A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Fire:
Guns:
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
A view from nearby
Arnold Wardwell owns AEW
Welding and Custom Fabrication,
514 S.E. Emigrant Ave., inside
Lapp’s Auto Body Repair across the
avenue from Grain Craft’s elevator.
“This morning at about 6, I
saw pictures of the flour mill on
fire online,” Wardwell said. “I was
watching when I left for work.”
Wardwell went to school with a
farmer whom he helps out during
harvest.
“My son runs the welding shop
while I’m working harvest,” he said.
“We had some equipment in the
shop not covered by insurance, so we
needed to get it out. Also a friend’s
trailer.”
That was around 8:30 to 9 a.m.
“We got out before the whole
perimeter was set up,” he said. “The
fire department went up on the roof
to put out embers. My son was there
when the fire started yesterday after-
noon, with white smoke, before it
burst into flames early this morning.”
Wardwell said he hopes his son
could get back to work Aug. 11
“We’ve got some projects that we
need to get done soon,” he said.
Building integrity
becomes the question
Buildings at the mill began to
collapse around 9:30 a.m. Pierotti
said there was a concern about a full
building collapse.
“After roof collapse, the build-
ing is burning down from the inte-
rior, which works for us,” he said,
“reduces threat to exposed build-
ings.”
He added firefighters think the
full interior collapsed but could not
confirm because no one has gone
inside.
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Office brought in its search and
rescue drone to look for hot spots
and check the integrity of the build-
ing, as firefighters continued to pour
water on the north side. Resources
began pulling back around 9:45 a.m.
and sending outside agencies back
to their jurisdictions,
“They feel like it’s under control
enough,” Pendleton Police Chief
Chuck Byram said at the scene.
Pendleton Fire Lt. paramedic
Jared Uselman was one of the
people working with the drone. He
said the whole building was a shell,
and on the south side where there’s
office spaces fires were burning.
Pendleton fire was not sending in
people because the risk of collapse
was too high.
Fire could burn for days
Umatilla County closed the
courthouse, 216 S.E. Fourth St.,
and the emergency prompted the
closures of roads in a four-block
radius around the mill. Umatilla
County Commissioner John Shafer
said the county opened the court-
house to rehab firefighters.
The Oregon Department of
Human Services reported it closed
its office in the state building at 800
S.E. Emigrant due to the fire. Staff
were working remotely and attempt-
ing to contact and/or reschedule
people with in-person appointments.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Smoke pours from the Grain Craft flour mill in Pendleton the morning
of Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, as firefighters work to control the blaze.
PENDLETON FLOUR
MILLS HISTORY
Angela Davis/Contributed Photo
Angela Davis said this chunk of de-
bris from the fire at the Pendleton
flour mill struck her home at about
8 a.m. She said she lives about a
block from the fire and was watch-
ing it from her yard when the hunk
of metal flew through the air, hit
the front porch roof and landed
on the ground.
Pierotti said the fire could burn
for days. The building was mostly
heavy lumber, and even if it rained,
it would not help much.
There was concern Tuesday and
early Wednesday morning about
the risk of an explosion from wheat
dust, he also said.
A dust explosion and ensuing
conflagration on July 21, 1947, on
the second floor of what then was
the Western Milling Company
leveled the facility and caused fires
that threatened a southeast Pendle-
ton residential neighborhood and the
county courthouse. Pierotti said that
threat ebbed as Aug. 10 wore on.
But the collapse of the building
was possible, so crews were keep-
ing a zone clear in case the structure
came down.
The rest of Aug. 10, he said, fire-
fighters would focus on flare ups.
“We’ll be discussing options with
the ownership tomorrow,” he said.
Mackenzie Whaley/East Oregonian
Water pools Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, on the 400 block of Southeast
Dorion Avenue, Pendleton, due to fire hoses running to the blaze at the
nearby flour mill.
