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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
China coronavirus claims 4th victim as more screenings added
By YANAN WANG AND
KEN MORITSUGU
Associated Press
BEIJING — A fourth per-
son has died in an outbreak of
a new coronavirus in China,
authorities said Tuesday, as
more places stepped up med-
ical screening of travelers
from the country as it enters
its busiest travel period.
The increased control
measures followed a sharp
rise in the number of infec-
tions to more than 200 peo-
ple since last month, with
epidemiologists still uncer-
tain of its nature and mode of
transmission.
Chinese health authorities
confirmed late Monday that
some cases had been trans-
mitted person-to-person, a
development that means the
illness could spread faster
and more widely, particu-
larly at the start of the Lunar
New Year travel rush.
Concerned about a global
outbreak similar to SARS,
which spread from China
to more than a dozen coun-
tries in 2002-03, numerous
nations have adopted screen-
ing measures for travelers
arriving from China, espe-
cially those from the central
city of Wuhan, where the
outbreak is thought to have
originated and which has
accounted for the vast major-
ity of the cases.
Australia’s chief medical
officer Brendan Murphy said
his country will be increas-
ing airport screening. Aus-
tralia receives a significant
number of travelers from
China, including three direct
flights a week from Wuhan
into Sydney, and these flights
will be met by border secu-
rity and biosecurity staff
for assessments, Murphy
told reporters.
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
Travelers wear face masks as they walk outside of the Beijing
Railway Station in Beijing on Monday.
Japan, South Korea, Hong
Kong and other countries and
regions with extensive travel
links to China are also enact-
ing stricter screening mea-
sures. At least three U.S. air-
ports have started screening
incoming airline passengers
from central China.
Chinese authorities have
confirmed cases in Wuhan,
Beijing and Guangdong, with
suspected cases in Shanghai
and other parts of the coun-
try. Additionally, Thailand
detected two cases among
Chinese travelers and South
Korean and Japan have
reported one each.
The outbreak is believed
to have started late last month
among people connected to a
seafood market in Wuhan,
which had a total of 198 cases
as of Monday. All four fatal-
ities have been in Wuhan,
although it wasn’t clear if the
latest death was a new case or
one already diagnosed.
The head of the China’s
expert team on the illness,
respiratory expert Zhong
Nanshan, said two people
in Guangdong province in
southern China caught the
virus from family members,
state media said.
Some medical workers
have also tested positive for
the virus, the English-lan-
guage China Daily newspa-
per reported.
Chinese President Xi
Jinping instructed govern-
ment departments Monday
to promptly release informa-
tion on the virus and deepen
international cooperation.
China has notified and
maintained close commu-
nication with the World
Health Organization and
other relevant countries and
regions, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Geng
Shuang said at a regular news
briefing.
Wuhan has also adopted
measures to control the flow
of people leaving the city,
Geng said.
Initial symptoms of the
novel coronavirus include
fever, cough, tightness of
the chest and shortness of
breath, and some developed
pneumonia.
On the Weibo social
media platform, which is
widely used in China, peo-
ple posted prevention advice,
such as wearing masks and
washing hands. Some people
said they had canceled their
travel plans and were staying
home for Lunar New Year.
Fire: ‘When it gets windy the fire will run up slope and into the crowns’
Continued from Page A1
he said.
Goodrich said he spent
the first two weeks working
in an office, helping coordi-
nate resources while trying
to learn the Australian fire
management system.
“Their incident command
is similar, but different —
especially their workforce,”
he said.
The entire state of New
South Wales has less than
1,000 full-time fire employ-
ees, but 70,000 volunteers.
Goodrich likened it to an
old-fashioned bucket bri-
gade style of fighting fire, but
much more sophisticated.
Each small town or rural
neighborhood has its own
brigade, similar to a volun-
teer fire department, super-
vised by the state’s rural fire
service.
“They do initial attack
and extended attack,” he
said.
When a wildfire is
reported, volunteer firefight-
ers get a page. Goodrich said
whoever is available jumps
on a truck and goes to put
out the fire. If the fire grows
into a large fire, the rural fire
service pages the volunteers
each day.
“It’s a pretty good sys-
tem,” he said. “The rural fire
system provides trucks, per-
sonal protective gear and
training; the people provide
the work.”
