Iron Cafe was born -- open and ready
for business. Success was at the tangible horizon -
and then the pandemic happened.
As of March 15th, 2020, all restaurants were man-
dated to close indoor dining; devastation to any busi-
ness owner, but especially those burgeoning into
adulthood like Cast Iron Cafe. The Nightingales tried
to stay open, using a drive-through window for pick-
up orders, but after only a few days in Cast Iron be-
came another COVID-19 casualty.
“It was a very hard decision, but after analyzing the
high costs of reopening we decided to close for good,”
Nightingale said. Burger Time, a longstanding trade-
mark of Mt. Angel, closed its doors due to the man-
date.
And then, the community stepped in.
“The community came and (asked), ‘How can we
See CAFE, Page 3A
UO working on less invasive
testing in Marion County
Saliva samples would be used
rather than nose swabs
Jordyn Brown
The Register-Guard
The University of Oregon is in the samples-gather-
ing phase of developing a new, less invasive COVID-19
test to increase testing capacity in Lane County and
other communities, while making it more accessible
to everyone.
UO’s COVID-19 Monitoring and Assessment Pro-
gram is developing a test that would rely on saliva
samples instead of the more common tests from
swabs in the nose and throat.
“Many other institutions and facilities across the
U.S. now are looking for ways to validate and use sali-
News updates: ❚ Breaking news ❚ Get updates from
the Silverton area
Photos: ❚ Photo galleries
See FIRE, Page 4A
va because it is just much less invasive, it will end up
ultimately costing much less and I think it will allow
us to offer more equality in terms of access to testing,”
Leslie Leve, UO’s associate vice president for re-
search, said during an online information session in
late June.
The hope is that by creating a simpler method in
which a person only has to spit into a sample tube, it
will make access more equitable because it would not
require a health care professional to perform the test
such as using the nose swab.
Once the project is authorized by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, UO anticipates it will be able to
process up to 5,000 tests a day.
But there are more steps to take.
First, UO needs to get an emergency-use authori-
See TESTING, Page 2A
Vol. 139, No. 31
Online at SilvertonAppeal.com
Terwilliger Hot Springs is a different place than it
was two years ago.
Once shaded by emerald forest and an old-growth
canopy, the trail and iconic hot springs pools east of
Eugene are now singed with black and brownish
trees, the ground barren, and the forest open and hot.
“It’s just a very different place,” said Darren Cross,
McKenzie River district ranger for the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice. “We still have dead trees coming down. The un-
derstory vegetation hasn’t really returned yet. It feels
a lot more exposed. People still love it, but it’s a differ-
ent experience.”
Terwilliger, also known as Cougar Hot Springs,
was transformed by one of the largest and scariest
wildfires of 2018 — an an inferno that sparked sud-
denly on a dry August day and trapped 20 people be-
hind a wall of flames.
“We were just soaking and having a great time,
when all of a sudden somebody came running up the
trail and said, ‘Hey, there’s a fire and you need to
evacuate,’” Robert Noble, who lives in Springfield,
told the Statesman Journal in 2018. “We just started
running. The fire had just started to cross the path
when we got there. We put our towels over our noses
and mouths and ran through the flames that were
four to six feet tall.
“It was like a movie.”
Everyone escaped unharmed, but the fire roared
up the ridge and spit flaming embers a quarter-mile
across Cougar Reservoir, igniting a second wildfire
and would fuel a blaze that burned 11,555 acres, cost
$40 million and closed the hot springs for 10 months.
The Forest Service, which managed the wildfire
and forest, said previously the fire was human-
caused, but didn’t release the investigation report for
almost two years, citing an “ongoing investigation.”
The Statesman Journal obtained the report after
numerous requests under the Freedom of Informa-
tion Act, although all names, many places and some
details were redacted.
In it, fire investigators described how the wildfire
was born from a burning stump at a popular party
spot, escaped attempts to put it out with a fire ex-
tinguisher and bottled water, and eventually roared
out of control.
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The Terwilliger Fire grew rapidly on Wednesday
near Cougar Reservoir. US FOREST SERVICE