C3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2018
Signs indicate a property has been searched for hazardous
materials.
Steve Dopp gets a report from a member of the hazmat team
about what they found at a residence.
A stream of metal melted from underneath a vehicle leaves
behind a grim reminder of how hot the Camp Fire burned.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A deer moves through a destroyed neighborhood in Paradise.
Dopp: He has to seek out hazardous
waste by going from house to house
Continued from Page C1
“Many of us here were
involved with the North
Bay fi res that ran through
Sonoma, Napa, Lake and
Mendocino counties last
year,” Calanog said. “What
we are looking at here in the
town of Paradise is likely to
be twice as big, if not more
than what we dealt with last
year. It will take longer and
cost more.”
The Camp Fire has since
been put out and the town of
Paradise completely evac-
uated . The only people left
in the area are law enforce-
ment, arborists removing
dangerous trees, utility and
aid workers, debris removal
fi rms and construction crews.
Besides twisted metal,
chimneys, melted trash cans
and mailboxes scattered
along the ground, the fi re
also left behind hazardous
materials that now have to
be cleaned up before people
can return to the area or even
think about rebuilding.
Dangerous materials
Enter Dopp and other
contractors working with the
EPA. Dozens of workers are
now on the ground in Par-
adise looking through the
wreckage to determine where
dangerous materials exist and
how to dispose of them.
Dopp, who lives in Asto-
ria with his family and is the
co-owner of Workers Tavern
in Uniontown with his wife,
Diana Kirk, was prohibited
from talking publicly about
his role due to contractual
obligations between the EPA
and the company he works
for, Weston Solutions.
And while Dopp has
worked in disaster zones
before, in Paradise his job is
especially tricky.
Before hazardous waste
can be removed, it has to be
found. The only way to do
that is for teams to go house
to house and sift through the
wreckage. What they fi nd
Read this book, and you’ll understand
a lot about what makes Oregon Oregon.
— Jackman Wilson, Editorial Page Editor, The Register-Guard
Plants begin to spring from the blackened ground near a
destroyed home in Paradise.
has to be recorded and fed
into a computer for analy-
sis. So while hazmat special-
ists carefully pick their way
through what is left on the
ground, Dopp plugs informa-
tion about what they are fi nd-
ing into a tablet computer.
Hazardous debris is every-
where, covered in a layer
of delicate, white ash like
freshly fallen snow. Propane
canisters, cans of paint, fi re-
arms, ammunition, asbestos,
gas tanks and other danger-
ous materials litter the black-
ened landscape.
Calanog said it will take
months to begin cleaning
up Paradise. The effort will
cost millions of dollars and
include several distinct types
of work, beginning with
teams like the one Dopp is
working alongside.
“This is called phase one
of the debris removal pro-
cess,” Calanog said. “This
is the fi rst work in the after-
math of the fi re. Our teams
are doing an assessment of
the properties and remov-
ing items like paint, solvents,
cleaners, batteries and com-
pressed gas cylinders. This
fi rst phase is done in advance
of phase two, which is the
larger debris removal.”
The information Dopp
and other technicians are
recording will be used to
let county authorities know
where the teams are, what
properties have been cleared
and what has been found,
Calanog said.
“What we are able to do
is to start collecting data
and report out at almost real
time about the progress,” he
said. “With this technology,
we can report to the county
and state down to each prop-
erty what we have removed.
We also have a lot of infor-
mation from the county. So,
we know the age of the home
and that can be indicative at
times of how much asbestos
they are likely to encounter.”
What remains
EPA on-scene coordinator
Bob Whittier said the initial
assessment of the properties
will provide important infor-
mation to debris removal
teams who will arrive in a
few weeks.
“There is also a health
and safety aspect to the
pre-screening,” Whittier said.
“They are in there making
sure there aren’t any inher-
ent hazards before the suited
guys can go in and remove
materials.”
So while the fi re may
be out, there are still weeks
of work left for people
like Dopp, sifting through
the ruins of thousands of
structures.
As teams clear proper-
ties and evacuation orders
are lifted, residents that sur-
vived the fi re will begin to
assess what remains. On
most streets in Paradise, there
is not much left.
“Grit and Ink” tells a story
that is very worthy of being told.
— Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director, Oregon Historical Society
Small-town family business history at its best.
—Richard Baker, U.S. Senate Historian Emeritus
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