6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2018
Firefighters battle to curb arson fire before winds return
By RINGO H.W. CHIU
and AMANDA LEE
MYERS
Associated Press
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif.
— More than a thousand fire-
fighters battled to keep a rag-
ing Southern California for-
est fire from reaching foothill
neighborhoods today before
the expected return of blustery
winds that drove the flames to
new ferocity a day earlier.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared
a state of emergency late Thurs-
day for Orange and Riverside
counties as the fire carved its
way along ridges in the Cleve-
land National Forest.
Some
hillsides
were
allowed to burn under the
watchful eyes of firefighters
— to reduce fuel and make it
harder for flames to jump road-
ways into communities when
gusts pick up.
The arson blaze south of
Los Angeles gained renewed
strength Thursday afternoon,
coming within yards of homes.
Aircraft turned hillsides red
with retardant as homeown-
ers sprayed their houses with
AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu
A firefighter battles the Holy Fire burning in the Cleveland National Forest along a hill-
side at Temescal Valley in Corona, Calif.
water from garden hoses.
Hundreds more firefighters
joined the effort, bringing the
total to 1,200. The growing fire
has blackened 28 square miles
of timber and brush and is only
5 percent contained. More
than 20,000 people have been
evacuated.
Fifty miles west of the fire,
residents in the city of Long
Beach awoke today to ash on
their cars and in their yards.
Brown’s
proclamation
said thousands of homes were
threatened by the fire in the
foothills above Lake Elsinore
and nearby communities and
ordered state agencies to help
local governments.
A resident of Holy Jim Can-
yon in the forest was sched-
uled for a court hearing today
on charges that he deliberately
set the fire.
Forrest Clark, 51, is charged
with arson and other crimes
and could face life in prison if
convicted. It wasn’t immedi-
ately known if he had a lawyer.
Michael Milligan, chief
of the Holy Jim Volunteer
Fire Department, has told the
Orange County Register that
Clark had a decade-long feud
with neighbors and sent threat-
ening emails last week, includ-
ing one that said, “this place
will burn.” Ironically, his cabin
was the only one in the canyon
to survive the flames, the news-
paper reported.
As flames raged closer to
foothill homes on Thursday,
some residents ignoring evacu-
ation orders stood in driveways
or on top of roofs and used gar-
den hoses to wet down their
property as smoke billowed
around them.
Joe Rodriguez, 38, used a
power washer on his patio in
the McVicker Canyon Park
neighborhood.
“Until this thing is barking
at my door, I’m going to stick
with it,” he told the San Ber-
nardino Sun.
Firefighters fought a desper-
ate battle as huge flames came
within yards of some homes,
feeding on dense, dry chapar-
ral and propelled by 20-mph
gusts. They want to encircle
the fire before it can devour
neighborhoods and take lives,
as gigantic fires still burning in
Northern California have done.
“Our main focus this after-
noon was getting everyone out
safely,” said Thanh Nguyen, a
spokesman for the crews bat-
tling the Holy Fire.
Phil Williams, 57, stayed
near his home in Brookstone
Ranch, an unincorporated com-
munity of about 5,000 people.
His family and pets evacuated
along with most of his neigh-
bors but as a member of the
local water district, he stayed
to help out.
Late Thursday night, he
described seeing 70-foot-tall
flames creeping within 150
yards of his large yard.
“It’s all tinder and as soon
as the flames hit it, it’s gone,”
he said. “You can hear the fire
coming. It truly does roar. “
Williams, who had cut back
brush around the home, said he
planned to “wait for the sun’s
up, see what’s left. Not much
more than you can do.”
Cart: Burgers, tacos served up
at bAKos food cart in Astoria
Continued from Page 1A
ers will include a traditional
beef patty topped with cheese
sauce or a Korean twist with
coleslaw.
Sides will include Mexi-
can-style street corn, house-
cut fries and coleslaw. The
two will also serve up nachos
with any meat topping, or a
dessert version piled with
cream cheese, cinnamon and
sugar.
Evans and Beek plan to
continue working at the bis-
tro, a block away, as they
build up the business. They
will switch off between din-
ner and lunch shifts, opening
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Morrison Pierce, who rents a studio in Michael Bruhn’s Art Garden, is preparing for
his September exhibit at the McVarish Gallery.
Art: Space to be more visible
to downtown community
Continued from Page 1A
ries of Little Red Riding
Hood symbolizing a child’s
journey into adulthood, to
horses escaping a carousel
— a nod to his own escape
from the rat race of Las
Vegas. Along with his art,
de’Masi hopes to eventually
start selling Astoria-themed
souvenirs on shirts, mugs
and other items.
Next to de’Masi is Mor-
rison Pierce, a bartender and
artist who rents a small inte-
rior studio. Surrounded by
his pieces, a sink and a toi-
let, the studio provides a pri-
vate work space for Pierce,
who has been coming in
each morning at 7 to prepare
for “America is Beautiful,”
his upcoming exhibit about
the side effects of war at the
McVarish Gallery.
