NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, February 7, 2019
San Francisco gas explosion shoots fire that burns buildings
Crews working on
fiber optic cables cut
through gas lines
By JANIE HAR
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — A gas
explosion in a San Francisco neigh-
borhood shot flames into the air for
hours Wednesday and burned five
buildings, sending panicked resi-
dents and workers fleeing into the
streets.
It took utility crews more than
two hours to put out the fire after
private construction workers cut a
natural gas line, igniting the tow-
ering flames, Fire Chief Joanne
Hayes-White said.
Authorities initially said five
workers were missing, but the
entire construction crew was
found safe, and no other injuries
were reported.
Officials evacuated several
nearby buildings, including a
medical clinic and apartment
buildings, Hayes-White said.
Vehicles on a busy street got
rerouted as authorities cordoned
off the bustling retail and residen-
tial neighborhood.
The fire damaged a building
housing Hong Kong Lounge II, a
popular dim sum restaurant fre-
quented by tourists and students
at the University of San Francisco
that made many “best of” lists.
Caroline Gasparini, 24, who
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
San Francisco firefighters battle a fire on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco on Wednesday.
rant run out the back door and peo-
ple fleeing down the block.
Nick Jalali, 28, was cooking at
home when the electricity cut out.
“We didn’t hear anything,”
he said. “We just felt the shak-
ing, and the next thing we knew,
people were banging on the door
to tell people it’s time to start
evacuating.”
Firefighters worked to keep the
fire from spreading while Pacific
Gas & Electric crews tried to shut
lives catty-corner from where
the fire ignited, said she and her
housemate were in their living
room when the windows started
rattling. She looked up to see
flames reflected in the glass.
“We went into crisis mode,”
Gasparini said. “We grabbed our
shoes, grabbed our laptops and
grabbed our passports and just
left.”
Gasparini said they saw
employees of the burning restau-
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Mostly sunny and
cold
Cold with a little
snow at times
Cold with a little
snow at times
Colder with a little
snow
Not as cold with
snow
29° 17°
30° 26°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
31° 14°
31° 16°
19° 12°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
29° 19°
32° 27°
32° 20°
30° 19°
25° 13°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
44/28
28/21
28/15
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
29/20
Lewiston
44/28
29/18
Astoria
45/30
Pullman
Yakima 29/17
42/25
33/23
Portland
Hermiston
41/28
The Dalles 29/19
Salem
Corvallis
42/29
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
33/21
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
45/30
37/21
39/22
Ontario
36/20
Caldwell
Burns
27°
2°
45°
29°
65° (1965) -13° (1929)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
44/30
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
44/31
Trace
0.68"
0.20"
2.21"
1.24"
1.48"
WINDS (in mph)
36/21
31/15
0.02"
0.79"
0.28"
2.86"
1.85"
1.66"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 30/16
43/30
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
29/17
31/24
23°
4°
44°
28°
67° (1996) -6° (1899)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
41/23
Aberdeen
25/19
25/16
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
41/27
Today
Fri.
NE 4-8
NNE 4-8
S 4-8
SW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
35/21
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:10 a.m.
5:10 p.m.
8:46 a.m.
8:05 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Feb 12
Feb 19
Feb 26
Mar 6
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 89° in McAllen, Texas Low -23° in Kabetogama, Minn.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
off the natural gas line.
PG&E spokeswoman Melissa
Subbotin said state excavation
rules required crews to dig by hand
around other pipelines before they
were eventually able to “squeeze”
a 4-inch plastic line.
She said that because the fire
was contained to a limited area,
the utility had to weigh the threat
from the fire with the risk of more
drastic action.
“Had we turned the gas off to
a transmission system, we would
have shut off gas to nearly the
entire city of San Francisco,” she
said.
“The objective of this was
to turn the gas off safely and as
quickly as possible.”
In an earthquake, Subbotin said
PG&E would shut off a transmis-
sion line. The company stressed
that the workers who cut the gas
line are not affiliated with the
nation’s largest utility.
The fire began around 1:20 p.m.,
apparently by crews working on
fiber-optic wires, Hayes-White
said.
Joseph Feusi lives four blocks
away and said he was awoken by
what sounded like a jet engine.
Feusi, who works nights and sleeps
in the afternoon, said he could
see the towering flames from his
home.
“I think the eight guys are
really lucky they didn’t get blown
to bits,” he said.
