July 21, 2017
CapitalPress.com
7
Another Carlton wildfi re three years later
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Capital Press
FRESNO — New product
awards and a keynote address
by “Supermarket Guru” Phil
Lempert will highlight the
seventh annual Fresno Food
Expo on July 26-27.
Introduced in 2011 by city
leaders to promote San Joa-
quin Valley agriculture, the
expo aims to put producers
from the eight-county region
in touch with food service
company buyers from around
the world.
Organizers have since add-
ed an awards program for new
products, varietals and pack-
aging concepts, which this
year has 28 entries.
Winning last year’s Peo-
ple’s Choice Award provided
a boost to Terra Bella, Ca-
lif.-based ARO Pistachios,
chief executive offi cer Adam
Orandi said.
“Since our participation in
the 2016 Fresno Food Expo,
our e-commerce site has seen
a 30 percent boom in activity
and our company and rep-
utation have been elevated
into the international arena,”
Orandi said in an email. “We
are excited about the great
opportunities this year’s expo
will bring.”
Winners of this year’s
Buyer’s Choice and People’s
Choice awards will be an-
nounced at the July 26 open-
ing reception for pre-regis-
tered buyers and sponsors.
Kicking off the expo at the
Fresno Convention and En-
tertainment Center will be a
speech by Lempert, a food
trends expert who hosts a
weekly radio show.
Lempert will discuss the
new retail environment and
the role of millennials and
technology in the changing
marketplace, according to or-
ganizers.
A trade show July 27 will
showcase more than 140 area
growers, producers, brewers
and winemakers for entered
buyers. Later that evening, a
public portion, called Expo-
licious, will allow local res-
idents to sample foods from
local producers.
Participation by buyers has
grown fi ve-fold since the ex-
po’s inception, with more than
900 attending last year’s event,
organizers say.
“We have the most agricul-
turally rich region in the nation,
which has spurred the creation
of innovative food companies
and products that are unique
to our region,” expo general
manager David Nalchajian
said in an email. “It just feels
right to talk about that ... and
the Fresno Food Expo gives us
a local, national and interna-
tional platform to do so.”
Tickets for the public por-
tion are $50. Visit www.fres-
nofoodexpo.com.
Courtesy Fresno Food Expo
Attendees sample foods with ingredients grown in the San Joaquin
Valley during the Fresno Food Expo in 2016. The seventh annual
expo will be July 26-27.
WASH.
OKANOGAN
NATIONAL
FOREST
20
Area in
detail
Canyon Creek
Fire, active*
Okanogan
Twisp
20
97
Carlton
OKANOGAN
17
Carlton
Complex
Fire, 2014
Alt
97
Bridgeport
174
er
By TIM HEARDEN
Courtesy of Okanogan Emergency Management
Canyon Creek Fire burns alongside State Route 153 north of Carlton, Wash., the evening of July 15.
Firefi ghters hoped to contain the fi re at 1,200 acres.
ia R
iv
Awards, speaker
highlight seventh
Fresno Food Expo
C olu
mb
Courtesy of Fresno Food Expo
Buyers from food service companies talk with San Joaquin Valley
producers during the 2016 Fresno Food Expo. The seventh annual
expo will be July 26-27.
CARLTON, Wash. —
Wildfi re burned about 1,200
acres north of Carlton in the
Methow Valley July 15 and
16, destroying rangeland cat-
tle grazing, a vacant house
and recalling memories of
the devastating Carlton Fire
that occurred on the same
dates three years earlier.
The Canyon Creek Fire
was reported at 12:18 p.m.
July 15 about a mile north
of Carlton along State Route
153, said Maurice Good-
all, director of Okanogan
County Emergency Manage-
ment. That’s 23 miles up the
Methow River from Pateros
and six miles downriver
from Twisp.
“The cause hasn’t been
determined but the thinking
is it may have been sparks
off a vehicle,” Goodall said.
The fire spread up a steep
hillside of tall, dried grass
and sparse pine trees, burn-
ing to the south, east and
north, he said.
It jumped the highway
and the Methow River but
was quickly stopped in that
direction by firefighters of
Okanogan County Fire Dis-
trict No. 6, he said.
A house was destroyed
that had been vacant since
it was damaged in flooding
after the 2014 fire, Goodall
said. An out building also
burned.
Helicopters,
retardant
planes and ground crews
fought the fire and cool
weather and shifting winds
helped bring it moderate-
ly under control by Sunday
evening, July 16, he said.
The main threat July 17
was expansion to the east,
he said.
The fire was 75 percent
contained that evening with
containment lines built with
bulldozers and hand crews,
according to the Southeast
Washington Interagency In-
cident Management Team.
