FROM PAGE ONE
Saturday, auguSt 14, 2021
tHE OBSErVEr — A5
that most of the country’s fire-
fighting resources are tied up.
To track the potential for wild-
fire events, forestry and wildfire
experts use Energy Release Com-
ponents to determine the fire risk
of a certain region. The ERCs
reflect the contribution of all live
and dead fuels to potential fire
intensity, according to the North-
west Interagency Coordination
Center. The measured ECR levels
of most of Northeastern Oregon
had been breaking almost every
record on the books by the end of
July.
On Aug. 1, those numbers had
dropped considerably — albeit
due to the precipitation that came
along with thunderstorms.
“It just takes a spark,” said
Peter Fargo, a public affairs officer
with the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest. “It really is down
to that level, now.”
FIRE
Continued from Page A1
At the base, each member has
a name tag on a thin magnetized
strip stuck to a wall in the opera-
tions center. Of the nearly 40 fire-
fighters, all but three have their
incident commander qualification.
Names are shuffled up and down
the load list as fires are fought
across the region.
Andrew Goshgarian’s name
was on the top of that list on
Monday, Aug. 9. When a name is
at the top, the next fire is theirs.
They don’t leave the station. Their
bags are packed and ready for the
call. Their boots stay on. They
wait.
Kyle Johnson answered his
phone in the operations center that
afternoon. It was a fresh dispatch
to a wildfire several miles south
of La Grande. He shuffled over to
the intercom at the Grande Ronde
Rappel Base and spoke into the
intercom.
“First load,” he said clearly.
Moments prior, Lauren Mills
was exercising in the base’s gym.
Mason “Eddie” Gustafson was
plucking away at a guitar in the
equipment bay. They were now
scrambling into their firefighting
gear. In 10 minutes or less, they’d
need to be on a helicopter heading
toward the fire.
Crew members quickly donned
their helmets, flight suits and belly
bags — sacks containing tools,
equipment and personal effects.
Gabby Casper, a firefighter not on
the first load list, asked if anybody
wanted a pocket burrito. Tulley
Bloom sent a quick text to a loved
one before heading out to the
helicopter.
Casper then watched from the
operations center, radio in hand,
as the crew’s Bell 205A-1 flew
over the runway and toward the
southern horizon.
When it reaches the fire, the
chopper will make left-hand
orbits, allowing the spotter and
incident commander to plan from
above, sizing up the fire and deter-
mining where to drop. When
ready, the microphone booms are
stowed and the team relies on hand
signals. The first two firefighters
drop at the same time. Then the
next two prepare to drop.
Once every boot is on the
ground, the firefighters immedi-
ately grab their tools and begin
the unglamorous work of digging
trenches and containment lines. It
is slow, meticulous, arduous work.
Often, the firefighters will sleep
overnight near the fire.
They stay until the fire is out,
which can sometimes mean sev-
alex Wittwer/The Observer
Grande Ronde Rappellers sit in the passenger hold of a Bell 205A-1 helicopter during training on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
alex Wittwer/The Observer
Lightning strikes over a hay field near Island City on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. The
thunderstorm was responsible for several fires over the weekend, including a fire
near Spring Creek and Interstate 84.
eral days of work. They touch
every inch of the fire zone. There’s
no room for error this season. A
six-hour fire watch is held. If no
fire crops up, the firefighters can
declare the fire out. Only then can
they leave — but the helicopter
ride was a one-way ticket.
The firefighters trek out of the
blaze covered in soot, carrying
nearly 130 pounds of gear each.
Each fire leaves its stains on the
fabric of their Nomex clothing.
They’re picked up, returned to
base, and their name returns to the
bottom of the list.
And then they wait.
Marathon of a season
Nationally, resources remain
spread thin as the fire season
matures — already, 169 fires
have started this year in Eastern
CENSUS
people in than out.”
Continued from Page A1
Housing update
dropping from 306 to 245.
In Baker City, the pop-
ulation from the census
increased from 9,828 in
2010 to 10,099 in 2020.
However, based on popu-
lation estimates from 2010
to 2020, the population
decreased by 0.2% from
2010 to 2019.