The same fire truck may
show up, but the personnel
is constantly changing, mak-
ing it a little tricky to manage
large fires when the overhead
team doesn’t know who will
be showing up each day.
While Goodrich said
managing fires is the same
no matter where you are, the
fuels throughout the state are
different, requiring differ-
ent tactics. He said like Ore-
gon, New South Wales has a
variety of ecotypes from the
coast inland to the drier bush
country.
“There is heath and other
coastal vegetation similar
to chaparral by the coast in
sandy soil. Inland there are
dense groves of eucalyptus
and palmetto,” he said.
While techniques like
burning ground between
the fire and fire line are used
in Australia as they are in
America, Goodrich said it
is more like fighting fire in
the southeast states where
ground litter is generally
leaves and branches. Some of
the deciduous trees, he said,
Photo courtesy of Nathan Goodrich
Smoke from a back burn rises over Bulga Mountain in New
South Wales.
don’t drop their leaves and
maintain a thick canopy with
little underbrush.
“When it gets windy the
fire will run up slope and into
the crowns,” Goodrich said.
Known for habitat and
food for koalas, Goodrich
said there are 15 different
types of eucalyptus. Some
are 150 feet tall and 5 feet
across at the base. Another
variety in the eucalyptus
family has stringy bark like
juniper and when it burns,
chunks of burning debris can
get airborne, potentially set-
ting spot fires.
Goodrich said he spent
his time in the interior of the
country, not along the coast
where television news cap-
tured burning homes and
injured animals. He said he
saw plenty of wombats and
kangaroos, but where he was
stationed the fires were rel-
atively slow moving and the
animals were able to get out
of the way.
The American and Cana-
dian fire managers were sent
over as part of an agreement
made among the countries
of Australia, New Zealand,
Mexico, Canada and the
United States 15 years ago
to share firefighters in times
of dire need. Goodrich said
the Australians regularly
send troops to the U.S., but
Americans haven’t been dis-
patched down under for 10
years when fires killed 180
people on what was referred
to as “Black Saturday.”
Goodrich said in the
past, North American crews
fought fire in Victoria. This
is the first time they have
been sent to New South
Wales. He said it’s typical
for fires to start in August,
the beginning of Australia’s
spring, and then rains quell
the danger until the heat of
the summer, but this year the
rains didn’t come and crew
availability is running thin,
especially with a volunteer
force with full-time day jobs.
“Some companies are
paying their employees and
letting their people volun-
teer, but they are running out
of tolerance because the fires
have been going at it for so
long,” Goodrich said. “The
permanent employees who
work for the rural fire ser-
vice, the forestry department
and the park service are get-
ting tired as well. We went
down to integrate with them
and give them a little bit of a
break.”
According to Goodrich,
there are a number of fire
staff members from the Wal-
lowa-Whitman still in Aus-
tralia who will return at
the end of February. Darcy
Weseman, public affairs offi-
cer for the Umatilla National
Forest, said two of her for-
est’s employees were sent
— one is already there and
another is going next week
with a 20-person crew from
the region.
Memorial: ‘It never occurred to Scott to be anything other than genuine’
Continued from Page A1
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Dan Haug sings “December in Pendleton” during Sunday’s celebration of life for Scott Fairley
at the Pendleton Convention Center. The Pendleton city councilor is mentioned in the lyrics.
Development Officer for the
state of Oregon. In earlier
years, he served as ombuds-
man for the governor’s office
for more than a decade.
One by one, people in
Fairley’s life took the podium
and shared memories. As
they spoke, Fairley grinned
from a portrait on a easel
behind them.
Fairley’s mom, Carolyn
Frasier, was the first to share.
“Scott was raised by his
father and me, extended fam-
ily, friends, teachers and Mr.
Rogers,” said Frasier. “Early
on, Scott had a good com-
mand of the English lan-
guage. By age 3, he was a
convincing politician as he
presented cases about what
he could and could not do.”
His younger sister Jenni-
fer, Frasier said, gave Scott
“the opportunity to perfect
the art of teasing.”
When Scott was 11, the
family moved to Pendleton
where he instantly found a
new cadre of friends. Eric
Quaempts came into Fairley’s
orbit in sixth grade when the
boys attended outdoor school.
With Scott, he said, what you
saw is what you got.
“You always saw the real
Scott,” Quaempts said. “It
never occurred to Scott to be
anything other than genuine.”