PG&E is under heightened
scrutiny over its natural gas pipe-
lines after one exploded under a
neighborhood south of San Fran-
cisco in 2010, killing eight people
and wiping out a neighborhood in
suburban San Bruno.
A U.S. judge fined PG&E $3
million for a conviction on six fel-
ony charges of failing to properly
maintain the pipeline, and the util-
ity remains under a federal judge’s
watch in that case.
Authorities: Photographer
drugged, raped young models
contact authorities.
Koester’s defense attor-
ney in the California cases,
MCMINNVILLE
— Jonathan Lynn, declined to
A professional photogra- comment when reached by
pher drugged and sexually phone Wednesday.
assaulted young models or
The indictment in the
aspiring models he worked Oregon cases is sealed and
with in Oregon and Cal- court records, including a
ifornia, federal and state listing for a defense attor-
ney, were not avail-
authorities
said
able in the state’s
Wednesday.
online criminal sys-
Robert Arnold
tem. No one imme-
Koester, 52, is
diately returned an
accused of bring-
ing young women
email sent to a list-
ing on Koester’s
and girls to a remote
Koester
business website.
property
outside
Koester, who was
McMinnville,
in
Oregon’s wine country, tak- known professionally as
ing nude photos of them and Bert Kay, worked primar-
sexually assaulting them ily photographing models
there, Yamhill County Dis- in the U.S. West but author-
trict Attorney Brad Berry ities said they have identi-
fied potential victims in cit-
said at a news conference.
He announced an indict- ies across the country. He
ment charging Koester with got referrals for modeling
32 counts, including rape.
shoots from several profes-
Investigators
serving sional modeling agencies
two search warrants at the and was fairly well-known
remote, 28-acre property within the industry, Berry
seized “many, many tera- said.
bytes” of digital photos and
His business website,
videos as evidence. The Bert Kay Photography, is
images suggest other vic- splashed with the slogan
tims may have been abused “Chasing Light: From a hill-
on the property, Berry said. top farm in Oregon wine
Authorities asked any- country to locations world-
one who was at the prop- wide,” and features some of
erty for a modeling shoot his Pacific Northwest mod-
— or anyone who knows eling photography.
The charges in Ore-
of female models who went
to Koester’s property — to gon and California identify
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
eight people — four in Ore-
gon and four in California,
Berry said.
“It’s hard to give you an
estimate of the number of
victims, in part because the
amount of information that
has been seized and has yet
to be analyzed is huge and
we don’t really know,” Berry
said. “We wholly expect
there to be more victims.”
Koester, who also went
by Rhake Winter and
Qitooly, was indicted in Ore-
gon on Jan. 30, on 32 counts
of first-degree rape, sodomy,
unlawful sexual penetration
and causing another person
to ingest a controlled sub-
stance. The alleged victims
include three women and
one girl who were brought
to the Oregon property from
outside the state, Berry said.
Koester is also charged
with 23 sex-related counts in
San Diego County, where he
was arrested in November
2018 on suspicion of sexu-
ally abusing four teenage
girls in Carlsbad, California.
He is being held on $1
million bail there and is on
a hold in the federal cases,
court records show. His bail
in Oregon is $2.5 million.
Koester also faces two
federal counts of sexual
exploitation of a minor in
California. He bought the
Oregon property in 2012 or
2013, Berry said.
Suspect in shooting arrested after car chase
VANCOUVER, Wash.
(AP) — Authorities say a
lengthy car chase erupted
into gunfire on interstates in
Portland, and ended with the
arrest of another suspect in
the fatal shooting of a con-
venience store clerk.
Police in Kelso, Washing-
ton, said Erkinson K. Bossy,
23, was arrested shortly
before 8 p.m. Tuesday after
a pursuit from Vancouver,
Washington, into Portland.
The Columbian reports
police pursuing the fleeing
pickup exchanged gunfire
with at least one suspect and
an officer was being treated
for minor injuries at an area
hospital. Bossy was being
treated at a hospital for seri-
ous injuries suffered in the
incident. Police say he did
not have gunshot wounds.
Investigators say Bossy
was with D’Anthony Les-
lie Williams, 19, when
he allegedly fatally shot
30-year-old Kayla Chap-
man, a clerk at a Kelso mar-
ket, on Jan. 22. Williams
was arrested the next day.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
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