MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
U.S. Forest Service photo
The Granite Gulch fi re burned over about 5,555 acres. Fire managers say the
lightning-sparked blaze was benefi cial to the Eagle Cap Wilderness, reducing the
amount of fuel on the ground.
FIZZLE
Continued from Page 1A
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
Jordan Remien, fourth from left, has been accepted to attend the American Musical
and Dramatic Academy.
REMIEN
Continued from Page 1A
The school has two
campuses: a conservatory in
New York City, and a College
of Performing Arts in Los
Angeles. Remien will focus on
musical theatre, but he said
the school requires a wide
variety of performing classes,
such as musical theory and
dance.
“Ballet is the one I’m wor-
ried about,” he said.
Remien fi rst heard about
the Academy when he noticed
a poster outside the BHS
choir room. He looked it up
and discovered the school
holds auditions throughout
the United States.
“I thought, ‘It can’t hurt
to sign up,’ ” he said. “Then I
forgot about it.”
Months later, though,
Remien remembered the
Academy. He went online to
sign up for auditions and dis-
covered his name was already
entered.
The auditions and inter-
views were in Portland on
Aug. 18. He prepared a one-
to two-minute monologue
from a play (he chose “I Hate
Hamlet”) and a two-minute
“I just want to be happy
doing something I enjoy.”
— Jordan Remien, Baker
High School senior who will
be attending the American
Musical and Dramatic
Academy starting in 2020
song from a published musi-
cal.
His song selection was from
“Sunset Boulevard,” which
he’d already started rehears-
ing with his voice teacher,
Allison Mitchell.
“I was really nervous be-
forehand — I’d never done a
full audition like this, and the
stakes were high,” he said.
Then he just had to wait.
“It was a week and a half
before I found out anything. It
was stressful,” he said.
Although it’s still early,
right now he’s planning to
complete an associate’s at the
conservatory in New York,
then fi nish with a bachelor’s
at the campus in L.A. He
would like to get a degree in
education, too.
“I just want to be happy
doing something I enjoy,” he
said.
Both cities, he said, offer
unique experiences in the
performing arts — New York
is famous for Broadway and
off-Broadway plays, while
L.A. is more tuned to televi-
sion and movies.
For now, he must fi nish his
senior year. He’s made it to
the state choir competition
two years in a row in solo and
ensemble.
“Choir is the class I look
forward to,” he said.
He’ll continue working with
Mitchell.
“She’s incredible. She has
so much experience,” he said.
“I’ve reached different points
in singing that I didn’t know
existed.”
This year will also be fi lled
with scholarship applications.
But that’s OK because he
knows where he’s going.
“It’s nice to have it out of
the way,” he said. “It takes
a huge weight off my shoul-
ders.”
New York City is a far cry
from Baker City — a differ-
ence he discovered in the
spring of 2018 when the BHS
choir raised money for a trip
to the Big Apple.
“It was incredible. It felt
like somewhere I was meant
to be,” he said. “I’m ready
to step outside my comfort
zone.”
L OCAL B RIEFING
Baker County Democrats have
guest speaker on Thursday
Baker City Public Art Commission
seeking art for public display
Eileen Kiely, secretary of the Democratic
Party of Oregon and former candidate for the
state legislature, will be the guest speaker at
the Baker County Democrats’ monthly meet-
ing on Thursday, Sept. 19 at Roger Fellowship
Hall, 1995 Fourth St., between the Court-
house and Baker Middle School.
Pizza, coffee and tea will be served at 5:30
p.m., with the meeting starting at 6 p.m. All
are welcome.
The Baker City Public Art Commission is
taking applications for its Art on Loan pro-
gram. Artists are invited to lend their work
to the city for one year for display at a public
location. More information is available by
calling Robin Nudd at 541-524-2036, and ap-
plications are available at bakercity.com. First
review of applications will take place Oct. 9.
PLANE
— Send briefs to news@bakercityherald.com
Guard, using a Chinook
helicopter, initiated a search
Continued from Page 1A
in the general area.
A search was launched at
At 2 p.m. the Civil Air Pa-
that time, one coordinated
trol arrived to search the air
with the Air Force Rescue
using a fi xed wing aircraft. At
Coordination Center.
2:19 p.m. the Civil Air Patrol
Civil Air Patrol radar data crew spotted plane wreckage.
was compiled and a forensic Moments later the Chinook
examination of its radar
helicopter was overhead and
track was conducted. The
its crew verifi ed the plane
radar track appeared to ter- wreckage.
minate at or near Elk Willow
The Chinook helicopter
Springs in the Limber Jim
hovered and maintained its
Ridge area. Life Flight fl ew
position over the wreckage
into the early morning hours and sent GPS coordinates to
of Wednesday and attempted ground search units. At 2:26
to locate the crash site using p.m., ground search units ar-
night vision equipment, ac-
rived at the wreckage site.
cording to the UCSO news
The US Forest Service
release.
was then contacted and fi ve
A ground search was
people from it then created
started Sept. 11 at 8 a.m. by an access route to the wreck-
the Union County Sheriff’s
age site.
