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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 2020)
THE WEST THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ BLAZES HAVE DESTROYED HUNDREDS OF HOMES, KILLED RESIDENTS, OREGON GOV. KATE BROWN SAYS Wildfires wreaking havoc By Gillian Flaccus and Sara Cline ‘Everything’s Gone’ Residents evacuate small town east of Eugene Associated Press PORTLAND — Winds gusting as high as 50 mph fanned dozens of catastrophic wildfi res Wednesday across a large swath of Washington state and Oregon that rarely experiences such intense fi re activity because of the Pacifi c Northwest’s cool and wet climate. Oregon’s governor said hundreds of homes were destroyed. Firefi ghters were struggling to try to contain and douse the blazes and offi cials in some places were giving residents just minutes to evacuate their homes. The fi res trapped fi refi ghters and civilians be- hind fi re lines in Oregon and leveled an entire small town in eastern Washington. The devastation could become overwhelming, said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. “This could be the great- est loss of human life and property due to wildfi re in our state’s history,” Brown told reporters. No fatalities from the Northwest fi res have yet been confi rmed, but Brown said some communities have been substantially destroyed and “hundreds of homes lost.” The scenes were similar to California’s terrifying wildfi re drama, where residents have fl ed fi res raging unchecked throughout the state. But offi cials in the Pacifi c North- west said they did not recall ever having to deal with so many destructive fi res at once in the areas where they were burning. The blazes exploded on Monday during a late- summer wind storm that saw gusts reach 75 mph. Sheriff’s deputies, travel- ing with chain saws in their patrol cars to cut fallen trees blocking roads, went door to door in rural communities 40 miles south of Portland, tell- ing people to evacuate. Since Tuesday, as many as 16,000 people have been told to aban- don their homes. “These winds are so incred- ible and are spreading so fast, we don’t have a lot of time,” said Clackamas County Sher- iff Craig Roberts. Fires were burning in seven Oregon counties and rural and suburban homes miles By Garrett Andrews The (Bend) Bulletin Oregon Department of Transportation photo Red skies over Sublimity, Oregon, about 15 miles east of Salem, on Tuesday. Several communities in the North Santiam Canyon east of Salem have been evacuated or are on standby for evacuation orders due to wildfi res. “This could be the greatest loss of human life and property due to wildfi re in our state’s history. — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown away from Portland, Oregon’s largest city, were under preliminary orders to prepare for possible evacuations. Three prisons were evacuated late Tuesday and Brown called the state’s blazes unprecedented. The Pacifi c Northwest is no stranger to wildfi res, but most of the biggest ones until now have been in the eastern or southern parts of the region — where the weather is consider- ably hotter and drier and the vegetation more fi re-prone than it is in the western por- tion of the region. Fires in 2017 and 2018 crested the top of the Cas- cade Mountains — the long spine that divides dry eastern Oregon from the lush western part of the state — but never before spread into the valleys below, said Doug Grafe, chief of Fire Protection at the Or- egon Department of Forestry. “We do not have a context for this amount of fi re on the landscape,” he said. “Seeing them run down the canyons the way they have — carrying tens of miles in one period of an afternoon and not slowing down in the evening – (there is) absolutely no context for that in this environment.” Fire crews were focusing on trying to keep people out of harm’s way and prevent- ing houses from burning. Offi cials said that containing the fi res was a secondary pri- ority on Wednesday, although there was concern some fi res south of Portland could merge and become a much larger inferno that would be more diffi cult for fi refi ghters to handle. “We’re really at the mercy of the weather right now,” said Clackamas Fire District Chief Fred Charlton. In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee said more than 330,000 acres burned in Washington in a 24-hour period — an area larger than the acreage that normally burns during entire fi re sea- sons that stretch from spring into the fall. About 80% of the small eastern Washington farming town of Malden was leveled by fl ames from a fast-moving fi re on Monday. Among the buildings that burned were the town’s fi re station, post offi ce, City Hall and library. “It’s an unprecedented and heart-breaking event,” Inslee told reporters. He blamed hot weather, high winds and low humidity for the explosive growth of the fi res in Washington state. In Oregon, at least four major fi res were burning in Clackamas County, a subur- ban county in Oregon that’s a bedroom community of Portland. The entire county of nearly 420,000 people was put on notice to be ready to evacuate late Tuesday amid winds gusting up to 30 mph. Another major fi re in southern Oregon prompted evacuation orders in much of Medford, a city of about 80,000 residents. And several huge blazes burning in Marion County, southeast of the state’s capitol city of Salem, merged overnight — turning the sky blood red in the middle of the day. Thousands of people were braced to fl ee if evacua- tion orders emerged. “It was pitch black dark out there — all you could see was red,” said Wendy Phelps- Chapman, activity director at the Marian Estates indepen- dent senior living center in Sublimity, Oregon, about 15 miles east of Salem, which evacuated its 160 residents on Tuesday. As fl ames from the Holiday Farm Fire roared closer and closer to her home Monday night, Blue River resident Krystal Harrison was ordered to evacuate or perish. The 38-year-old Harrison quickly grabbed her