2A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2017
Truck removed, driver indicted after failed escape
‘I’m not getting
arrested today’
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Timofey Erofeeff was
indicted on several charges
Thursday after an attempted
escape from police into the
Columbia River, while his red
Ford
F-150
pickup
was
lifted out of
the water by a
crane at North
Tongue Point.
Erofeeff,
27, from Scotts
Timofey
Mills in Mar-
Erofeeff
ion
County,
was observed
Wednesday morning trespass-
ing on boats at North Tongue
Point and was approached
by officers Kevin Berry and
Thomas Litwin of the Astoria
Police Department.
In a court document,
Berry described approach-
ing Erofeeff’s pickup to arrest
him after learning he also
had a parole violation from
Deschutes County.
“Erofeeff proceeded to
take off at a high rate of speed
straight away from me,” Berry
said. “Erofeeff turned onto a
dead-end pier and began accel-
erating. Erofeeff launched his
vehicle off the end of the pier,
into the Columbia River at a
rate of speed I estimate to be
about 45 mph.”
Erofeeff left his sinking
vehicle and started swimming
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE, Timofey Erofeeff launched his Ford F-150 truck into the Columbia River in an
attempted escape from police. The truck was removed by a crane and taken to a local tow
yard. RIGHT, Ensign Kira Adams with the Coast Guard’s Incident Management Team in
Astoria observes employees with WCT Marine & Construction lift the red Ford F-150
truck out of the Columbia River and onto a dock at North Tongue Point using a crane.
across a side channel of the
Columbia toward an island
about one-third of a mile away.
He began to struggle, and the
Coast Guard was called for a
possible rescue. But he made
it back to the pier, where he
was thrown a life jacket and
ring and eventually rescued by
employees from nearby ship-
wright WCT Marine & Con-
struction Inc.
He was taken by ambu-
lance to Columbia Memorial
Hospital for minor injuries and
hypothermia.
“When I asked him why
he took off in his vehicle, he
told (me) he knew I was going
to arrest him and he thought
to himself, ‘I’m not getting
arrested today,’” Berry said.
During a videoconfer-
ence Thursday from Clat-
sop County Jail, Erofeeff was
indicted by Deputy District
Attorney Steven Chamberlin
on one count of first-degree
burglary, a Class A felony, for
attempting to steal from the
moored vessel The Zephyr,
and another count of attempt-
ing to elude police with a
vehicle, a Class C felony.
He also faces misdemeanor
charges of reckless driving,
refusing to obey a police offi-
cer, third-degree escape, sec-
ond-degree criminal trespass-
Coast Guard
ing and offensive littering for
the truck, fluids and debris in
the river.
“It was just a long, ardu-
ous process finding the truck,”
Jeremy Milligan, a shipwright
with WCT Marine, said of
bringing in a diver to search
underwater.
After locating the pickup,
WTC Marine brought a crane
out on the pier, hooked the
truck to a tow hitch and lifted
it onto the dock. The Coast
Guard’s Incident Manage-
ment Division oversaw the
removal but ordered no ongo-
ing cleanup. The truck was
taken by Classic Towing to a
yard in Miles Crossing.
Bail was set at $75,000 for
Erofeeff. He is scheduled for
an arraignment on the indict-
ment early next month. Kris
Kaino was appointed as his
defense attorney.
Officials: Deadly NYC fire lit by child playing with stove
ing within minutes and block-
ing the main escape route.
Twelve people died, includ-
ing girls ages 1, 2 and 7 and a
boy whose age was not given.
“We were told the boy had
a history of playing with the
burners and turning them on,
and before the mother knew it,
this fire had gotten a good hold
of the kitchen,” Nigro said.
Excluding the Sept. 11
attacks, it was the deadliest
fire in the city since 87 peo-
ple were killed during a social
club fire in the same Bronx
neighborhood in 1990.
