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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2008)
Inside: Berry good 27th annual Festival highlighted Page 5 Wedding bells Two CJ couples tie their knots Pages 4&10 The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter that crashed at the Buckhorn Fire, approximately 15 miles northwest of Junction City in Trinity County is shown (above). The photo was taken on May 2 at Danville Re- gional Airport in Danville, Va. (Photo courtesy of Richard T. Davis) * * * Burnt wreckage of the ill-fated Carson chopper is shown at left. (Photo courtesy of Redding Record Searchlight ) Need help? Check Directory For assistance Page 11 Art a’plenty Monthly event showcases talent Page 12 Gridiron coaches sought for IVHS The Illinois Valley High School football team is seek- ing assistant coaches for the 2008/09 season. Those interested in coaching can contact head coach Ray Yarbrough at footballray@gmail.com or telephone 787-0191. Reservoir necessity questioned Kerby Water District, city of CJ debate issue Disagreement about the need for a reservoir and if so whether it should be in the city of Cave Junction or in Kerby Water District (KWD) resulted in a somewhat heated exchange during the city council meeting Monday night, Aug. 11. John Plute of KWD ad- dressed the council during its meeting in city hall. He ani- matedly referred to an email received earlier the same day from City Recorder Jim Polk. The latter provided informa- tion from a workshop involv- ing the city and KWD. Polk’s email noted, “The discussion started with the proposed engineering review of the HBH Engineering hy- draulic analysis, the cost esti- mate, the information that would need to be forwarded to Pace Engineering with the scope to review the impact the extension of water service to Kerby would have on the current system and storage capacity, with Kenny Houck stating that KWD understood the city’s desire for due dili- gence to make an informed decision. “He added that the KWD engineers would provide any information Pace needed to complete the system modeling. “The consensus of the council was that if Pace agreed with the position taken by HBH, the city would sup- port the plan. This led to a discussion on required stor- age capacity and production capabilities of the city in a major fire event. “The issue of whether a reservoir is needed is the sticking point,” the message stated, “and the city has not accepted that one is not neces- sary. The council, by consen- sus, stated that they could ac- cept our engineer’s position, whichever way it came out.” However, Plute, while noting that KWD does not have the money for a reser- voir, strongly disagreed with (Continued on page 10) Two from Cave Junction in fatal helo accident Northern California crash includes deaths of seven Grayback Forestry firefighters By MICHELLE BINKER IVN Staff Writer Two men from Cave Junction are among those involved in what some offi- cials are calling the deadliest fire-fighting aviation accident in U.S. history in which nine men died and four were in- jured when their heavy-lift helicopter crashed in Shasta- Trinity National Forest. The Iron Complex Fire accident in Northern Califor- nia occurred Tuesday, Aug. 5. It claimed the lives of seven Grayback Forestry firefight- ers, among them Steven Caleb Renno, 21, of Cave Junction. Grayback is based in Merlin, near Grants Pass. Among the injured is one of the helo pilots, William (Bill) Coultas, 44, of Cave Junction. Coultas, an em- ployee of Merlin-based Car- son Helicopters. He is listed in critical but stable condition at UC Davis Burn Center in Sacramento. He is being treated for second- and third-degree burns on approximately a third of his body, and under- went surgery and skin grafts late last week. Coultas likely will remain at UC Davis for another month, followed by rehabilitation. Family mem- bers, including his wife, Chris, have gone to Sacra- mento to be with him. Coultas and his wife, who own the CJ Video Mart/ Radio Shack store in Cave Junction, are graduates of Illinois Valley High School. Names of those from Southwestern Oregon who died are listed as firefighters Shawn Blazer, 30, of Med- ford; Scott Charleson, 25, Phoenix; Matthew Hammer, 23, Grants Pass; Edrik Go- mez, 19, Ashland; Bryan Three injured firefighters -- Medford residents Rick Schroeder, 42; Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18 -- were treated on take-off from a remote helipad in the Trinity Alps Wilderness, approximately 20 miles northwest of Junction City and some 30 miles from Redding. The helo was on its third trip to shuttle firefight- ers from the Buckhorn Fire to base camp when the accident oc- curred. Other firefighters on the helipad awaiting transport helped pull survivors from the wreck- age. The injured ap- parently were able to escape the craft at that point before it went over an embank- Andy Mills, director of helicopter operations for Carson Helicopter, de- ment, but that has scribes the crash for news media at the Grants Pass Airport in Merlin on not been verified. Thursday, Aug. 7. (Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News ) National Transpor- Rich, 29, Medford; and David and released from California tation Safety Board (NTSB) Steele, 19, Ashland. hospitals. investigators were at the Other victims of the acci- There is an unconfirmed scene