THURSDAY
BAKER GIRLS SOCCER TAKES ON PENDLETON/WESTON-MCEWEN: PG. A6
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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
September 2, 2021
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the high school
$1.50 football season in
Northeast Oregon
Aerial armada cools blaze
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Donna
Kanyid of Baker City.
Local, A2
ADRIAN —Kevin Purnell
was fi red Monday, Aug. 30
as superintendent of the
Adrian School District just
one week after students
returned to school.
School
workers
discuss
vaccine
mandate
President of teachers
union doesn’t expect
large number of
resignations or fi rings
BRIEFING
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
County seeking
volunteers
for boards,
committees
Baker County is seeking
volunteers for the follow-
ing boards/committees:
• Baker County Cultural
Coalition
• Baker County Planning
Commission
• Fair Board Advisory
Committee
• Early Learning Re-
gional Council
• Transportation/Traffi c
Safety Committee
• Baker County Mental
Health Advisory Commit-
tee
• NEOEDD Budget Board
• Local Public Safety
Coordinating Council
Volunteers must submit
a form, which can be
found at www.baker-
county.org/commission-
ers. More information is
available by calling the
commissioners’ offi ce at
541-523-8200 or by email-
ing Heidi Martin at hmar-
tin@bakercounty.org.
WEATHER
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74 / 34
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Friday
79 / 35
Sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
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that are mailed.
elsewhere, interspersed with meadows
along the creek. Rock Creek starts at
Rock Creek Lake, one of the most scenic
spots in the range, at the northern base
of Rock Creek Butte, highest peak in
the Elkhorns at 9,106 feet.
The fi re started about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2
miles northwest of the lake, McCraw
said.
The situation would have been even
more dangerous had the fi re started far-
ther down the canyon, he said, because
the forest is more contiguous, with
fewer of the rock barriers that prevail at
the head of the canyon.
The La Grande Interagency Hot
Shot crew of 20 fi refi ghters hiked into
the fi re on Tuesday afternoon, McCraw
said.
The initial plan was to have smoke-
jumpers work on the fi re, but conditions
were too dangerous, in part due to the
terrain, to have them parachute into the
fi re Tuesday afternoon.
The leaders of the two
unions that represent more
than 200 employees in the
Baker School District, includ-
ing teachers,
said they don’t
think a state-
wide mandate
that school
employees
be vacci-
nated against
Myers
COVID-19
will result
in a large number of workers
either resigning or being fi red.
Teachers and other union-
represented employees in the
Baker School District have
met with district offi cials
regarding options for workers
who choose not to be vaccinat-
ed against COVID-19 before
the Oct. 18 deadline set by
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, said
Toni Myers, president of the
Baker Education Association.
The governor’s vaccine
mandate for school and health
care workers includes two
exceptions — one for medi-
cal reasons, which requires
corroboration from a doctor,
and one for religious reasons,
which an employee can fi ll out
individually.
Myers, who is a teacher at
Keating Elementary School,
said the Baker Education
Association represents the
district’s 111 teachers.
Rachelle Lemmon is presi-
dent of the Baker Chapter 20
of the Oregon School Employ-
ees Association, the union that
represents the district’s 110
classifi ed employees, which
includes most workers who
aren’t teachers.
Myers said on Tuesday,
Aug. 31 that she believes a ma-
jority of Baker teachers who
are not vaccinated, and don’t
plan to get the shots, will opt
See, Fire/Page A3
See, Vaccines/Page A3
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest/Contributed Photo
The Rock Creek fi re burning in the Elkhorn Mountains on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
Offi cial says fi re near
Rock Creek Lake had
potential to spread fast
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
An aerial armada that dumped
thousands of gallons of fi re retardant
and water within several hours slowed
a fast-moving wildfi re that fl ared up
Monday afternoon, Aug. 30 and has
burned about 60 acres in one of the
more inaccessible parts of the Elkhorn
Mountains.
The human-caused blaze in the up-
per reaches of the Rock Creek canyon,
about 13 air miles northwest of Baker
City, started in a forest type where
fl ames can race through in certain con-
ditions, said Joel McCraw, fi re manage-
ment offi cer for the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest’s Whitman Ranger
District.
But as of early Wednesday afternoon,
Sept. 1, the fi re was showing minimal
growth, and ground crews had arrived
to dig a fi re break and set up hoses
connected to pumps in Rock Creek, said
Peter Fargo, public affairs offi cer for the
Wallowa-Whitman.
More than 50 people were working
on the fi re, with a goal of building a line
around the entire blaze within 48 hours.