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The roots of Pendleton Flour
Mills reach back to 1910 as
Fisher Flour. The company sold
bagged flour in the Pacific
Northwest. Over the years,
Pendleton Flour Mills devel-
oped a strong distribution net-
work that evolved to specialize
in bulk shipments via trucks,
rail and ocean containers.
The present structure on the
railroad tracks in Pendleton
was built in the 1920s.
The mills became known for
its highly successful Power
and Mondako brands, plus
its dedication to providing
personalized customer service
and superior products. These
included premium hard and
soft wheat flour, and propri-
etary blends manufactured
specifically to meet customers’
needs.
In the 1970s, Kerr Pacific Corp.
bought Pendleton Flour Mills
from General Foods Corp. Mil-
ner Milling Co. was formed in
Georgia in the 1990s. In 2001,
Milner formed a joint venture
with the Pendleton operation,
which also acquired Fisher
Mills Inc. that year.
Grain Craft was established in
May 2014, when Milner and its
partner Pendleton Flour Mills
acquired Cereal Food Proces-
sors Inc., of Mission Woods,
Kansas. This brought together
three of the most prominent
independent milling com-
panies in the country. The
company was owned by G&L
Holdings, a family holding
company.
Grain Craft, the largest inde-
pendent milling company in
the U.S., on June 21, 2022, an-
nounced its parent company
had entered into an agree-
ment to have Redwood Capital
Investment LLC acquire Grain
Craft. Terms of the transaction
were not disclosed, baking-
business.com reported.
Based in Baltimore, Red-
wood Capital Investments is
a holding company that has
invested in long-standing, fam-
ily-owned businesses across
a range of industries. Grain
Craft will continue to operate
as an independent business
following the transaction, the
company said.
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Critics contend measure
threatens legal gun owners
The measure would enact a law
requiring a permit issued by a local
law enforcement agency to purchase
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In early May, the almost all-vol-
unteer Initiative Petition 17 to get the
proposals on the ballot had gathered
less than a third of the required signa-
tures, Oregon Public Broadcasting
reported. But that changed dramati-
cally after shootings in Buffalo, New
York and Uvalde, Texas.
Volunteers and donations poured
in, and the number of signatures
ballooned, according to OPB. By
late June, organizers said they had
collected sufficient signatures to get
the measure on the ballot. Yet they
continued the effort to ensure there
were enough, in case the Oregon
Secretary of State disqualified some.
State officials check and validate
every signature.
The initiative would close the
so-called Charleston loophole by
requiring people to pass a back-
ground check before buying a gun,
The Oregonian reported in May.
Under current federal law, fire-
arms dealers can sell guns without
a completed background check if it
takes longer than three business days,
measure proponents said. That’s how
the gunman in the 2015 Charleston
African Methodist Episcopal Church
mass shooting bought the Glock 41
.45 cal. pistol with which he killed
nine parishioners.
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“It could take a couple of years
before the Supreme Court hears a
challenge,” Rowan noted. “While
waiting, Oregonians would be
deprived of their right to self-de-
fense. In the meantime, those with
ill intentions are still going to get a
gun, ignoring the provisions for back-
ground checks and safety training.”
The $65 fee associated with the
measure won’t cover even half of the
cost of implementing it, Rowan said.
The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Associ-
ation estimated the first year cost at
$40 million. The OSSA opposes the
measure, and the Oregon Association
Chiefs of Police might join them, he
commented.
“If a citizen of Pendleton needs
a gun for self-defense, who is going
to provide the services required by
the measure?” Rowan asked. “City
police forces lack the time, money
and staff. The unfunded, mandated
safe handling and storage instruc-
tion is an attempt to stall people in
purchasing a firearm.”
Rowan said he prefers applying
stricter penalties on and enforcement
of firearms laws already on the books.