The blaze broke out on
the first floor of a five-story
By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
NEW YORK — New York
City’s deadliest residential fire
in decades was accidentally lit
by a 3½-year-old boy playing
with the burners on his moth-
er’s stove, officials said Friday.
The flames spread quickly
through the kitchen, then
roared through a door the boy’s
mother had left open as she
fled her first floor apartment
with the boy and her other
child, Fire Commissioner Dan-
iel Nigro said. A stairwell acted
like a chimney, carrying the
flames through the entire build-
building just before 7 p.m.
and quickly tore through the
roughly century-old structure
near the Bronx Zoo.
Many residents of the
building, a mix of native New
Yorkers and Latino and Afri-
can immigrants, were able to
flee via fire escapes. At least 20
people were clambering down
the icy, metal escapes when
firefighters arrived, Nigro said.
But the flames moved so fast
that many never made it out of
their apartments.
About 170 firefighters
worked in bone-chilling cold,
just 15 degrees, to rescue a
dozen people from the building.
Firefighters
respond to
a deadly fire
Thursday in
the Bronx
borough of
New York.
AP Photo/
Frank Franklin II
Thierno Diallo, 59, a secu-
rity guard originally from Con-
akry, Guinea, who lives in a
ground floor apartment said
he was asleep when he heard
banging on the door. It took
him a moment to realize what
was happening.
“Only when I heard peo-
ple screaming, ‘There’s a fire
in the building!’” he said. “I
heard somebody, ‘Oh! Fire!
Fire! Fire!’”
He ran outside in his bath-
robe, jacket and sandals.
Kenneth Kodua, 37, said he
left his apartment to get food,
leaving his roommate behind,
and came back to find people
fleeing in a panic.
Hours later, he was still
trying to find out whether his
roommate had escaped.
“I tried calling her. I tried
calling. No answer,” he said,
still clutching his bag of uneaten
food. His phone was dead.
Many questions remained
in the immediate aftermath of
the blaze, including how the
fire spread so quickly in a brick
building built after catastrophic
fires at the turn of the 20th cen-
tury ushered in an era of tougher
enforcement of fire codes.
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
48
33
41
Periods of rain; breezy
this evening
Last
Eugene
39/49
New
Jan 8
First
Jan 16
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
4:13 a.m.
5:31 p.m.
Low
2.8 ft.
-0.4 ft.
Ontario
30/43
Burns
28/41
W
s
c
sn
pc
sn
sf
s
s
s
sn
c
s
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
c
pc
c
pc
pc
r
s
Hi
49
22
7
46
2
18
70
-4
80
15
10
67
75
40
80
40
60
27
29
28
17
50
59
48
37
Sat.
Lo
29
10
-1
16
-10
3
39
-7
65
-3
-4
44
53
18
57
15
50
16
14
18
3
30
47
33
21
Lakeview
27/45
Ashland
42/52
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
Dec. 28, 2017
KEETH, Spurgeon Dallas, 92, of Hammond, died in Hammond. Ocean View Funeral & Crema-
tion Service of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements.
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Eugene
Ilwaco
Klamath Falls
Medford
Newberg
Newport
North Bend
Hi
39
53
54
55
52
46
51
54
53
57
Today
Lo
30
28
48
39
43
28
40
39
42
44
W
c
c
c
r
r
c
c
r
r
r
Hi
39
41
56
49
47
45
50
48
50
53
Sat.
Lo W
14 c
21 c
46 c
31 c
36 c
24 c
36 c
33 c
38 c
39 c
City
Olympia
Pendleton
Portland
Roseburg
Salem
Seaside
Spokane
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Yakima
Hi
51
44
54
55
56
53
31
56
53
39
Today
Lo
39
35
42
45
41
42
29
40
40
33
W
r
c
r
c
r
r
i
r
r
r
Hi
47
44
49
50
50
48
34
49
47
47
Sat.
