NATION/WORLD
Saturday, December 9, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Fast-moving flames force people to flee on a moment’s notice
FALLBROOK, Calif. (AP) —
Flames were practically on top of
Dick and Joan Marsala’s home
when they got an urgent knock on
the door and were told to leave.
The couple, in their mid-80s,
grabbed only a change of clothes
and medications before fleeing
Thursday through wind gusts and
smoke as fire swallowed the row
of mobile homes behind their place
in the Rancho Monserate Country
Club north of San Diego.
It’s a story that has played out
in communities across much of
Southern California this week as
ferocious winds whipped sparks
into massive infernos that have
destroyed more than 500 buildings,
killed dozens of horses and forced
hundreds of thousands of people
to run from fires that have burned
nearly 250 square miles since
Monday.
The flames that tore through Fall-
brook, self-proclaimed “Avocado
Capital of the World,” and nearby
Bonsall, home to a premier race-
horse training facility, traveled so
far that even people who found
temporary refuge had to move again
when the fires got too close.
Flames sprang up so quickly and
moved so fast that three people were
burned Thursday trying to escape.
Many of those who managed to get
out unscathed did so with only the
clothes on their backs after aban-
doning a lifetime of possessions to
fate.
The Marsalas and other unlucky
homeowners returned Friday to find
their homes in ruins.
Dick Marsala was too over-
whelmed to speak as he searched
through the smoldering remnants in
search of his wallet. It was still too
hot, so he climbed back out. Peering
through a broken window, he
spotted a framed photo still hanging
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
Dick Marsala looks through debris from his destroyed home after a wildfire roared through the Ran-
cho Monserate Country Club Friday in Bonsall, Calif. The wind-swept blazes have forced tens of thou-
sands of evacuations and destroyed dozens of homes in Southern California.
on a blackened wall. It was a picture
of him golfing.
“I’ll be darned,” he said, his eyes
tearing up as he put on sunglasses.
The charred gray remains of
much of the 55-and-over commu-
nity stood in stark contrast to the
bright green nine-hole golf course
where Marsala and others in the
community played regularly.
Many residents were on the
course when the fire swept into the
area, driven by dry desert Santa Ana
winds that surpassed 35 mph. That
was too fast for firefighters to stop
the flames.
“The crews were trying to stay
out ahead of this as quickly as they
could,” said Capt. Kendal Bortisser
of the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Prevention. “As
we know, when a tornado hits the
Midwest, there’s no stopping it.
When a hurricane hits the East
Coast, there’s no stopping it. When
Santa Ana winds come in, there’s no
stopping them.”
Tom Metier was brushing his
teeth to get ready for a doctor’s
appointment when sheriff’s deputies
pulled up and yelled, “Get out now!”
He grabbed the key to his safety
deposit box, prescription pills and
some cash. Winds were howling
BRIEFLY
Trump signs 2-week spending Ethics panel expands probe
bill to avoid shutdown
into GOP Rep. Farenthold
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump on Friday signed a spending
bill to avoid a government shutdown and
keep the federal government running through
Dec. 22.
The president signed the two-week
spending measure in private at the White
House after the House and Senate acted
to prevent a government shutdown this
weekend.
The funding reprieve comes as the
White House and congressional leaders
are negotiating a longer-term agreement,
building off a Thursday meeting involving
Trump and congressional leaders.
The White House and lawmakers said the
bill will give them more time to negotiate
several end-of-the-year agenda items,
including the budget, a children’s health
program and hurricane aid. Administration
and congressional aides were continuing the
talks on Friday.
“We hope that we’re going to make some
great progress for our country. I think that
will happen,” Trump said Thursday in the
Oval Office. Added Senate Democratic
Leader Chuck Schumer of New York:
“Funding the government is extremely
important, helping our soldiers is very
important and helping average citizens is
very important. So we’re here in the spirit of:
Let’s get it done.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House
Ethics Committee says it is expanding
an investigation into sexual harassment
allegations against Republican Rep. Blake
Farenthold of Texas.
The committee said it will investigate
whether Farenthold sexually harassed a
former member of his staff and retaliated
against her for complaining. The committee
also said the panel would review allegations
that Farenthold made inappropriate
statements to other members of his staff.
Lauren Greene is a former
communications director in the
congressman’s office. She alleged in a
2014 federal lawsuit that she was sexually
harassed and fired soon after complaining of
a hostile work environment. Farenthold said
when the case was settled in 2015 that he
didn’t engage in any wrongdoing.