“I don’t really like to do
pretty pictures,” Pierce said
of his paintings, backed by
pink to draw the viewer in
but centered around recre-
ations of horrific, real-life
war scenes from World War
II. “Pretty pictures don’t do
anything for society.”
The newest tenant in
Bruhn’s building is Asto-
ria Visual Arts, which has
been located in the Joseph-
son Fish Station on Pier 11.
Annie Eskelin, director of
the regional arts nonprofit,
said it had been looking for
a new, more accessible loca-
tion for some time before
connecting with Bruhn
around the time she was
brought on.
While the group will
keep studios for artists in
residency on Pier 11, the
new location will be more
visible to the community
and used for workshops,
pop-up galleries and other
events, Eskelin said.
She and Pierce see a
growing hub of artists in
the neighborhood, with the
Astoria Makers and Audrey
Long Ceramics recently
opened next door on Duane
Street. Another artists’ rental
space is being built out in
the former YMCA building
several blocks east.
“It’s going to be a whole
big collective of arts,” Eske-
lin said of the neighborhood.
Along with de’Masi,
Astoria Visual Arts will open
its new space at the Art Gar-
den during Second Saturday
Artwalk, featuring assem-
blage artists Susan Darms
and Carol Scott. The group
is taking proposals from the
public at astoriavisualarts@
gmail.com on future exhib-
its for the Art Garden.
Although his plans for a
market at 11th and Duane
haven’t materialized, Bruhn
said he’s pleased with how
the space is filling out.
Along with the artists’ stu-
dios are hot dog food cart
Boomer’s
All-American
Cuisine and, starting this
weekend, new burger and
taco cart bAKos.
“I’m really excited about
it,” Bruhn said of the lot.
“We’re just going to keep
improving the building and
the lot.”
at 11 a.m. Thursday through
Sunday, but plan to eventu-
ally expand the menu and
add breakfast hours, with
items such as donut breakfast
burgers.
bAKos is next to Boom-
er’s All-American Cuisine,
the first food cart brought
in by Bruhn as he devel-
ops what he has called the
Art Garden at 11th and
Duane.
The corner used to play
host to the food carts Snackle-
box, DJ’s Vinyl Vegan, Good
Bowl and Nourish Juice Bar.
But the carts dispersed when
the property went into fore-
closure proceedings. Snack-
lebox and Good Bowl relo-
cated to the foot of 11th
Street, near the new location
of The Naked Lemon bakery,
while Nourish Juice Bar took
up residence in the Astor
Hotel Building.
Boomer’s and bAKos
make up the fourth food cart
pod in Astoria, with small
groups of carts clustered
around Reach Break Brew-
ing, Astoria Eco Wash and
Pier 11.
“This feels like a good
spot to be, and it’s where it
was before,” Beek said of the
11th Street pod. “It’s still got
a little bit of the history right
here.”
Youth: State faces a high rate
of foster care placements
Continued from Page 1A
third biggest driver of foster
care placements, according
to statistics from the Oregon
Department of Human Ser-
vices. The percentage of foster
care placements due to inad-
equate housing has increased
from 13 percent in 2015 to 17
percent in 2017.
Gov. Kate Brown’s office
issued a statement on the
report stressing the importance
of affordable, stable housing in
addressing child welfare.
“Oregon’s families need
support to stay safely together,
and the governor is working
to bring more housing under
development in the state pipe-
line as well as focusing on root
causes that drive children into
foster care, such as addiction
treatment and recovery, access
to comprehensive health care
and domestic violence,” said
Kate Kondayen, a governor’s
spokeswoman. “The governor
is also supporting the Depart-
ment of Human Services child
welfare division as they work
on right-sizing the foster care
system.”
Some advocates believe
mandatory relocation assis-
tance for evicted tenants and
rent control policies amid a
boom in statewide population
and demand for housing could
help curb the trend.
“Without statewide tenant
protections in Oregon, peo-
ple are facing displacement,
causing their families to either
be ripped apart or live on the
streets,” said Alison McIntosh,
of the Oregon Housing Alli-
ance. “Protecting these chil-
dren should be the first prior-
ity” during the state legislative
session in January, she said.
A recent state audit shows
the Oregon Child Welfare
Office is still plagued with no
centralized system for report-
ing child abuse, high case-
worker turnover and a lack of
follow-through on recommen-
dations from previous routine
audits.
The office has a shortage of
foster parents with no plan to
augment the number, accord-
ing to the audit.
WalletHub, a Washington,
D.C.-based personal finance
website, produces a variety of
city and state rankings, as well
as reviews of credit cards. The
company has released reports
ranging from the best credit
cards with travel insurance to
the best and worst cities for
singles to live.
WalletHub released the
report on children in poverty in
August to commemorate Child
Support Awareness Month.
The United States has the
seventh highest child pov-
erty rate among 41 econom-
ically-developed
countries
in the European Union and
the Organisation for Eco-
nomic Cooperation and Devel-
opment, according to the
United Nations Children’s
Fund.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
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