Pendleton’s popula-
tion grew from 16,612 in
2010 to 17,107 in the 2020
census. Based on popula-
tion estimates, the city’s
population increased by
1% from 2010 to 2019.
According to Charles
Rynerson, coordinator
of the Oregon State Data
Center at Portland State
University, Oregon saw a
large number of new resi-
dents from other states and
other countries.
“In most Oregon coun-
ties there were more deaths
than births, (and) that’s
only going to accelerate,”
he said. “In order to stave
off loss, those counties will
be expected to move more
A number of cities,
including La Grande, are
under a housing shortage,
which was reflected in the
census results. The county
ranked 24th in Oregon in
housing unit vacancy rate,
a tool used to measure the
percentage of available
housing. This measure-
ment calculates the per-
centage of vacant or unoc-
cupied units in a region.
The rate for the county is
7.5%, an increase of 1.4%
since 2010.
According to La Grande
City Manager Robert
Strope, the census num-
bers will have little impact
on the city’s housing
plans moving forward,
but census numbers can
impact population-based
funding.
“We just finished a
pretty comprehensive
housing needs analysis and
adopted a housing produc-
tion strategy that looks
specifically at La Grande
and our needs,” he said.
TEEN
they have said vaccination
is the best way to prevent
severe disease, hospitaliza-
tion and death.
Before Aug. 12, Oregon
had reported only three
COVID-19 victims younger
than 20 out of more than
2,900 fatalities.
They are a 15-year-old
Marion County boy who
died in May, a 19-year-old
Marion County man who
died in December and a
newborn boy from Uma-
tilla County who died in
January.
The Oregon Health
Authority announced 22
new cases of COVID-19 in
Union County on both Aug.
12 and 13. That total comes
after the state announced 16
Continued from Page A1
family after they lose three
family members in such a
short time is hard. It’s even
harder when it’s preventable
by getting a vaccine. Disin-
formation is Deadly!! Vac-
cines Save Lives!!”
Fewer than half of
Union County’s adults
are partially or fully vac-
cinated against COVID-
19, the 11th lowest rate in
Oregon, according to state
data. State officials have
said about 80% of July’s
deaths across the state
were among people who
were not vaccinated or
not fully vaccinated, and
Oregon, according to the Blue
Mountain Interagency Dispatch
Center. The outlook is precarious.
“We already have record over-
time hours,” said Casper.
The rappel team in Eastern
Oregon consists of two trans-
port Bell 205A-1 helicopters, one
Sikorsky CH-54B skycrane heli-
copter and 37 dedicated individ-
uals whose instincts were trained
to run toward danger.
According to Driskell, aerial
fire assault vehicles are helpful to
battling fires, but it takes the work
of firefighters to completely ensure
the fire is out.
“If you’re just dropping water
on something, you’re not actu-
ally stopping it. You’re slowing it
down,” Driskell said.
To ensure safety, rappel crews
undergo at least four personal
inspections prior to entering the
“The sampling that is
done through the census
isn’t going to be nearly as
helpful as the stuff we’re
doing in-house.”
Neighboring counties
Two of Union County’s
adjoining neighbors, Uma-
tilla and Wallowa coun-
ties, both saw identical
increases of 5.5%. Uma-
tilla County created a com-
plete count committee
in 2018 with the mission
of ramping up efforts to
acquire an accurate count
in the census. Additionally,
Umatilla County Commis-
sioner George Murdock is
one of six commissioners
in the U.S. who serves on
the National Association
of Counties Census 2020
Working Group.
Morrow County experi-
enced the largest population
growth from 2010 to 2020
out of any county in Eastern
Oregon, expanding 9.1% to
12,186. In Southern Oregon,
Grant County was the only
county in the state to expe-
rience a population decrease
based on census data.
new cases on Aug. 11.
The new cases put the
county at 1,905 known
cases since the pandemic
began last year.
The state reported seven
new cases in Wallowa
County on Aug. 12 and six
new cases Aug. 13, raising
its total to 286 cases
during the pandemic. The
county has had six deaths
since the pandemic started,
according to the state.
