THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
L OCAL B RIEFING
Local students on OSU honor roll
FIRE
Continued from Page A1
When he was notifi ed
about the fi re, Harper said he
took one engine, with a water
capacity of 250 gallons, while
his son, Steven Harper, and
another Keating volunteer,
Brad Bottoms, headed out
with a 1,000-gallon engine.
Buzz Harper said the
trio, with the two engines,
arrived within a few minutes
and had nearly stopped the
fi re, at about 10 acres, when
both ran out of water almost
simultaneously.
“When you’re in the middle
of it all (the water) goes pretty
fast,” he said.
The fi re, still propelled by
the hot, dry wind, continued
to move to the north and
northwest, with fl ame lengths
around 20 feet when the
blaze hit patches of drought-
desiccated sagebrush. Em-
bers were starting spot fi res
200 to 300 yards ahead of the
main blaze, Harper said.
Harper said multiple fi re
agencies, responding through
the mutual aid system,
arrived soon after with a va-
riety of equipment including
engines and bulldozers.
Overhead, a pair of single-
engine air tankers dropped
fi re retardant on the fringes
of the blaze to block its
spread.
“They did a great job of set-
ting up lines,” Harper said of
the aircraft.
He was he was glad to
have two tankers available so
quickly, considering that fi res
Cathy Cook, who lives nearby,
telling him about the fi re.
Travis Cook said he
watched the fi re through
binoculars and a spotting
scope through the afternoon
and evening.
Like Harper, Cook, who
grew up in Keating Valley,
was worried about the fl ames
reaching the steep canyon of
Goose Creek, where there’s
an abundance of sagebrush
but few roads.
Cook said his dad, Michael
Cook, who is a volunteer
with the Keating Rural Fire
Travis Cook/Contributed Photo Protection District, was pre-
A wildfi re burned about 100 acres in the Keating Valley
paring to use his bulldozer to
on Tuesday, June 29.
build a protection line around
the family’s home, but crews
also
brought
bulldozers
to
stopped the fi re before it was
“If it would have went
help fi ght the fi re.
close enough to warrant that
another 200 to 300 yards
Harper said his chief
precaution.
Travis Cook estimated the
into Goose Creek, it would concern was that the fi re
would
push
into
the
steeper,
fi
re
was about three miles
be going for weeks.”
less-accessible ground along from his house.
— Buzz Harper, chief,
Goose Creek, where the sage-
“But with that wind, three
Keating Rural Fire Protection brush grows thick and tall.
miles is nothing,” he said.
District
It was a near thing.
Perry Jacobs, who also lives
“If it would have went
in Keating Valley, was in Sun-
are burning elsewhere in the another 200 to 300 yards into nyside, Washington, near Ya-
region, and the fi re danger is Goose Creek, it would be go- kima, picking up equipment
high due to the record-setting ing for weeks,” Harper said.
when he got a phone call that
heat wave, so there’s no sur-
Harper, who has lived in
a fi re was burning within half
plus of fi refi ghting resources. Keating Valley for 32 years
a mile of his property line.
“We were lucky to get what and served as the Keating
Jacobs said he sped home,
we got,” Harper said.
District’s chief for more than arriving in time to help fi ght
Agencies that responded
25 years, said fi re danger is
the fi re.
included the Pine Valley and the “worst I’ve ever seen it
He said he was relieved
Eagle Valley departments,
here — and this is the end of that the fi re didn’t spread
Baker Rural, the Lookout-
June.”
farther.
Glasgow Rangeland Fire
Travis Cook, who lives in
“There was potential that
Protection Association, Forest the northern part of Keating the wind would’ve got it
Service, BLM and Oregon
Valley and owns Copper Belt about right,” he said.
Department of Forestry,
Winery, was home Tuesday
Joanna Mann of the Baker City
Harper said.
afternoon when he got a text
Herald contributed to this story.
He said several ranchers
message from his mother,
Residents seek relief in shade, river
commented on the intense
heat.