State Route 153 closed
at the fire scene but was re-
opened Monday and power
was restored to most areas
that lost power when power
lines and poles burned.
Evacuation notices to
homes from Carlton to Ben-
son Creek and into Texas
Creek were reduced to be-
ready-to-go on July 17, the
Interagency team said.
Firefighting
personnel
numbered 200 Sunday and
393 July 18 and were to be
reduced because of signifi-
cant reduction in fire activ-
ity. Some smoky haze in the
area Tuesday was from wild-
fires in Canada, fire officials
said.
The terrain that burned
was a mix of private, state
and federal land with most
of it rangeland grazing by
the Gebbers family’s cattle,
Goodall said. No cattle were
lost, he said.
A good portion of the
acreage was also burned in
the 2014 Carlton Fire and
brought back memories
and put people on edge,
172
DOUGLAS
N
5 miles
*As of July 18
Capital Press graphic
Goodall said.
“Today was the day we
evacuated three years ago.
So it’s sort of deja vu,” Deb
Stennes, a Methow orchard-
ist, said July 17.
The Stenneses lost pow-
er for a few hours but were
some 10 miles from the fire
and did not feel endangered,
she said.
In 2014, their homes were
saved but they lost 20 acres
of orchard, some irrigation
pumps and 5.8 miles of deer
fencing.
The Carlton Complex
Fire, ignited in several spots
in the Methow Valley by
lightning on July 14, 2014,
spread rapidly on July 17,
racing 30 miles down valley,
burning numerous homes
in Pateros and threatening
Brewster. It’s estimated the
fire at times covered 4 to 5
acres per second.
It burned 256,108 acres,
resulted in the deaths of
two people, claimed ap-
proximately 1,000 cattle
and destroyed some 500
miles of fencing and mil-
lions of board-feet of timber.
It destroyed 277 primary
residences, 50 cabins and
knocked out electrical power
to 3,602 customers for more
than a week.
The Gebbers family lost
patriarch Danny Gebbers
and sustained losses in tim-
ber, cattle, fences and or-
New Carlton Fire lawsuit fi led
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OKANOGAN, Wash. — More than 200 people have
fi led a lawsuit over losses they sustained from the 2014
Carlton Complex Fire.
The lawsuit was fi led in Okanogan County Superior
Court on July 14, three years to the day after the fi re started.
Some 206 plaintiffs allege the state Department of Nat-
ural Resources was negligent in responding to and fi ghting
the fi re, which resulted in the loss of property and timber and
emotional distress.
The suit seeks damages to be proven at a jury trial.
Total losses exceed $75 million, their attorney, Alex
Thomason, of Brewster and Seattle, has estimated.
The suit is in addition to one Thomason fi led in Novem-
ber 2015 on behalf of two plaintiffs after DNR denied all the
plaintiffs’ claims.
If the initial suit were successful it would establish state
liability for the rest of the claims, Thomason said in 2015.
He now says liability will be litigated in court.
The 2015 suit is proceeding into discovery. He said he
has no opinion on whether the two cases will be joined.
The Gebbers family of Brewster, owners of large tree
fruit, cattle and timber holdings, are not part of either law-
suit.
The family estimated its losses in the fi re in the millions
of dollars.
Gebbers’ companies were reimbursed $1.8 million by
DNR for fi ghting the 2014 fi re from the ground and air and
received government assistance for some of its losses.
The lawsuits allege one of several lightning-caused fi res
started on DNR property, that neighbors promptly notifi ed
DNR and that it was negligent in responding and containing
the fi re.
Furthermore, the suit alleges that DNR refused local as-
sistance and abandoned fi re lines early in an evening and did
not return until morning.
DNR has denied negligence in the initial lawsuit, saying
resources were pulled from the fi re for safety reasons and
that it is not liable since it works for the public, not individ-
uals or groups.
DNR claims any liability that is found is the fault of
plaintiffs and any negligence was caused by people not par-
ty to the lawsuit. The DNR has asked the court to dismiss
the case.
Thomason has said the suit presents important political
and legal questions, chief among them whether the state is
responsible like any landowner or if it has special rules al-
lowing it to manage its land however it wants even if it re-
sults in the destruction of neighboring property.
chards estimated at $15.4
million to $17.8 million.
In 2015, 600,000 acres
burned and nearly 300 cattle
died in wildfires in Okano-
gan County.
More than 1 million
acres, about one-third of the
county, burned in the two
summers, costing millions
of dollars in losses of public
and private timber and the
loss of thousands of acres of
rangeland grazing for several
years, causing ranchers to re-
duce herds and buy more hay.
Ranchers were highly critical
of state and federal fi refi ght-
ing efforts. Recovery efforts
continue.
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