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