as of Thursday, Aug. 7. dent were U.S. Forest Service report that another firefighter Kitty Higgins, an NTSB inspector pilot James N. from Cave Junction was go- board member, reported on Ramage, 63, of Redding; and ing to be aboard the helicop- Friday, Aug. 8 that the cock- Carson Helicopters pilot ter that crashed, but that a pit voice recorder had been Roark Schwanenberg, 54, fellow firefighter went on recovered and sent to Wash- from Lostine, Ore. instead. The two men, ac- ington, D.C. A memorial service for cording to the report, played Ten interviews were con- the fallen Grayback firefight- “Paper, Scissors, Stone” to ducted with witnesses who ers will be held Friday, Aug. see who would get the last stated that the helicopter rose 15 at the Jackson County seat, as there was one fire- and moved forward more Fairgrounds in Central Point. fighter too many for that par- slowly than normal, Higgins The program is scheduled ticular flight. said. from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The The helo, a Sikorsky S- The witnesses indicated tribute is being organized by 61N Fire King was owned and that when the aircraft was Grayback Forestry and Car- operated by Carson, a Penn- approximately 50 feet off the son Helicopters with assis- sylvania company with craft at ground and 150 yards from its tance from the interagency sites nationwide including take-off point, the nose struck fire community. Merlin. The aircraft crashed a tree, and rotor strikes fol- lowed before the helicopter descended rapidly. It struck the ground, rolled onto its side, and filled with thick smoke. It then went over an embankment and caught fire, ending up approximately 1,000 feet from the top. “The accounts are very consistent,” Higgins said. A full report on the details of the accident may not be available for a year, she indicated. Andy Mills, director of helicopter operations for Car- son, said that Schwanenberg and Coultas were experienced heavy-lift pilots with more than 25,000 combined flight hours. A six-member structures team spent some four hours at the site of the crash, Higgins said, conducting surveys and documenting conditions at the site. It was anticipated that more investigators would comb the scene. The fire-fighting com- munity has responded online with an outpouring of condo- lences and messages of sym- pathy on Grayback Forestry’s Website blog. And crews on other cur- rent wildfires have challenged one another to raise funds for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. The fund helps support the families of fallen firefighters. Contributions should include a reference to the Iron 44 Incident. Visit www.wffoundation.org. Another firefighter, a USFS employee, died in a felling incident battling the Iron Complex fires in July. Flags ordered to half-staff in honor of fallen Oregon firefighters All flags at public institutions are being flown at half-staff from sunrise Mon- day, Aug. 11, through sunset Friday, Aug. 15 in memory of the firefighters and crew who died in a helicopter crash in Northern California on Tues- day, Aug. 5. Gov. Kulongoski, who ordered the lowered flags, said, “Year after year we de- pend on these committed individuals to protect our homes, our communities and our forests in the face of an unpredictable, unrelenting Mother Nature. “Their dedication to this precarious job serves us all. “Our thoughts and prai- ries are with the families and communities that have lost a loved one,” said the governor. “We are forever indebted to them and to those who gave their lives bravely help- ing others,” he concluded. The firefighters who died were part of a crew from Grayback Forestry Inc., a wildfire contracting company based in Merlin. The helicop- ter was owned by Grants Pass-based Carson Helicop- ters. The craft was being used to fight the Iron Complex of fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The crash claimed the lives of seven Grayback Forestry employees and injured three others. Oregon first: solar highway A Toyota 4Runner incurred fire and smoke dam- age Monday, Aug. 11 on Barlow Street. The vehi- cle was driven by Barlow Street resident Elana Barlow. Illinois Valley Fire District and Oregon Dept. of Forestry responded to the 3:27 p.m. alarm. (Photo by Illinois Valley News ) Oregon is installing the nation’s first solar demon- stration project in a highway right-of-way, “moving the state a step further in its role as a leader in renewable power development,” an- nounced Gov. Kulongoski. The governor and ODOT, in partnership with Portland General Electric (PGE) and US Bank (USB), unveiled the project that will help light the way for drivers at the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin. The project will involve 594 solar panels. The demonstration pro- ject is an “All Oregon” effort, as Oregon companies will supply materials, design and install this collaborative pro- ject. SolarWorld AG of Hills- boro will supply the solar panels; PV Powered Inc. of Bend will supply the inverter. The 104-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system -- cover- ing approximately 8,000 square feet of space and roughly the length of two football fields -- will produce an estimated 112,000 kilowatt hours a year, or 28 percent of the 400,000 kilowatt hours used to light the interchange. It’s anticipated that the $1.3 million project will be finished in December.