“Again, it’s all in how the picture
is painted,” he concluded. “If it’s
pitched as stopping gun violence,
then voters might buy into it. Oppo-
nents must emphasize education on
the measure’s impact. High-capacity
magazines are common for legitimate
purposes. I hope voters don’t repeat
the errors of Measure 110, but will
realize what else is in it.”
The initiative does not estimate
the cost or analyze its impact on small
local police departments.
The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Asso-
ciation estimated even if a person
could somehow complete the
required training, the permitting
process could cost sheriffs almost
$40 million annually. But nothing in
the measure provides any funding,
and the fees included would not come
close to covering the costs.
“Numerous police departments
and sheriff’s offices have agreed that
complying with this measure will
either be exorbitantly expensive or
impossible,” Starrett said. “None have
said they will be offering the train-
ing required to apply for the permit
to purchase, which sheriffs and local
police will be tasked with adminis-
tering.”
any firearm. Applicants would
have to pay a fee, be fingerprinted,
complete safety training, and pass a
criminal background check.
In addition, the applicant must
complete a hands-on demonstration
of basic firearms handling to qualify.
“In order to obtain the permit,
an applicant would have to show up
with a firearm to demonstrate the
ability to load, fire, unload, and store
the firearm,” Williamson, a Salem
trial attorney specializing in gun
law, said. “But you can’t get a fire-
arm without the permit. And under
Oregon’s highly restrictive gun stor-
age laws, no one can legally loan a
firearm to another. That creates an
impassable barrier.”
H.K. Kahng of Portland served
on a five-person committee to write
the measure 500-word explanatory
statement to appear in the voters’
guide this fall. Kahng, an engineer
and National Rifle Association fire-
arms instructor, said the permit
and training programs create an
unfunded mandate with no enforce-
ment measures.
“The measure calls upon the
Oregon State Police to come up
with these (permitting and training)
programs, but there’s no consequence
if they don’t, and there’s no time
frame for coming up with them,”
Kahng said during the committee’s
July 26 meeting.
Williamson also expressed
concerns the permit system grants
the Oregon State Police “unfettered
authority” to inquire into all manner
of personal information of the appli-
cant and to deny the applicant the
permit for any reason or for simply
failing to cooperate.
“No information is off limits,” he
claimed. “The introduction of highly
subjective criteria in (the measure)
allows the government significant
authority to intrude into the private
lives of law-abiding citizens wish-
ing to exercise their protected rights
under the Second Amendment.”
Opponents also argue that
language describing the magazine
ban creates confusion.
The measure allows “registered
owners” of magazines that hold more
than 10 rounds to retain them so long
as they were purchased before the
ban.
“But how do you prove when you
purchased a magazine?” William-
son asked. “There is no magazine
‘registration.’ They don’t have serial
numbers. There’s no way for the aver-
age person to prove they had it before
the law was passed. That means citi-
zens must prove their innocence.”
Lawfully owned magazines that
exceed 10 rounds may not be used
for self-defense outside the home.
Under the measure, possession would
be restricted to the owner’s property,
at a gunsmith, on a private shooting
range or during a firearms compe-
tition.
“The minute you leave the house,
that 15-round magazine is now ille-
gal, and you could be arrested and
charged with a misdemeanor for each
magazine in your possession because
you’re not in your home or at a gun
range,” Williamson explained. “And
you could be charged multiple times
for the same magazines since maga-
zines do not contain identifying
markings.”
“So that could make an otherwise
legal gun-owner a criminal over-
night,” Kahng commented.
“But they would have time to
turn those magazines in,” commit-
tee member Margaret Onley
commented. She’s an Oregon labor
and employment attorney who
supports the measure.
In the end, the committee voted
3 to 2 to adopt the explanatory
language with minor changes and
submitted it to the Oregon Secretary
of State for final approval, leaving
opponents frustrated.
“I don’t think you’ll find any
precedent in U.S. history in which
a citizen has to go through so many
hoops to exercise Constitutional
rights,” Williamson said. “This is
the first of its kind, and if it passes,
it will wind up in court.”
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