Quaempts shared some
amusing stories, which
included one of Scott tak-
ing Kimbra by motorcycle to
the top of Steens Mountain
during courtship.
“On the ride, Scott
unknowingly lost the food
and camping gear for the
weekend,” he said. “He
begged supplies from other
campers to salvage his trip
and his status as her boy-
friend. He had the trait of
persistence.”
Another of Fairley’s are-
nas was the Pendleton City
Council chambers where he
faced problems with a blend
of inquisitiveness and tenac-
ity. Pendleton Mayor John
Turner said Fairley excelled
at getting the ball across the
goal line even if the issue was
unpopular.
“Scott had one objective,”
Turner said. “That was to
make Pendleton a better place
to live.”
Fairley’s niece, Addie
Peterson, said she will miss
her uncle’s contagious belly
laugh, his positive take on life
and his typical greeting for
her as he walked through the
front door.
“In my head I hear him
saying, ‘Adelaide, you look
like a million bucks,’” she
said.
Friend and business part-
ner Patrick Temple said it will
take a while to get past losing
someone as unique and spe-
cial as Fairley, but he hopes
one day the anguish will be
completely replaced with
laughter and fond recollec-
tions told through campfire
smoke.
“Scott, we say good-
bye,” Temple said. “Goodbye
friend and goodbye dearest
brother.”
Legislators: Smith to serve as vice chair of the Committee on Revenue
Continued from Page A1
decided to take it on as his
bill for the short session.
“There really wasn’t
opposition to it, just in the
budget process it got lost in
the shuffle. ... The Depart-
ment of Ag already did the
research, they determined
the need, I’m just trying to
build on the work already
done,” Hansell said.
JR Cook, president
of the Northeast Oregon
Water Association, said
NOWA and other stake-
holders were grateful for
Hansell’s willingness to help
ensure the task force gets off
the ground.
“It’s back in the gover-
nor’s POP, but he wanted to
have a Plan B, and we really
appreciate that,” Cook said.
The bill became more
timely on Thursday, after a
coalition of activist groups
known Stand Up to Factory
Farms filed a petition with
the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency asking the fed-
eral government to take
emergency action on the
nitrates in LUBGWAMA,
including blocking all new
dairies in the area.
While members of the
House of Representative can
file two bills apiece this ses-
sion and become a co-spon-
sor on other lawmakers’
bills, Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, said his work
on committees will be an
important focus for him as
well this session.
He will serve as co-vice
chair of the Joint Interim
Committee on Ways and
Means and vice chair of
the Committee on Revenue
this session — an unusu-
ally powerful combination
of committee assignments
that Smith said comes in
part because there are only
22 Republicans available to
choose from and much of the
Republican caucus is rela-
tively inexperienced.
Senators and represen-
tatives were in Salem last
week for legislative days,
which are not a lawmaking
session but do allow com-
mittees to meet to gather
information and hear testi-
mony. Smith said one com-
mon theme during the meet-
ing of the this month’s Joint
Interim Committee on Ways
and Means during legislative
days was an unusually high
number of “serious miscal-
culations” by state agencies
that are now asking for rec-
onciliations that are some-
times in the tens of millions
of dollars.
“The theme of Ways and
Means will be miscalcu-
lations occurring over and
over,” he said.
Video of Wednesday’s
committee meeting shows
discussion of many of those
miscalculations. In one case,
the Department of Human
Services requested an addi-
tional $7.8 million and 46
new positions related to Sen-
ate Bill 155 from the 2019
session, which makes DHS
responsible for investigating
all third-party child abuse
reports not investigated
by law enforcement. At
the time, DHS estimated it
would handle approximately
500 of those reports, but
now “projects up to 5,000 of
those investigations per year
may be required,” according
to Rep. Duane Stark of the
Subcommittee on Human
Services.
Sen.
Fred
Girod
responded that it was
“extremely frustrating when
we’re off tenfold.” Hansell
also expressed concern
about how much the esti-
mate had changed since leg-
islators voted to pass the law.
As the session draws
near, Oregon Senate Pres-
ident Peter Courtney has
been hospitalized with a hip
infection. He is expected
to be ready to work for the
2020 session, but Hansell
said if Courtney was absent
during the session due to
health problems, it would
have a major effect.