Union and Wallowa
counties’ total was part
of 2,387 new confirmed
and presumptive cases of
COVID-19 across the state
Thursday and 1,785 Friday,
bringing the state total to
238,463 cases since the start
of the pandemic.
helicopter. As well, the team trains
bimonthly, though on Wednesday,
July 21, that training was inter-
rupted by a wildfire reported
northwest of Mount Emily in
Union County.
It was a small fire burning less
than an acre after overnight light-
ning ignited the delicate and dry
brush on July 20.
The crew shifted mindsets
from training to execution. Those
heading to the fire grabbed their
gear and began inspecting them-
selves and their comrades before
boarding the helicopter.
Casper stood back and took a
video of the departing helicopter
on her phone.
“It’s going to be a marathon of
a season,” she said. “It’s already
super wild.”
‘It just takes a spark’
“We’ve been experiencing
August-like conditions since
late June and we’ve been seeing
record-breaking August conditions
since the second week of July,”
said Noel Livingston, the fire man-
agement officer with the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest.
“That’s what’s in front of us, and
that’ what has us on the edge of
our chairs.”
The United States entered into
National Wildland Fire Prepared-
ness Level 5 on July 14. It was
the earliest start date in 12 years,
and the second earliest in more
than two decades. The prepared-
ness levels are a metric measuring
both fire activity and unallocated
resources. At Level 5, it indicates
Census participation
In Union County,
census participation efforts
were delegated to indi-
vidual cities. Strope noted
that funding from the
national level, such as the
American Rescue Plan Act
of 2021, can see changes
based on population totals.
“A number of our
funding sources are based
on population, so it’s really
important to have as accu-
rate of a population count
as we can through the
census,” he said.
Each person in a county
brings in $3,200 per year
in federal government
payments, which illus-
trates the importance of
responding to the census.
According to the Census
Bureau, the government
funding based on the
‘The cavalry’s not there if
we needed to call them’
Resources such as firefighters,
tankers and initial attack crews
move around throughout Oregon
over fire season — prior to thun-
derstorms, the area might receive
bolstered forces through other fire-
fighting groups such as the Red-
mond Smokejumpers.
But scrambling wildland fire-
fighters across the state, how-
ever, means that less resources
are available to fight other fires.
With nearly 20,000 firefighters
working fire lines across the
nation, it’s caused some concerns
of shortages.
“The fires we’re dealing with
have a high resistance to control,”
Livingston said. ”We’re emptying
the barn to pick these fires up.”
Livingston continued by
stating that Eastern Oregon
was well-staffed via drawdown,
which leaves critical initial attack
resources in susceptible regions.
In less explosive years, some
forest fires are allowed to burn
themselves out. This year, for-
estry officials aren’t taking any
chances.
“Things are just too dry for
us. The cavalry’s not there if we
needed to call them,” Livingston
said.
The picture painted by the
senior fire official is alarming —
and confirms that this season is
unlike any other experienced in
Oregon’s history of wildfires.
“Resources are stretched thin
across the country,” Fargo said.
“At the same time, we need to
keep our local resources here so
they can respond to lightning
strikes, and to campfires that go
awry.”
census is directed toward
roads, fire departments,
health clinics and more.
“We very much encour-
aged people to do their
census, it was a high pri-
ority for Union County,”
Beverage said.
The 2020 census
was the first to be avail-
able online, but the pan-
demic still caused issues,
according to Beverage.
Obstacles also arose in
North Powder and Union,
where mail is delivered to
post office boxes instead
of direct mail. The census
forms also were sent to
households via email,
but not all residents have
internet access.
According to Rynerson,
mailing issues in Eastern
Oregon communities were
a focus of emphasis during
the 2020 census.
“In places where people
get their mail at post
offices, it was a big con-
cern,” Rynerson said.
“Hopefully they were able
to follow up with those
households, but it was a
concern.”
Since the census is not
mailed through post office
boxes, the Census Bureau
uses other methods such as
dropping questionnaires at
the doors of households in
communities where people
utilize the post office to get
their mail.
“It was a little harder
with the pandemic, not
being able to knock on
doors and that kind of
thing,” Beverage said. “It
took a lot longer, but we
put notices out and worked
around it. The efforts were
definitely hindered by
COVID.”