Wallowa County Chieftain
wallowa.com
News
January 13, 2016
Fire damages home near lake
Two dogs killed
in blaze; family
not on property
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
7wo GoJV are con¿rmeG
GeaG after a ¿re GeVtroyeG the
home of the Bollman family
Thursday afternoon south of
Wallowa Lake.
Units from the Joseph,
Wallowa and (nterprise ¿re
departments as well as Wal-
lowa County Emergency
6erYices, the 6heriff¶s of¿ce
and Oregon State Police re-
sponded to the blaze at 84611
Ice Creek Ln. Both a neigh-
bor and an on-duty UPS truck
driver reported the blaze to
911.
As smoke billowed from
the double-wide manufac-
tured home with a steel build-
ing shell, ¿re¿ghters manned
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Firefighters attack the blaze that caused extensive damage to a home on Ice Creek Lane
south of Wallowa Lake on Thursday. Two dogs lost their lives in the blaze.
with hoses and chainsaws
slogged through a foot of
snow and attacked the blaze.
While the ¿re¿ghters ap-
peared to gain the upper hand
on the blaze relatively quick-
Militia says it has opened
government files at refuge
Leader says
documents will
help Hammond
arson case
BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The
leader of a small, armed group
occupying a national wildlife
refuge in southeastern Oregon
said Monday he and his follow-
ers are going through govern-
ment documents stored inside
refuge buildings.
Ammon Bundy told report-
ers the documents will be used
to “expose” how the govern-
ment has discriminated against
local ranchers who use federal
land for cattle grazing.
Bundy said the documents
would also help secure the re-
lease of Steven and Dwight
Hammond, two area ranchers
convicted of arson who re-
turned to prison last week to
serve longer sentences. The
Hammonds’ case set off the
occupation of the Burns-area
refuge on Jan. 2.
Bundy said his group is not
accessing government com-
puters at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge, including per-
sonnel ¿les.
After the news conference,
the group drove in a convoy
to a ranch near the refuge and
tore down a stretch of govern-
ment-erected fence. The goal,
according to the armed men,
was to give the rancher ac-
cess to the range that had been
blocked for years. It’s not clear
where the fence was located
or which rancher sought the
group’s help.
The refuge is administered
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. Spokesman Jason
Holm said because the docu-
ments and ¿les at the refuge
may have personally identi¿-
able information, the agency “is
taking necessary steps to ensure
employee and family safety.”
The agency strongly con-
demned the destruction of the
fence and said the action un-
dermines hard-earned conser-
vation impacts achieved in the
area.
“Removing fences, dam-
aging any Refuge property, or
unauthorized use of equipment
would be additional unlawful
actions by the illegal occupi-
ers,” Fish and Wildlife said in
a statement. “Any movement of
cattle onto the Refuge or other
activities that are not specif-
ically authorized by USFWS
constitutes trespassing.”
ly, damage to the home was
extensive according to Enter-
prise Fire Department Capt.
Gary Gassett.
“I don’t want to call it
a total loss, because I hav-
en’t been through the whole
house, but what I saw was
pretty bad,” Gassett said.
Joseph Fire Department
Chief Jeff Wecks said ¿re
crews responded quickly to
the scene. “It looked like it
was going for a little bit be-
fore we got there, but we got
right on top of it and knocked
it down pretty fast,” he said.
Con¿rming Gassett’s es-
timation of the home being a
total loss, Wecks said, “There
was extensive smoke and wa-
ter damage and ¿re damage to
the front half of the building.
The outside steel structure
didn’t get touched.” He add-
ed that the cause of the ¿re
is yet undetermined although
suspected to be electrical.
Wecks con¿rmed that
none of the Bollman family
were on the property at the
time of the blaze.
Felon gets
14 months
for ¿rearm
possession
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
At a Jan. 6 Wallowa County
Circuit Court appearance, John-
son Errol Ngirarois Jr., 35, of
Enterprise was sentenced to 14
months in prison and two years
of probation for a charge of fel-
on in possession of a ¿rearm, a
Class C felony.
Ngirarois previously was
convicted of felony assault II in
Tillamook County in 2012.
Judge Brian C. Dretke hand-
ed down the sentence, the result
of an Oct. 6 trial during which
a 12-person jury convicted Ngi-
rarois on the charge.
Ngirarois appeared via tele-
phone from Coffee Creek Cor-
rectional Facility in Wilsonville.
Wallowa County Stockgrowers Assn. Invites YOU to the
8th Annual EducationAL SEMINAR
& Scholarship Dinner-Auction!
WHEN?
WHERE?
WHO?
A5
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise
Livestock Producers and Interested Public
WHAT?
2:00 p.m.
Free presentation "Plowing up the Past in the Imnaha Basin"
by Lesley Morris, PhD Assistant Professor of Rangeland
Sciences, OSU Agriculture and Natural Resources program
at EOU
5:30 p.m.
Doors Open for Scholarship Dinner & Auction
6:00 p.m.
Prime Rib Dinner
Prepared by Apple Flat Catering
$20 for 13 & Older - $10 for ages 6-12 - Free for ages 5 & Under
Proceeds go towards College Scholarships for Wallowa County Youth!
Any questions or interest in donating an item
may be directed to Katie Howard (425) 248-5227
The Wallowa County Agricultural Resource Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Donations for education are tax deductible.