3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
Brown: Fire threatens State pegs wildfire costs
water, power systems at $21.9 million and rising
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
By ZANE SPARLING
Capital Bureau
TROUTDALE — Gov.
Kate Brown said the Colum-
bia River Gorge has already
suffered a “devastating
impact” from the Eagle Creek
wildfire — and the blaze is
still zero percent contained as
of Tuesday evening.
“We’re very concerned,
obviously, about the Bonne-
ville power grid and the Bull
Run watershed being at risk,”
Brown told reporters Tues-
day. “(The Gorge) is a spe-
cial place for many of us, and
we’re very concerned about
the impact.”
The fire, reportedly caused
by a teen setting off fireworks,
has jumped roughly 13 miles
in 16 hours, Brown said, and
about 400 homes have been
evacuated in rural Mult-
nomah County. No structures
have been destroyed.
Also in east Multnomah
County, another 850 home-
owners have been warned
there is a medium-level
chance of an evacuation
order, while roughly 4,000
homes in eastern Troutdale
are at the lowest level of
emergency readiness.
Troutdale Mayor Casey
Ryan, who has been briefed
on fire conditions, said the
chance of a larger evacuation
order remains “slim.”
“The wind is supposed to
pick up tonight. It’s an east
wind, which is unusual for
this time of year,” he said in
an interview. “If that hap-
pens, and it’s a lot, it could
affect us.”
Brown has already signed
an emergency conflagration
act that allows authorities to
tap state, interstate, federal
and local resources to fight
the flames and protect private
property.
Brown said the Eagle
Creek Fire has spread to
more than 10,000 acres, com-
pared with 170,000 acres
for the Chetco Bar wildfire
in southern Oregon. There
are more than 1,400 emer-
gency responders battling the
Chetco fire.
Lt. Damon Simmons, a
spokesman for the Portland
Fire Bureau, said firefight-
ers saved 58 structures in the
Dodson and Warrendale area
during the ongoing battle.
“It was really a gutsy
effort,” he explained. “They
had to work to make that fire
move around those struc-
tures — rather than burning
through them. It was house by
house, structure by structure.”
Though the cause of the
Eagle Creek fire is still under
investigation, a news release
Nike to lay off
490 Oregon
workers by end
of September
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Nike offi-
cials say the company will lay
490 Oregon workers by the
end of the month.
The Oregonian reported the
layoffs are part of the 2 per-
cent of the workforce Nike
plans to eliminate worldwide.
In July, the Nike laid off 255
Oregon workers, and plans to
cut another 490 local jobs by
Sept. 30 for a total of 745 jobs
lost in the state.
News of the layoffs comes
months after Nike announced
a broad restructuring of the
footwear manufacturing com-
pany. Nike, near Beaverton, is
the largest company headquar-
tered in Oregon. It employs
74,000 people worldwide.
Josh Kulla/Pamplin Media Group
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown addresses reporters during a
press conference about the Eagle Creek fire, in the Co-
lumbia Gorge, in Troutdale on Tuesday.
alleges that a 15-year-old boy
from Vancouver, Washington,
and several others may be
responsible. They were seen
playing in the woods with
fireworks, according to vari-
ous media reports.
“I would expect that
they be held fully account-
able for what has happened,”
Brown said when pressed by
reporters.
The Union Pacific rail line
traveling through the Colum-
bia River Gorge has been
closed, as has Interstate 84
between Troutdale and Hood
River.
Sgt. Bryan White, a Mult-
nomah County Sheriff’s
Office information officer,
asked the public to please stay
away from affected areas.
“They’re curious. They’re
taking pictures. They’re tak-
ing videos. I cannot empha-
size enough how dangerous
that is,” he said.
Brown announced at the
press conference that she had
called up an additional 250
National Guard troops, for a
total of more than 600. Those
men and women are serving
in support capacity during
cleanup efforts, not as first-
line firefighters.
Zane Sparling is a reporter
for Pamplin Media Group’s
Gresham Outlook.
SALEM — As wildfire
season continues across Ore-
gon, the state’s forestry depart-
ment had spent $21.9 million
on firefighting costs as of the
end of August, a department
official said Tuesday.
With the Eagle Creek fire
accelerating on the Columbia
River Gorge, and other fires
continuing across the state
from Brookings to Sisters,
firefighting costs are poised to
grow higher.
Property owners with land
classified as forest pay a state
assessment to help cover fire-
fighting costs in addition to
money the Legislature appro-
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The state has also purchased
an insurance policy most years
since 1973 to help cover fire-
fighting costs.
But before it can tap that
coverage, the state has to
spend $50 million of its own
money, according to Ken Arm-
strong, public affairs director
at the Oregon Department of
Forestry.
Although wildfires are a real-
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OREGON CAPITAL
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gon’s rural communities, cities
in the Willamette Valley also felt
the effects of wildfires over the
holiday weekend and on Tues-
day in smoky air and ash.
The state’s forestry depart-
ment not only fights fires on
state-owned land but also on
federal and private land.
“Especially right now, the
way things are this fire season,
we pretty much have people
on just about everything on the
landscape,” Armstrong said.
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