With temperatures soar-
“Shade is a good thing,” one
ing above 100 degrees, some said. “It’s a great park so here
Baker City residents rear-
we are. We usually come here
ranged their schedules to
at nine, but today we came at
beat the heat and still enjoy
8:30.”
the outdoors.
Parents attempted to keep
At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday,
their children in the shaded
June 29, Geiser-Pollman Park areas of the playground so
was already bustling.
they wouldn’t burn their
People were milling about hands on the plastic and
in the shade cast by the
metal play equipment. One
park’s more than 75 trees,
mom named Liz fanned her-
while others planned to take self while watching her two
a dip in the Powder River
children play tag in the grass.
at a time when they might
“We’re staying in the shade
normally have been eating
and trying not to do too
breakfast.
much,” Liz said. “It’s too hot to
Two men sipping their
do anything else.”
coffees at a table in the shade
Liz and her family are
By Joanna Mann
jmann@bakercityherald.com
HOTTEST
Continued from Page A1
Despite breaking mul-
tiple records, Baker County
has fared comparatively
well during this unprec-
edented Northwest heat
wave.
The temperature topped
out at 117 degrees on
Tuesday at the Eastern
what she calls “transplants
from Missouri,” so the dry
heat typical in Baker County
isn’t too bad for them. She
said it’s a different kind of
heat.
This screenshot from the Alert Wildfi re website — www.alertwildfi re.org/ — shows
the map that allows users to select views from multiple cameras.
CAMERAS
display screen at the Vale
Dispatch Center so people
Continued from Page A1
can keep an eye on what’s
Three universities oversee happening.
the Alert Wildfi re program
Footage from cameras in
— University of Oregon,
Oregon, Idaho and Washing-
University of Nevada at
ton is available on the same
Reno, and University of
webpage. Viewers can select
California at San Diego.
which location they want to
There are two different
focus on and zoom in and
ALERTWildfi re websites — out, as well as play a time
one with live camera footage lapse of the past 15 minutes,
for the public to view, with
one hour, three hours, six
the camera rotating every
hours or 12 hours.
30 seconds, and a second
ALERTWildfi re started
site for fi re managers, which with ALERTTahoe, a pilot
allows them to control the
program in which cameras
camera.
were installed around Lake
Although nobody actively Tahoe. The network grew
monitors the cameras all
into Oregon, Washington
the time, fi re offi cials try to and Idaho after success dur-
take a good look at the full
ing the summers of 2014-16,
rotation once every hour.
and 300 new cameras were
Robertson said he displays
installed in the western
the camera views on a large region of the country during
the 2020 wildfi re season.
This year, ALERTWildfi re
is expected to install more
than 175 new cameras
across fi ve states.
From 2016-2020, the cam-
eras helped fi refi ghters fi nd
or monitor more than 1,500
wildfi res. Robertson hopes
to have nearly as many
cameras installed in Oregon
as there are in California,
where multiple cameras can
get different angles.
The Oregon Department
of Forestry also maintains
a network of fi re-detection
cameras. One of those, on
Monument Mountain in
Grant County, helped fi re-
fi ghters pinpoint the Lovlett
Corral Fire on the Umatilla
National Forest about 10
miles northwest of Monu-
ment on Tuesday, June 29.
Oregon Regional Airport in
Pendleton, and Hermiston
recorded a high of 118.
The hottest temperature
on record at the Baker City
Airport is 109, on Aug. 10,
2018. A three-day stretch
that month remains the
apex of heat waves here.
The highs from Aug. 8-10
were 103, 108 and 109.
“It still makes me sweat,
but it doesn’t suck the air out
of my lungs,” she said.
Several park visitors were
preparing for a day of fl oating
on the river and making sure
they were back inside by late
afternoon.
Teenagers played their
guitars in the shade while
others fl opped on their bellies
so they could feel the cool
grass on their skin. Without
a cloud in the sky, it was hard
to imagine that a cool, rainy
respite might be coming soon.
