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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2017)
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017 144TH YEAR, NO. 173 ONE DOLLAR Wright FIREFIGHTERS SAVE steps up HOME FROM ATTIC FIRE to Seaside Warrenton blaze takes three hours council to extinguish Priorities are housing, tsunami safety, history By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian ARRENTON — Mul- tiple fire agencies bat- tled a two-alarm house fire in Warrenton today. Fire personnel responded at 10:43 a.m. to a fire on the 1000 block of Southwest Main Court. Smoke billowed from the attic of the peaked-roof, one-story home until just before 2 p.m. The fire was contained pri- marily to the attic, Warrenton Fire Chief Tim Demers said. No one was injured. Fire personnel will return to the home Tuesday morning to investigate the cause of the blaze, Demers said. The lower part of the house sustained no heat damage and some water and smoke dam- age. Many items in the house — including furniture — were sal- vaged, Demers said. The roof of the home was almost completely damaged. Due to its triangular shape, fire- fighters used axes and pierc- ing nozzles to access diffi- cult-to-reach areas where the fire had spread, Demers said. “It looks messy, but that’s the way we had to attack it,” he said. Five fire agencies — War- renton, Astoria, Lewis and Clark, Seaside and Gearhart — responded to the scene along with the Warrenton Police Department. Craig and Debbie Walter are the owners and current occu- pants of the house, and nei- ther was home when the fire started. Craig Walter is a former foreman for Warrenton Public Works. Local family members were helping them remove items from the attic Monday afternoon. “We’re doing what we need to do,” Debbie Walter said. W By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian SEASIDE — For the second time in four months, the road to the City Council moved through the Planning Commission. In November, former Planning Com- missioner Tom Horning was elected to fill a vacant City Council seat. On Monday, coun- cilors selected Plan- ning Commissioner Steve Wright by a 4-1 roll call vote to fill the remaining two years of Mayor Jay Barber’s unexpired council term. Barber replaced former Mayor Don Steve Larson, who died in Wright December. “Your gain is my loss,” Planning Direc- tor Kevin Cupples said good-naturedly after the vote. “You’ve now raided not just Tom Horning, you’ve taken one of my good plan- ning commissioners.” See WRIGHT, Page 4A The right to search Lawmakers consider Miranda-like warning about vehicle searches By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Firefighters respond to a house fire on the 1000 Block of Southwest Main Court Monday morning in Warrenton. Five fire agencies responded to the scene with Warrenton Police. LEFT: Firefighters battle an attic fire in Warrenton Monday morning. The roof of the home was completely damaged. RIGHT: People comfort one another as firefighters respond to a house fire on the 1000 Block of Southwest Main Court Monday morning. SALEM — Law enforcement agen- cies are speaking out against legislation that would require officers to advise people of their right to refuse a search during a traf- fic stop. Proponents of the bill say the require- ment would be similar to a Miranda warning, when arrestees are told they have the right to remain silent and to access to an attorney. “The consent search issue is something that is probably going to be controver- sial because it is used as major part of law enforcement in some places, and we’ve got to figure out how to deal with that in a way that seems fair to the community, not just arbitrary,” said Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Port- land, who sponsored the bill. Police officers may search a person or their vehicle with the person’s consent. Some jurisdictions, but not all, require writ- ten consent. In Astoria, Deputy Chief Eric Halver- son said, “It would really depend on what the certain cases were. Almost all of our searches are recorded either through audio or visual. We ask people to sign forms quite See RIGHT TO SEARCH, Page 4A Q&A Teen specialist looks for signs of dating abuse Hofseth shares ways to spot, prevent violence By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian For the past 10 months, Erin Hofseth has been the teen intimate part- ner violence specialist for The Harbor, the region’s nonprofit advocacy group for victims of domestic and sexual violence. As the coordinator of teen outreach, the Cannon Beach native visits local high schools, Tongue Point Job Corps Center and youths elsewhere, provid- ing information about and addressing intimate partner violence. Hofseth earned a bachelor’s in com- munication and sociology from George Fox University and is studying for a master’s in sociology from Arizona State University. February was Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. Hofseth stopped to talk about the dynamics of teen dating violence, the signs and what she does to help prevent abusive relationships. Q: What’s your role with the Harbor? I’m hired through a grant by the (Oregon) Department of Justice. It’s called the Safer Futures Grant. It was a four-year grant. My job has entailed making community partnerships and doing prevention work and outreach. My goal in being hired is to be in every high school in Clatsop County with the prevention information, education about healthy relationships, what abu- sive relationships look like, what dat- ing violence looks like. I also cover the topic of digital abuse, which is a relative, imperative thing that teens are dealing with right now. Pressuring for nudes and sexting is a really big thing. So understanding the repercussions of that, legally, for minors doing that, but also (discuss- ing) with the kids what that is, and just to educate teens about what happens when they let a picture go off of their See HOFSETH, Page 7A Erin Hofseth
