NATION/WORLD
Thursday, October 12, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Deadly California fires explode again
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
and JOCELYN GECKER
Associated Press
SANTA ROSA, Calif.
— Fueled by the return of
strong winds, the wildfires
burning through California
wine country exploded in
size and number Wednesday
as authorities issued new
evacuation orders and the
death toll climbed to 21 — a
figure that was expected to
rise higher still.
Three days after the fires
began, firefighters were still
unable to gain control of
the blazes that had turned
entire Northern California
neighborhoods to ash and
destroyed at least 3,500
homes and businesses.
“We are literally looking
at explosive vegetation,”
said Ken Pimlott, chief of
the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection.
“It is very dynamic. These
fires are changing by the
minute in many areas.”
The entire historic town
of Calistoga, population
5,000, was evacuated. In
neighboring Sonoma County,
authorities issued an evacua-
tion advisory for the northern
part of the town of Sonoma
and the community of Boyes
Hot Springs. By the time the
advisory was issued, lines of
cars were already fleeing.
“That’s very bad,” resi-
dent Nick Hinman said when
a deputy sheriff warned him
that the driving winds could
shift the wildfires toward the
town of Sonoma proper, with
11,000 residents. “It’ll go up
like a candle.”
Ash snowed over the
Sonoma Valley, covering
windshields, as winds begin
picking up toward the poten-
tially disastrous forecast
speed of 30 mph. Cars of
evacuees raced away from
the flames while countless
emergency vehicles raced
toward them, sirens blaring.
Residents
manhandled
canvas bags into cars
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
A Cal Fire official looks out at the remains of the Journey’s End mobile home park Wednesday in Santa Rosa,
Calififornia. Blazes burning in Northern California have become some of the deadliest in state history.
Hundreds missing; loved ones go online
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Friends
and relatives desperately checked hospitals
and shelters and pleaded on social media for
help finding loved ones missing amid Cali-
fornia’s wildfires, with hundreds of people
unaccounted for Wednesday.
“We’ve been to 17 evacuation centers.
We’ve called probably 12 hospitals. I mean,
my whole family, all my friends looking for
her,” Jessica Tunis said as she searched for
her mother, who was last heard saying “I’m
going to die” before the phone at her burning
mobile home in Santa Rosa went dead.
Hours later Wednesday, the daughter
texted a reporter to say that the remains of
her mother, 69-year-old Linda Tunis, had
been found in the ruins of her home.
As of Wednesday, 22 wildfires were
burning in Northern California, up from 17
the day before. The blazes killed at least 21
people and destroyed an estimated 3,500
jammed with possessions or
filled their gas tanks.
homes and businesses, many of them in
California wine country.
How many people were missing was
unclear, and officials said the lists could
include duplicated names and people who
are safe but haven’t told anyone, whether
because of the general confusion or because
cellphone service is out across wide areas.
“We get calls and people searching for
lost folks and they’re not lost, they’re just
staying with somebody and we don’t know
where it is,” said Napa County Supervisor
Brad Wagenknecht.
With many fires still raging out of control,
authorities said locating the missing was not
their priority.
Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano
put the number of people unaccounted for in
the hard-hit county at 380 and said officers
were starting limited searches in the “cold
zones” they could reach.
The wildfires ranked as
the third deadliest and most
destructive in state history.
And officials warned the
worst was far from over.
“Make
no
mistake,
this is a serious, critical,
catastrophic event,” Pimlott
said. The fires have burned
through a staggering 265
square miles of urban and
rural areas. High winds
and low humidity made
conditions ideal for fire on
the start virtually anywhere
on ground that was parched
from years of drought.
California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection
spokesman Daniel Berlant
said 22 wildfires were
burning Wednesday, up from
17 the day before. As the
fires grow, officials voiced
concern that separate fires
would merge into even larger
infernos.
“We have had big fires in the
past. This is one of the biggest,
most serious, and it’s not over,”
Gov. Jerry Brown said at a
news conference, alongside the
state’s top emergency officials.
They said 8,000 firefighters
and other personnel were
battling the blazes and more
resources were pouring in from
Oregon, Nevada, Washington
and Arizona.
Flames have raced across
the wine-growing region
and the scenic coastal area
of Mendocino farther north,
leaving little more than smol-
dering ashes and eye-stinging
smoke in their wake. Whole
neighborhoods were leveled,
with only brick chimneys
and charred appliances to
mark sites that were once
family homes.
In Boyes Hot Springs,
residents for days had
watched the ridges over the
west side of town to gauge
how close the billowing
smoke and orange flames
of the wildfires had come.
On Wednesday, the ridges
themselves were obscured by
the growing clouds of smoke.
Increasingly large pieces
of gray ash drifted down
on the community. Sirens
wailed. Residents who had
held out hope of staying at
home, packed up to leave.
Sonoma County Sheriff
Robert
Giordano
said
hundreds of people were
still reported missing. But
officials believe many of
those people will be found.
Chaotic evacuations and poor
communications over the past
few days have made locating
friends and family difficult.
The sheriff also expects
the death toll to climb.