And by late afternoon the
temperature at the Baker
City Airport reached 103
degrees — a record high not
only for the day, but for the
month.
CORVALLIS — Several local students were among
those who were named to the honor roll for the spring
2021 term at Oregon State University.
To be eligible, students must have a grade point aver-
age of at least 3.5 and a minimum of 12 graded hours of
course work.
Baker City students on the OSU honor roll are: Jose-
phine E. Bryan, senior, Design & Innovation Manage-
ment; Anna C. Carter, sophomore, Business Administra-
tion; Zechariah D. Compos, senior, Sociology; Anthony
J. Cowan, sophomore, General Engineering; Reno R.
Hammond, junior, Chemistry; Kourtney M. Lehman,
junior, Agricultural Business Management; Cayn J.
Osborn, junior, Civil Engineering; Casey E. Swanson,
Post Baccalaureate, Mathematics; Calli N. Ward, senior,
Sociology.
Joseph W. Aguilar of Halfway, a senior majoring in
Animal Sciences, also was named to the honor roll.
Fire restrictions tighten on forests
Campfi res will be allowed only in campgrounds and
other designated recreation sites on the Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest, as well as in wilderness areas,
starting Friday, July 2. (The year-round ban on fi res in
parts of the Eagle Cap Wilderness remains in effect.)
Stoves and heaters that burn liquid or gas fuel are al-
lowed. A list of recreation sites is available on the Baker
City Herald’s Facebook page.
Summer Academy
starting on July 6
By Joanna Mann
jmann@bakercityherald.com
The Baker School Dis-
trict’s Summer Academy
program starts Tuesday,
July 6 and runs through
Aug. 5.
Registration has closed,
but Angela Lattin, director
of the Baker Early Learn-
ing Center, said there was a
high level of interest in this
summer’s program.
“I think people are ready
to get back to doing stuff
and they want their kids to
get some extra education
this summer and have fun,”
she said.
The program, which is
for kindergarten through
sixth grade age, will have
a science, technology, engi-
neering and mathematics
(STEM) theme this year.
Plans include a guest talk
from the U.S. Forest Service,
hiking at Anthony Lakes,
food hero classes with OSU
Extension Service and
banking classes in a course
called Financial Beginnings.
There will also be reading
and writing activities.
“Our focus is to avoid
summer slide,” Lattin said.
“There’s a lot enrichment
things coming, too. We’re
hoping to get back to what
we were doing before the
pandemic hit when we had
partnerships that we could
go out and work with in the
fi elds.”
Summer Academy is
funded by a 21st Cen-
tury Community Learning
Centers grant, which Baker
School District applied
for and received for the
2018-2023 school years. The
district gets $178,000 per
year the fi rst three years
and 75% of that amount
the last two years. Lattin
said the grant easily covers
the district’s needs each
summer.
As for COVID-19 safety,
Summer Academy will fol-
low state guidelines.
“We’re just really excited
to run it,” Lattin said. “It’s
a great opportunity for our
high school students, who
we hire as assistants for
every classroom. So it’s a
pretty good opportunity for
them to get some experi-
ence in case they want to
become teachers or work in
the educational fi eld.”
COVID
Continued from Page A1
Perkins said she’s optimistic that with more people
being vaccinated, diners will feel comfortable returning.
David Kassien, co-owner of D&J Taco Shop in the
Baker Tower, said he too is “glad that we’re getting back
to some normalcy.”
Kassien said that although the state no longer man-
dates masks, the restaurant understands some custom-
ers might want to continue wearing a mask.
“Our stance is if people still want to wear a mask,
we’re still going to accommodate,” he said.
Co-owner Jamie Kassien said he’s excited about
Miners Jubilee returning, along with the bull and bronc
riding and other summer events.
“It just, again, brings back that normalcy, gives you a
little glimmer of hope and life going back to the way it
should be and I think everybody’s excited for that,” he
said.