Offi ce Search and Rescue
The National Transporta-
unit. Two and a half hours
tion Safety Board and the
later the Oregon Air National Federal Aviation Adminis-
Livingston attributes this year’s success
during the initial attack phase to a few fac-
tors in addition to fi refi ghters’ prowess.
For one, the relative lack of large fi res
across much of the West meant fi refi ghting
resources, including helicopters and retar-
dant planes that can be vital during initial
attack, were readily available this summer.
“There was not much competition for
resources,” Livingston said.
The situation was similar over much of
Oregon, although there were a few larger
blazes, including the 9,700-acre 204 Cow
Fire on the Malheur National Forest about
17 miles southwest of Unity. It was sparked
by lightning on Aug. 9.
Fire danger was lower this summer than
last as well, Livingston said.
During the summer of 2018, when
the Baker City Airport set all-time high
temperature records on consecutive August
days at 108 and 109 degrees, fuel moistures
and other measurements of fi re danger
also reached record highs, Livingston said.
But because lightning was relatively
rare, as refl ected in the record-low number
of fi res, the region avoided what could have
been a catastrophic fi re season.
This summer, by contrast, a damp spring
and comparatively cool temperatures kept
fi re danger indexes near or below average
for most of the season, Livingston said.
And the lightning storms, of which there
were several, also spawned rain showers
that both prevented fuels from turning into
tinder and gave fi refi ghters an assist.
“Almost without exception the lightning
storms came through with moisture,”
Livingston said.
One of Livingston’s colleagues, Steve
Meyer, agrees that the combination — rela-
tively moist fuels and rain — contributed
greatly to placid behavior of most fi res this
summer.
“We were fairly busy off and on with
lightning fi res but there was enough rain
with the storms that came through that
they all stayed small for us,” said Meyer,
who is the wildland fi re supervisor for the
Oregon Department of Forestry in Baker
County.
Meyer said this is the only summer he
can remember during his 23-year career
in which the fi re danger never reached the
“extreme” level.
The Forestry Department’s Baker unit
has reported six lightning fi res and one hu-
man-caused fi re this season. The agency’s
“There was enough rain with the
storms that came through that (the
fi res) all stayed small for us.”
— Steve Meyer, wildland fi re supervisor,
Oregon Department of Forestry
La Grande unit handled 12 lightning and
four human-caused blazes, and the Wal-
lowa unit 22 lightning and six human fi res.
The lack of human-caused fi res in the
Baker unit — only one this year — was
welcome, Meyer said.
Al Crouch, fi re mitigation/education spe-
cialist for the BLM’s Vale District, echoed
that sentiment.
There have been nine human-caused
fi res on the Vale District this year, which
burned 535 acres.
That’s below the District’s 10-year aver-
age of 13 human fi res, and it ends a three-
year stretch with more of those blazes than
average, including 18 in both 2017 and
2018, Crouch said.
Fire managers fear human-caused fi res
because they’re so unpredictable, Meyer
said.
Offi cials can track lightning strikes by
computer almost in real time, and divert
fi re crews relatively quickly to new blazes,
he said.
But a fi re started by a person, whether
intentionally or by accident, can show up
without any warning.
“You just have no way of knowing when
something like that’s going to happen,”
Meyer said.
Crouch said that despite a couple of
intense lightning storms, the number of
downstrikes on the Vale District was below
the 10-year average.
So was the number of lightning fi res,
although the difference was not large — 30
blazes this year compared with a 10-year
average (2009-18) of 35.
This year’s fi res didn’t burn nearly as
many acres as in many years in the past
decade, however.
The 2019 total of 4,435 acres burned by
lightning fi res compares with the 10-year
average of 158,000 acres.
“It’s been a different kind of summer,”
Crouch said. “We had a couple of events
with lightning and fi res, but when you’ve
got rain with those cells it helps knock
those fi res down.”
Crouch said he expects that there were a
number of what fi re managers call “natural
out” blazes — ones ignited by lightning but
are doused by rain before anyone reports
them.
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tration will be investigating
the crash.
The type of plane Koep-
pen was fl ying has not been
released but according to
a preliminary FAA report
the pilot Koeppen had a
1968 PA-32-300 fi xed wing
single-engine Piper aircraft
registered in his name.
Radar data indicates that
Koeppen’s plane crashed
after making a rapid descent
from an altitude of 6,600
feet.
Baker & Union Counties
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