“The devastation is enor-
mous,” he said. “We can’t
even get into most areas.”
Pimlott said 73 helicop-
ters, 30 air tankers, 550
firetrucks and nearly 8,000
firefighters were being used.
Until now the efforts have
focused on “life safety” rather
than extinguishing the blazes,
partly because the flames
were shifting with winds and
targeting new communities
without warning.
Report: Key changes needed to prevent fiery rail crashes
By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
prestigious scientific organi-
zation on Wednesday called
for more frequent and better
inspections of freight railroad
tracks to prevent potentially
catastrophic oil and ethanol
train crashes.
A report by the National
Academies of Sciences also
urged better training for emer-
gency workers and questioned
the validity of recent train
speed regulation.
From 2005 to 2015,
there were 21 derailments or
collisions in the U.S. of trains
hauling crude oil, resulting
in the release of 1.6 million
gallons. There were 58
ethanol train crashes over the
same period, resulting in the
release of 2.6 million gallons.
The trains are often more than
100 cars long, and spilled oil
or ethanol from ruptured tank
AP Photo/Rockford Register Star, Scott Morgan, File
In this June 21, 2009 file photo, railroad freight cars are
destroyed after a fiery explosion that killed one person
are next to the train tracks following a derailment June
19 in Rockford, Ill.
cars has ignited and created
giant fireballs that can last for
days.
Several derailments were
attributed to track problems
that weren’t detected in
inspections shortly before the
incidents. Federal regulations
presume that inspectors won’t
always catch all track prob-
lems, but the report questions
whether there should be an
acceptable failure rate. It
suggests that these rates and
priorities for track repair be
adjusted for routes used by
trains hauling crude oil and
ethanol.
The government should
encourage railroads to make
more frequent and compre-
hensive inspections of track
on routes regularly used by oil
and ethanol trains, including
the use of advances in inspec-
tion technologies like sensors,
high-resolution imaging and
autonomous systems, the
report said. Some railroads are
using drones to increase track
inspections.
Derailments of all kinds
reached an all-time low in
2016, said Jessica Kahanek, a
spokeswoman for the Associ-
ation of American Railroads.
Derailments involving crude
oil account for less than 1
percent of all derailments, she
said.
Railroads are already using
many of the technologies
mentioned in the report and
are doing extensive research
on ways “to make a safe
network even safer,” Kahanek
said.
The report also questioned
the technical basis for a recent
safety regulation that reduced
the maximum speed for oil
trains to 50 mph in most areas
and 40 mph in urban areas.
Of the 20 most serious
train wrecks in which oil and
ethanol were released in the
United States from 2005 to
2015, none of the trains were
traveling faster than 50 mph
and only six were traveling
at 40 mph or more, the report
said.
Some safety advocates
favor a 30 mph limit. The
railroad industry opposes the
lower speed, saying it would
cause traffic jams and ship-
ping delays.
Emergency
responders
in many of the communities
traversed by oil and ethanol
trains, especially volunteer
fire departments in rural areas,
still lack familiarity with
procedures for handling a
large-scale incident involving
highly flammable liquids, the
report said.
It recommended that emer-
gency preparedness grants be
used to assist “communities
that are facing new and unfa-
miliar risks.”
Clear guidelines are
also lacking on the kinds of
information railroads should
provide state and local agen-
cies to prepare for such emer-
gencies, the report said. And
it’s unclear if the information
railroads are sharing with state
emergency planning agencies
is getting to first responders.
Oil and ethanol train derail-
ments continue, although
the pace has slowed. In
June, 20 cars of a 115-car oil
train derailed while passing
through Plainfield, Illinois on
its way to Louisiana. A tank
car leaked 20,000 gallons
of crude oil, most of which
burned, following a collision
in April between two trains
near Money, Mississippi.
For more information, call 1-800-962-2819
2x3 EXAMPLE
Celebrate your loved ones in our
VETERANS DAY TRIBUTE
We are so
proud of you
for serving
your country.
Free Example:
Honoring those who have served
and those who are currently serving
our country!
They’ve served our country with
courage and honor. They’ve left
behind loved ones to risk their
lives while protecting our country.
They’ve defended our freedoms
and ideals. They make us proud to
be Americans. Help us honor them.
SALUTE E
1x4 EXAMPLE
Love
Evelyn,
We are
so
Joe
proud and
of you
Cheryl
for
serving
J OSEPH S MITH
your country.
J OSEPH B. D AVIS
Staff Sergeant
Joel Davis
US Marines
Veteran
This special section will print in the Hermiston Herald on Nov. 8 and
in the East Oregonian on Nov. 11, 2017. There is NO CHARGE to
be included. Bring us or send in photos of servicemen, servicewomen
or veterans, along with the information in the form to the right, by
November 2.
Thank you for
your service!
Love Evelyn,
Joe and
Cheryl
If you’d like to purchase a larger space to
include a special message, border, flags, or stars
and stripes, rates are $40 for a 1x4” space or $55
for a 2x3” space. Private party only.
Please call 1-800-962-2819.
Love always
Marcy, Julie &
Emily
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