NASA PICKS
TWELVE NEW
ASTRONAUTS
COMEY SAYS
HE WAS FIRED
OVER PROBE
RECORDS/5A
NATION/9A
FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2017
141st Year, No. 169
Your Weekend
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Back-to-back vehicle fi res clog traffi c
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
•
•
•
The Prom is Afoot!
Saturday in Pendleton
National March for
Equality on Sunday
Music in the Park series
Sunday in Heppner
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
Catch a movie
One dollar
Two westbound vehicle fi res Thursday
morning in Pendleton snarled traffi c and
required a hazardous material crew. No one
was injured in either blaze.
The Pendleton Fire Department kicked
off its morning responding at 8:39 a.m.
to a semitrailer fi re on Interstate 84 near
milepost 207 on the outskirts of the city’s
west end. Pendleton Fire Chief Mike
Ciraulo said he was fi rst on the scene after
leaving a ceremony moments before at
Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution on
Pendleton’s Westgate Drive.
Ciraulo said he saw the semi’s brakes
and tires afl ame, grabbed the driver and
asked for the manifest. The document
revealed the semi contained a mix of items,
he said, including a food additive that was
hazardous to inhale and 3,000 pounds of
cigarette lighters, which were exploding.
And the trailer carried small propane cylin-
ders that exploded and started a fi eld fi re on
the north side.
“We saw we had so many different
chemicals, and you mix them and you have
a new chemical,” Ciraulo said.
That triggered a warning for people
within a half-mile radius to shelter in place,
he said, which covered the Pendleton
Bottling Co., Hodgen Distributing and
businesses on the lower parts of Airport
Hill.
Firefi ghters had the driver disconnect
See FIRES/3A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Flames erupt from a recreational vehicle as fi refi ghters
attempt to extinguish the blaze on Southwest Court
Avenue on Thursday in Pendleton.
Universal Pictures via AP
Well-preserved Tom Cruise
releases a violent magic
princess on the city of
London in “The Mummy.”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
64/43
66/43
66/49
PENDLETON
Cason’s
Place fi nds
a home
Children
play in
a pair of
misters
in Village
Square
Park
during the
Mid-Week
Market on
Wednes-
day in
Umatilla.
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Cason’s Place now has a
place to call home.
The board for the nonprofi t
that provides grief support for
children and families was
recently granted a former
Pendleton orthopedic offi ce
on Southeast Court Avenue
owned by St. Anthony
Hospital.
Debbie McBee, a Cason’s
Place board member, said the
donation of property by St.
Anthony was “huge” for the
organization, which plans to
open the new facility in the
remodeled building over the
summer.
Cason’s Place was started
by Matt Terjeson and Jan
Peterson-Terjeson after their
16-year-old son Cason died
in a Helix farming accident
in 2007.
During the grieving
process, Cason’s family
found a source of support in
Staff photo
by E.J. Harris
UMATILLA TOGETHER
Residents engaging in community in new
way, downtown revitalization sparks interest
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
See GRIEF/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
This is the second week for the fl edgling Mid-Week Market in Umatilla.
Community engagement is a
favorite buzzword of city govern-
ments, but it’s best way to describe
what’s going on in Umatilla.
A few years ago city councilors
ran unopposed — if any ran at all
— and audience numbers at council
meetings were in the single digits.
Tuesday night an audience of about
30 people watched eight candidates
vie for two open seats. An hour
before that meeting, there were
more than 50 people in the council
chambers listening to a presentation
about Umatilla’s new downtown
revitalization plan.
“Let’s get our unifi ed vision and
see if we can make it come together
for this community,” planning
commission chair Boyd Sharp
told the group, eliciting a round
of applause. “I think we have an
opportunity like never before.”
The council chambers aren’t
the only place Umatilla residents
gathered this week. On Wednesday,
residents were out enjoying the
sunshine in Village Square Park,
formerly an empty lot across from
the Umatilla Public Library, where
the city’s new Mid-Week Market
See UMATILLA/10A
PENDLETON
Prison employee receives
awards for heroism during fi re
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Pendleton Fire Chief
Mike Ciraulo doesn’t
condone the idea of
anyone other than a prop-
erly equipped fi refi ghter
entering a burning building.
“Statistically, if you
go back inside a burning
building, you will die,”
Ciraulo said.
But the night of March
29 wasn’t a normal night.
While Pendleton fi refi ghters
fought a blaze in the River-
side area on the east side of
town, the call came in that
a building at the Eastern
Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution had caught fi re.
“All available resources
were tied up when the
report of the EOCI fi re
came in,” Ciraulo said. “It
was horrible timing with
concurrent fi res.”
During
the
delay,
EOCI Corrections Sgt. Eli
Anderson kept the fi re in
the prison carpentry shop
confi ned to a small area
by repeatedly entering the
building with fi re extin-
guishers.
On Monday, Anderson
See PRISON/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sgt. Eli Anderson gestures towards the ceiling while
describing the fi re that burned through this wood shop
March 29 at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute
in Pendleton. Anderson re-entered this burning shop
multiple times in an attempt to contain the fi re.