REGION
Saturday, July 11, 2015
PILOT ROCK
East Oregonian
Page 3A
IRRIGON
Boy helps family escape burning home
By GARY L. WEST
East Oregonian
Photo contributed by Mike Morehead
Lightning sparked several fires in Eastern Oregon
on Thursday night, including this one north of Pi-
lot Rock. This photo was taken from Mike and
Barbara Morehead’s front porch. According to Bar-
bara: “There were extremely high winds. We were
packing things ready to leave our home, getting
animals safe when the wind suddenly stopped and
slowed the progress of the fire. Our quick response
volunteer firefighters from Pilot Rock were able to
contain the fire.”
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within 50 feet
of farmhouse
Table Rock Fire burns about 400 acres
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
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rash of lightning-sparked
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Friday around Pilot Rock
as dry thunderstorms
moved in over the area.
On Friday morning,
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the 400-acre Table Rock
Fire that crept within 50
feet of at least one home.
By evening, another large
blaze ignited between
Highway 395 and Yellow
Jacket Road near the
Cunningham Sheep Co.
Ranch.
Pilot Rock Fire Chief
Ron Neely estimated
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acres in size. He did not
immediately have further
details.
The Table Rock Fire
started at about 7:45
p.m. Thursday and was
contained
overnight.
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one hand crew and two
bulldozers responded to
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structures.
“Due to some really
good cooperation from
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they were able to get out
there and get a hold of
it,” said Jamie Knight,
district spokeswoman for
the Oregon Department of
Forestry.
ODF led the initial
attack, with help from
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(FKR 6WDQ¿HOG 3HQG-
leton, Pilot Rock and
the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation. The Umatilla
National
Forest
and
Bureau of Indian Affairs
also provided assistance.
Local farmers used
their equipment, too.
Up-to-date information
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www.bluemountainfire-
info.blogspot.com.
To
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Mountain
Interagency
Dispatch at 541-963-7171
or dial 9-1-1.
———
Contact George Plaven
at
gplaven@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-
4547.
PENDLETON
Bounty placed
on puncture vine
A 6-year-old Irrigon boy
is being called a hero by his
family for helping four other
people, including 2 infants,
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mobile home Friday.
“I was in the living room
watching a movie, then I
smelled smoke,” said the
boy, Joel Koertje.
He alerted his 20-year-old
sister Shaughnessi Ellison
and her friend, Reba Carter.
Carter said she had just
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starting to dress when Joel
told them he could smell
smoke. She turned around,
looked out the window and
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Ellison and Carter grabbed
Joel as well as Ellison’s two
5-month-old infants and
headed out the door. Ellison
didn’t even have time to put
on a shirt, she said.
“My 6-year-old brother
saved us,” Ellison said. “Any
later and we’d have been
screwed.”
Ellison said they had just
got out of the house and to
the yard gate when a propane
tank exploded.
“It went so quick, so
quick,” she said.
The family, including
their parents Cory Koertje
and Kathi Hamner, had just
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three-bedroom trailer that
day.
“We brought the last
load in this morning,” Cory
Koertje said, while looking
and the smoldering shell of
the home. Cory Koertje and
Hamner were on their way
to Boardman to go to work
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They
were
looking
forward to living in the larger
home with a fenced yard.
“It was perfect,” Hamner
said.
But she looked on the
bright side.
“Everybody got out.
Everything can be replaced,”
Hamner said.
Irrigon Fire Chief Larry
Burns said at the scene it
was too early to identify the
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based out of Pendleton was
en route to try to determine
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from Irrigon responded to
extinguish the blaze along
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who responded for mutual
aid. The mobile home was a
total loss.
Hermiston Auto Parts moving into former PGG store
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston’s former Pend-
leton Grain Growers retail
store will get a new occupant
next week when Hermiston
Auto Parts moves into the
space.
The move will mean
twice as much room for the
NAPA retailer, owner Kevin
Cleaver said, as well as a
more visible location than the
store’s current spot at 292 W.
Hermiston Ave.
“The biggest advantage
is probably going to be the
location,” he said.
Cleaver and his wife
Georgia have owned the
store, which was established
in the 1960s, since 1994. He
said the store has outgrown
its original location, which
is why he became interested
in the building at 200 S. First
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
The former PGG retail store on South First Street in
Hermiston stands empty in preparation for Hermiston
Auto Parts to move in.
St. after PGG closed its retail
store there in the fall.
Cleaver said having twice
as much space will mean
more inventory.
“We’ll have stuff we’ve
never carried before,” he said.
The store currently has
seven employees, but Cleaver
said he will probably hire
three more people after the
expansion.
The plan is for NAPA’s
Portland distribution center to
bring “as many people as they
can” to help move inventory
on Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday while the store
remains open at its current
location, then transition to
being open at the new location
on Thursday while the rest of
the inventory is moved over.