The committee had already been
conducting a discretionary review of
the matter and has examined more than
200,000 pages of materials and interviewed
multiple witnesses. However, a press release
announcing the subcommittee’s formation
said the resolution of the case had been
significantly delayed by difficulties in
obtaining testimony from key witnesses
and in accessing confidential documents the
parties exchanged as the lawsuit ongoing.
Men accused of bomb plot
Obama: Protect democracy
want Trump voters on jury
or risk path of Nazi Germany
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Three men
CHICAGO (AP) — Former President
Barack Obama says Americans must be
vigilant in their defense of democracy or risk
following the path of Nazi Germany in the
1930s.
At a speech earlier this week, the former
president told the Economic Club of Chicago
that “things can fall apart fairly quickly”
if Americans don’t “tend to this garden of
democracy.”
During the speech Tuesday, Obama
pointed to Hitler’s rise to power in Germany
as he implored the audience to “pay attention
... and vote.”
Obama also defended the media. He said
the press “often drove me nuts” but that
he understood that a free press was vital to
democracy.
accused of plotting to bomb a mosque and
apartment complex housing Somali refugees
asked a federal judge Friday to include
prospective jurors from rural western Kansas
because they are twice as likely to have
voted for President Donald Trump.
A defense motion argues that plans to
only summon citizens in the more urban
counties closest to the federal courthouse
in Wichita is a discriminatory practice that
excludes rural and conservative jurors.
Gavin Wright, Patrick Stein and Curtis
Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a
weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy
against civil rights for allegedly planning to
detonate truck bombs in Garden City the day
after the November 2016 election. Wright
also faces a charge of lying to the FBI.
outside, and flames leaped through
the brush on a nearby hillside.
Metier, who expected to lose
everything, was surprised to find
his place intact Friday. He zipped
through the mobile home park in a
golf cart, fielding calls from neigh-
bors and reporting whose homes
survived and whose were gone.
More than a third of the commu-
nity’s 213 mobile homes burned as
the fire zigzagged along a hillside,
skipping some streets and razing
others. On one street, all 24 mobile
homes were gone, with only hulls of
cars and stoves left.
“It’s really horrible to see some
of these little streets look like a
moonscape,” he told a friend whose
home was reduced to black rubble.
The fire 50 miles north of San
Diego ignited for unknown reasons
and destroyed at least 85 structures
as it burned 6 square miles.
Meanwhile, firefighters north-
west of Los Angeles gained some
control over the largest and most
destructive fire in the state, which
destroyed 430 buildings. The blaze
in Ventura County grew to 206
square miles since igniting Monday.
Along the coast between Ventura
and Santa Barbara, tiny commu-
nities had so far survived close
calls. Slopes along U.S. 101 were
blackened, but homes still stood
at La Conchita and Faria Beach.
Sections of Carpinteria were under
mandatory or voluntary evacuation
orders, but no flames were in sight.
Fire crews made enough progress
against other large fires around LA
to lift most evacuation orders.
The Fallbrook fire broke out
along State Highway 76 and quickly
jumped six lanes to the other side.
Horse trainers took stock of the
damage at the elite San Luis Rey
Downs training facility for thor-
oughbreds in Bonsall, where many
of the more than 450 horses were cut
loose to prevent them from being
trapped in burning stables.
Frantic herds galloped through
smoke and past flaming palm trees
in a chaotic escape from a normally
idyllic place.
“We almost got trampled to
death,” trainer Kim Marrs said. “One
gal got knocked down. I thought she
was going to get crushed. You just
had to stand there and pray they
didn’t hit you.”
Most of the loose horses were
corralled and taken to Del Mar Fair-
grounds, but about 25 died as barns
and pasture burned.
Have
yours-
Elf
a Very
happy
holiday
Designed by Karli Kretschmer,
Age 9, La Grande, OR.
She was the winner of our
annual Holiday Design Contest.
Donate This Holiday Season Toward These
Great Causes During Our Annual
Community Bank
Charity Drive
Community Bank will match up to $500
(per branch) at 50¢ on every dollar
collected through Dec. 20, 2017!
Donations at our Pendleton Branch
will support:
Donations at our Hermiston Branch
will support:
The Hermiston Warming Station
Donations at our Heppner Branch
will support:
The Neighborhood Center Food Bank
Donations at our Milton-Freewater Branch
will support:
Milton-Freewater City
Light & Power
Energy Assistance
Program
PLUS - The City of Milton-Freewater will match the funds collected up to
$5,000!
Local Money Working
For Local People
www.communitybanknet.com
Member FDIC
Pendleton
157 S Main St
541-278-9000
Hermiston
50 E Theater Ln
541-289-4480
Heppner
127 N Main St
541-676-5745
Milton-Freewater
504 N Main St
541-938-6361