Lo W
28 c
23 c
33 c
40 c
31 c
34 sh
18 c
31 c
32 c
24 pc
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
pc
sn
pc
c
pc
sf
s
pc
pc
sn
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
c
r
sn
c
sn
c
pc
pc
pc
c
Mildred (Fick) Scheffers, known as Millie near her daughter. She was known for walking
to her friends, was born in Guthrie, Iowa, the all over town, most especially the Astoria Riv-
daughter of Herman Fick and Mary (Gernantz) erwalk. She enjoyed spending time with her
Fick. She was born into a large family with 10 daughter, watching the boats in the river, put-
ting puzzles together, or visiting with
siblings.
friends at the Astoria Gateway senior
Mildred married Claude Scheffers
residence.
in December 1938, and they soon
She was preceded in death by her
moved to Newport, Oregon. In New-
port, both Millie and Claude worked
husband, Claude, in 1996; nine of
in the fishing industry. Claude was
her 10 siblings; her son, William, in
a commercial fisherman and Millie
1964; and her daughter, Mary Lou
Marshall, in 2017.
worked as a plant foreman in the local
Survivors include her brother,
cannery. They had two children, Wil-
liam and Mary Lou.
Duane Fick; three grandchildren;
After many years in Newport, she
six great-grandchildren; and six
eventually moved to Astoria to be Mildred Scheffers great-great-grandchildren.
DEATH
Klamath Falls
28/45
TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Lo
36
8
5
12
-4
12
38
-18
67
13
4
43
54
28
63
26
43
18
22
19
17
33
43
42
25
Baker
30/39
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
Tonight's Sky: Venus is lost in the sun's glare
around the 12th of the month on its way towards
superior conjunction (on the far side of the sun) on
January 9.
Hi
51
16
18
61
16
19
68
-14
80
20
33
67
81
42
81
40
56
24
42
27
31
49
59
51
35
La Grande
33/39
Roseburg
45/50
Brookings
47/57
Jan 24
John Day
32/37
Bend
28/41
Medford
40/50
UNDER THE SKY
High
9.9 ft.
7.8 ft.
Prineville
29/43
Lebanon
40/49
Astoria
March 24, 1921 — Nov. 25, 2017
Sun and areas of high
clouds
Pendleton
35/44
Salem
41/50
Newport
42/50
Mildred Vergene Scheffers
48
35
Mostly cloudy
The Dalles
38/47
Portland
42/49
Sunset tonight ........................... 4:38 p.m.
Sunrise Saturday ........................ 7:58 a.m. Coos Bay
Moonrise today .......................... 2:14 p.m. 43/53
Moonset today ............................ 3:38 a.m.
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
Mostly sunny
Tillamook
41/49
SUN AND MOON
Time
10:20 a.m.
11:49 p.m.
47
37
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
41/48
Precipitation
Thursday .......................................... 1.08"
Month to date ................................... 6.00"
Normal month to date ....................... 8.97"
Year to date .................................... 82.31"
Normal year to date ........................ 66.34"
Jan 1
TUESDAY
REGIONAL WEATHER
Astoria through Thursday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 53°/42°
Normal high/low ........................... 48°/37°
Record high ............................ 60° in 1980
Record low ............................. 18° in 1978
Full
46
35
Mostly cloudy with a
passing shower
ALMANAC
MONDAY
ON THE RECORD
Assault
• Joel Merrill, 30, of Seaside, was arrested Wednesday by the Seaside Police Department on one
count of fourth-degree assault after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.
LOTTERIES
OREGON
Thursday’s Pick 4:
1 p.m.: 5-0-5-6
4 p.m.: 7-2-0-4
7 p.m.: 7-1-4-8
10 p.m.: 9-5-4-6
Thursday’s Lucky Lines: 01-
05-12-15-18-23-27-31
Estimated jackpot: $38,000
WASHINGTON
Thursday’s Daily Game:
The Daily Astorian
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8-8-9
Thursday’s Keno: 02-03-04-
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16-18
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