Over the weekend, Cleaver
said, the outside of the store
will be repainted. New
shelves are being installed
inside, and eventually the
store will get new signage
marking it as Hermiston Auto
Parts.
Cleaver said he hasn’t set
a date yet but plans to have
a grand opening celebration
for the community after they
get settled in at their new
location.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4536.
HERMISTON
Noise waiver, taxi license amendment on council agenda
result in “much better project
quality.”
However, the noise from
A request for a noise the machinery being operated
ordinance waiver might keep runs in the range of 70 to 80
Highland Avenue residents decibels from 50 feet away,
up at night, if it is granted by which the memo stated is the
the Hermiston city council on equivalent of the sound of a
garbage disposal or vacuum
Monday.
The waiver would allow cleaner.
The city council will also
heavy machinery to continue
paving work on Highland consider an amendment to its
Avenue until 3 a.m. for two new taxi license ordinance,
nights on the week of July 20. which took effect July 1.
The ordinance currently
According to a memo to
the city council, allowing requires a background check,
crews to work at night will and currently prohibits
PLQLPL]H WKH WUDI¿F LPSDFW drivers who have ever had
of the paving project and any criminal convictions
the cooler temperatures will for crimes involved “moral
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
spider’s legs from the main
part of the weed, she said.
“If you can get the whole
For a cyclist, there’s plant and put it in a bag,
QRWKLQJ ZRUVH WKDQ D ÀDW then you’ve got it made,”
tire, so the Pendleton bike said Peterson.
The club wants to
club is doing something
raise awareness around
about it.
Between 8 a.m. and goatheads, she said. It got
1 p.m. on the next two the idea from a newspaper
Saturdays, the Pendleton article on a similar project
on Wheels Bicycle Club in Echo last year.
The company Slime
will pay people for each
full bag of goatheads, also makes a tire sealant for
known as puncture vine, those riding through areas
they bring to Olney Ceme- with puncture hazards,
tery at 865 Tutuilla Road. though it works with
For a regular grocery bag, varying degrees of success.
the club will pay $1. For Puncture resistant tires are
a larger, contractor-sized also available on the market
bag, $5, according to Sue from retailers like REI.
———
Peterson of the club. It will
Contact Jonathan Bach
set up at the cemetery with
a table and yellow awning, at jbach@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0809.
she said.
Puncture vine, with
small, thorn-like heads, is
a common nuisance for
Sale In Progress
cyclists. It’s known for
Saager’s Shoe Shop
lodging itself in and punc-
turing bicycle tires. Riders
who run over the weed might
¿QGWKHPVHOYHVKHDULQJWKH
Milton-Freewater, OR
hiss of air escaping their tire
midway through an outing
or removing the weed after
a trail ride.
“It’s just murder on
tires,” said Peterson, an
Two Rivers Run
avid cyclist. She said it not
Dinner
& Music on the Train
only punctures bike but also
lawnmower tires.
The weekend initiative
comes when the weed
is especially pervasive,
according to Peterson.
“Right now, July, is a
time they’re coming out,”
Saturday, July 18
she said.
Departs from Elgin
To safely extract punc-
at 4:30 p.m.
ture vine, Peterson recom-
mends wearing gloves and
800.323.7330 eaglecaptrainrides.com
digging up the weed before
Two Rivers Bonus Run - August 1 & 15
pulling it from the ground.
See the full season schedule online.
The roots spread out like a
By JONATHAN BACH
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Gary L. West
A firefighter clears debris from a fire that destroyed a mobile home Friday in Irrigon.
Five people, including two infants and a 6-year-old boy, escaped shortly before the
home was engulfed in flame.
Up to 50% Off
Eagle Cap Excursion Train
turpitude or dishonesty.”
A memo to the city
council signed by assistant
city manager Mark Morgan
and city attorney Gary Luisi
noted that one taxi driver
who had been successfully
working in town was barred
from getting a license under
the new ordinance because
of a theft conviction in 1977
and another in 1982, but has
had no issues in the 33 years
since.
They recommended the
ordinance be amended to
allow drivers who have had
no criminal convictions for
the past 10 years.
The city council will meet
at 7 p.m. Monday at city hall,
180 NE 2nd St. in Hermiston.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
The Center for Excellence
in Dermatology
welcomes
Heidi Tate, PA-C
to our satellite clinic
in Pendleton, Or.
She is located in the Family Medicine building,
behind the Interpath building at
2450 SW Perkins Ave, Pendleton, OR.
Services related to the diagnosis and treatment of
skin cancers, moles and sun damage. General services
including the evaluation and treatment of acne,
psoriasis, warts and eczema will also be available.
Stop by the new office and meet the medical staff
dedicated to taking care of all of your skin needs.
Appointments are
available
Monday-Thursday
8am-5pm
Call toll free
1-855-525-4677
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