“We’re still not out of the woods yet,
but we feel pretty good about it for sure,”
McCraw said on Tuesday afternoon.
Fire offi cials were considerably more
concerned a day earlier, and in part
because of the type of forest where the
fi re started.
Most of the trees in that part of
the Rock Creek canyon are subalpine
fi rs, a species that has high concentra-
tions of fl ammable oil in the needles,
and branches that tend to start near
the ground, making it easier for fi re to
spread from the ground to the trees’
crowns.
“When it does get established in sub-
alpine fi rs it can be a challenge to fi ght,”
McCraw said. “Very volatile.”
Indeed, the fi re, reported about
3 p.m. Monday by the lookout on Mount
Ireland and by citizens, was torch-
ing trees and spreading through tree
crowns, conditions too dangerous to
have fi refi ghters rappel from helicop-
ters, McCraw said.
There are no roads within a mile of
the fi re, and the only access is by foot on
the Rock Creek trail, which starts along
a rough, four-wheel drive road, he said.
Given the limited access, all fi refi ght-
ing Monday evening and into Tuesday
afternoon was from the air, McCraw
said.
Two helicopters dropped water on
fl ames, while fi ve tankers — three
multi-engine planes from Moses Lake,
Washington, and a pair of single-engine
planes from La Grande — spread
retardant.
The air crews took advantage of
natural fi re barriers, McCraw said, in-
cluding rock cliffs and fi elds of boulders
and scree.
“In some areas the fi re ran up into
the cliffs and ran out of fuel,” he said.
The Rock Creek canyon, which runs
roughly north-south, is bordered on the
west by cliffs, with the Elkhorn Crest
trail running just on the west side of the
ridgetop.
There are thickets of subalpine fi r
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest/
Contributed Photo
Fires burning in subalpine fi r
thickets along Rock Creek on
Tuesday, Aug. 31.
Ages 20-59 have largest share of county’s COVID cases Wolves kill
ty’s COVID-19 cases through tween the state and county county residents in this age
By JAYSON JACOBY
calf north
Aug. 22 were in people ages vaccination rates — 37.1%
range, about 7.8% of the
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
— is the largest among age population. The age group
20 to 59.
Baker County residents
of Durkee
That age range accounts groups.
accounts for 14.8% of the
ages 20 to 59 have accounted
for a disproportionate per-
centage of COVID-19 cases
during the pandemic, accord-
ing to data from the Baker
County Health Department.
The department has
compiled a pie chart showing
the percentage of cases, by
age range, from the start of
the pandemic through Aug.
22, 2021.
The county reported
1,344 cases during that
period.
(The breakdown of cases
by age is not available start-
ing Aug. 23. The county had
82 cases from Aug. 23-31.)
Almost 61% of the coun-
TODAY
Issue 49, 52 pages
for 41% of the county’s
population.
The largest share of
cases through Aug. 22 was in
residents in the age range 30
to 39. That group accounted
for 17.6% of the county’s
COVID-19 cases.
There are about 1,950
county residents in that age
range, which constitutes
about 11.7% of the county’s
population of 16,668.
Among Baker County
residents in their 30s, the
vaccination rate is 31.9%.
Statewide, the vaccination
rate for that age group is
69%. The difference be-
Business ...........B1 & B2
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
The rest of the age break- county’s COVID-19 cases.
down of COVID-19 cases in
The vaccination rate for
Baker County, in order of
Baker County residents in
percentage:
their 20s is 33%. The state-
wide rate is 63.1%.
Ages 50 to 59
This group, with about
Ages 40 to 49
2,290 residents in the county,
This age group, with
has had 15% of the county’s about 1,640 county resi-
cases, and it makes up 13.7% dents, constitutes about 9.9%
of the population.
of the county’s population.
The vaccination rate for
It accounts for 13.2% of the
people in their 50s in Baker county’s COVID-19 cases.
County is 44%. The state-
Baker County’s vaccina-
wide rate for that age range tion rate for people in their
is 72.2%.
40s is 42.6%. The Oregon
rate is 72.1%.
Ages 20 to 29
There are about 1,300
See, COVID/Page A3
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B2 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Letters ........................A4
Lottery Results ..........A2
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
SATURDAY — AN EERIE HIKE ON A FOGBOUND MOUNTAIN TRAIL
600-pound calf
killed late Sunday
or early Monday
Baker City Herald
Wolves from the Lookout
Mountain have killed another
calf in eastern Baker County,
the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)
reported on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
Wolves from that pack
have killed four head of live-
stock and injured two others
since mid July, according to
See, Wolves/Page A3
Senior Menus ...........A2
Sports ........................A6
Weather ..................... B6