two children, her cats and the urn containing her father’s ashes and loaded them into her truck. She joined other residents of the Patio RV Park, where she lives, and attempted to caravan to Sisters but quickly became separated amid wind-driven smoke and ash so thick it at times obscured the hood of her truck. Harrison was among more than 100 people evacu- ated from the Blue River area along Highway 126, including approximately 50 who were provided rooms at the Redmond Super 8 by the Red Cross of Central Oregon. Though a neighbor said the RV park was spared by the fi re, Harrison said she knows that could change Tuesday night. Given the reports coming out of the area, she dreads returning home. “I’m scared to see what it looks like now,” she said. Among the Super 8 refugees was Charles Thompson, 58, who got the notice to vacate his home near McK- enzie Bridge around midnight Monday as the Holiday Farm Fire closed in. Thompson and his wife fl ed in their car, braving miles of downed tree limbs and powerlines, thick smoke and vehicle-rocking winds. In the early morning they arrived at the Red Cross’ temporary evacuation point at the Deschutes County fairgrounds in Redmond. “It was horrifying,” Thompson said. “We were scared to death. We didn’t know if we were going to make it or not.” It was too early for Lane County and Willamette National Forest offi cials to estimate the number of acres burned by the Holiday Farm Fire, but Thompson already knew how it has affected him. “The word is, our house, everything, is gone,” he said. “My address is the hotel now.” A friend confi rmed for Thompson that his home had been claimed by the fi re. It was one of approximately 80 to 100 homes in the area burned by the Holiday Farm Fire, the Register-Guard reported. Fueled by high winds, low humidity and high temperatures, fi res raged along the West Coast. Late Tuesday afternoon, seven major wildfi res were burning in Oregon, and earlier in the day, Gov. Kate Brown declared three of them confl agrations: the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fi res in Marion County and Lane County’s Holiday Farm Fire. Large stretches of four major roads in Oregon were closed Tuesday evening, including Interstate 5, which was closed to northbound traffi c at the border due to the Ashland area fi re. Traffi c was being turned back to California. By Tuesday afternoon, it was sinking in for Charles Thompson how much he’d lost. “I’m just fl abbergasted. Blue River’s gone. Every- thing’s gone,” he said. “We’ll just have to rebuild. It’s all we can do.” Hundreds attend pro-Trump rally located. Oregon City is about 20 miles south of Portland. SALEM — Hundreds of people gathered In Portland on Monday, Black Lives Matter Monday afternoon in a small town south of supporters rallied in a city park and demon- Portland for a pro-President Donald Trump strated peacefully, KOIN TV reported. vehicle rally — just over a week after member “Teacher unions are part of the labor move- of a far-right group was fatally shot after a ment, and I feel like it’s really important for Trump caravan went through Oregon’s larg- people who are members of a union to step up est city. and say, ’Our labor supports Black Lives Mat- Later, pro-Trump supporters and counter- ter and we are ready to organize in support of protesters clashed in Oregon’s Capitol city of systemic change,’ ” educator Joanne Shepard Salem. told the TV station. Vehicles waving fl ags for Trump, the On Aug. 29 Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a sup- QAnon conspiracy theory and in support of porter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, police gathered at about noon at Clackamas was killed in Portland after a pro-Trump Community College in Oregon City. caravan went downtown. Trump supporters The rally’s organizers said they would drive fi red paint ball canisters at counter-demon- to toward Salem and most left the caravan strators, who tried to block their way. before that. A smaller group of members of Danielson’s suspected killer, Michael Forest the right-wing group the Proud Boys went on Reinoehl, was fatally shot by police Thursday. to Salem, where a crowd of several dozen pro- Reinoehl was a supporter of antifa — short- Trump supporters had gathered. hand for anti-fascists and an umbrella de- At one point Monday afternoon, the right- scription for far-left-leaning militant groups. wing crowd rushed a smaller group of Black Demonstrations in Portland started in late Lives Matters counter-demonstrators, fi ring May after the police killing of George Floyd paint-gun pellets at them. in Minneapolis and have continued for more Videos on social media showed right-wing than 100 days. protesters chasing, tackling and assaulting A fi re started outside a police precinct on left-wing protestors with weapons, their fi sts Portland’s north side resulted in about 15 and with pepper spray, The Oregonian/Or- arrests during protests Sunday night into egonLive reported. Paintballs were also fi red Monday morning, police said. between the two groups. Demonstrators protesting police brutality After unfolding a large American fl ag on began marching about 9 p.m. Sunday and the steps of the Capitol, right-wing protesters stopped at the North Precinct Community charged counter-protesters, leaving several Policing Center, the site of several volatile of them injured, The Oregonian/OregonLive protests in recent months. reported. Right-wing protesters made a sec- Offi cials warned demonstrators against ond rush later, tackling and beating at least entering the precinct property, saying they one person, leading to two arrests, the media would be trespassing and subject to arrest. outlet said. Shortly after arriving, the crowd began Organizers of the earlier vehicle rally in chanting, among other things, “burn it down,” Oregon City said they did not plan to en- police said. Some in the group lit a mattress ter Multnomah County, where Portland is on fi re. 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