A2 The BulleTin • Monday, July 5, 2021
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Fire destroys apartments
in Portland; 2 dead
Two people died and four
were injured in a northeast
Portland apartment fire early
Sunday, according to Portland
Fire & Rescue.
The fire was reported just af-
ter 3:30 a.m., and responding
firefighters found two apart-
ment buildings in flames. The
fire was quickly upgraded to a
four-alarm fire, drawing a larger
response.
The two apartment build-
ings were destroyed in the fire.
A third building in the same
apartment complex was par-
tially damaged, but crews were
able to prevent further damage
to the third building, said Terry
Foster, a spokesperson for
Portland Fire & Rescue.
Portland Police homicide
and arson detectives were on
the scene Sunday morning.
Foster said the cause of the fire
is under investigation. The two
people who died in the fire
have not been identified.
the family from getting back to
the boat, sheriff’s deputies said.
Carlile’s wife and children
were able to swim back to
shore, but Carlile was last seen
about 150 yards out in the wa-
ter near the dam, along the
north side of the reservoir.
Deputies said they did not
believe Carlile was wearing a
life jacket.
Body of man who drowned
rescuing his child is found
The body of a Junction City
man was recovered Friday,
three days after he jumped into
a Lane County reservoir to
help one of his children.
Kevin Carlile, 38, was found
shortly before 1 p.m. in the
Fern Ridge Reservoir, south of
where he had jumped in Tues-
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Note about COVID-19 data
The Oregonian
Two apartment buildings caught fire in a four-alarm blaze in northeast
Portland on Sunday.
day. The Lane County Sheriff’s
Office said Carlile and his wife
had been boating when one of
their children ended up in the
water without a life jacket.
Both adults jumped in to
help the child, but the high
winds and choppy water kept
The Oregon Health Au-
thority is no longer issuing
COVID-19 updates on week-
ends or holidays. The chart
and information tracking Cen-
tral Oregon COVID-19 cases
will return Wednesday.
—Bulletin staff and wire reports
Heat wave
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Man who yearned to become a parent died while working to provide Oregonians with food and shade
‘WE DON’T WANT MORE DEATH;
WE DON’T WANT MORE SADNESS’
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BY APRIL RUBIN
The Oregonian
Sebastian Francisco Perez,
a Guatemalan immigrant to
Marion County, was working
hard and saving money to be-
come a father.
He arrived in the U.S. on
May 5 to work at Ernst Nurs-
ery and Farms in rural St. Paul
so he could fund his wife’s fer-
tility treatment in Guatemala,
said Reyna Lopez, executive
director of PCUN. He died
less than two months later, on
June 26, while working at the
tree farm during the Pacific
Northwest’s unprecedented
heat wave.
Perez was one of 174,000
migrant and seasonal farm-
workers in Oregon who have
worked through heat, cold,
wildfires and the pandemic
this year to feed the country.
Farmworker advocates said his
preventable death should serve
as a local and national call to
action.
At three vigils Saturday in
St. Paul, Portland and Herm-
iston, community members
grieved and celebrated 38-year-
old Perez’s memory and called
for justice in his honor. Perez’s
mother and wife joined the
Portland vigil via video call
from Ixcan, Guatemala. They
thanked activists for their work
and community members for
their presence.
“We don’t want more of our
family members to go through
this,” said Perez’s wife, Maria
Lucas Alonzo. “We don’t want
more death. … We don’t want
more sadness.”
Organizations including
PCUN, the Oregon’s farm-
worker union; the Latino Net-
work, a nonprofit organization;
Causa, an immigrant rights
organization; and United Farm
Workers, a national farm-
worker union, organized the
vigils and demanded action
from Oregon’s government.
Among their calls are that
farmworkers be provided
shaded break areas, cool and
clean water, heat-illness pre-
vention programming, protec-
tions against retaliation and an
end to work when tempera-
tures exceed 90 degrees.
Although they never met,
Ramiro Navarro Jr. was devas-
tated at Perez’s loss, which hit
close to home. Navarro used
to work at the same nursery as
Perez with his grandfather. He
said he understands choosing
to work in dangerous condi-
tions to support family rather
than taking unpaid time off.
“It’s a choice that many will
make over and over again in
the same way that Sebastian
made until we fix the broken
system that puts people in a
position to have to make that
choice,” he said.
Lauro Mendoza, who has
worked as a farmworker in
Oregon since moving from
Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1986, said
A vigil participant holds a sign
that says in Spanish that few
people would eat without farm-
workers.
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian photos
A vigil is held Saturday for Sebastian Francisco Perez, a farmworker who died amid the historic heat wave
that blanketed Oregon last week, at Ernst Nursery and Farms in St. Paul in Marion County.
“It’s a choice that many
will make over and over
again in the same way that
Sebastian made until we fix
the broken system that puts
people in a position to have
to make that choice.”
— Ramiro Navarro Jr.,
who once worked at the same
nursery as Perez
A large crowd turned out to remember Sebastian Francisco Perez.
he has seen farmers and con-
tractors abuse their power over
workers in vulnerable circum-
stances like Perez’s. He said
workers, through the support
of unions, should stand up to
authority and demand better
practices.
Oregon’s Occupational
Safety and Health agency and
the Oregon Health Author-
ity were directed to develop a
proposal for worker safety in
extreme heat and wildfires in
March of last year. The dead-
line was extended to Septem-
ber because of the pandemic,
which meant no specific reg-
ulations were in place for the
late June heat, which reached a
high of 116 degrees in the Port-
land area.
Emergency protections are
needed to prevent another
death like Perez’s, said Isa Peña,
interim executive director of
Causa Oregon. Farmworkers
have provided what the coun-
try needs for decades, but the
country’s leaders have not
shown up for them through
policy or immigration reform,
she said.
“Our communities are es-
sential,” she said.
The life expectancy of a
farmworker in the U.S. is 49
years, compared to 77 for most
Americans, according to the
U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency. Farmworkers are
exposed to harsh, hazardous
working conditions, life-threat-
ening pesticides and may face
health care barriers.
Oregon lawmakers did not
pass legislation to require over-
time pay for farmworkers in
the 2021 session, leaving them
the only low-paid workers in
Oregon who don’t get extra
hourly compensation when
they are required to work ex-
tra-long hours.
“We are asking, demanding
that Oregon, the Guatema-
lan government, contractors,
farmers, farmworkers unions,
labor unions, that we all unite
to take care of our communi-
ties, especially in these extreme
conditions that will continue,”
said Lopez, the farmworkers
union director.
Guatemala lost a son, said
Martha Guembes Herrera,
honorary consul of Guate-
mala in Oregon. She said she’s
working with Perez’s family to
return his body to his home
country. A fundraiser created
to support the mourning fam-
ily raised about $10,000 as of
Saturday afternoon.
Indigenous, Catholic and
Quaker spiritual leaders said
prayers for Perez in St. Paul,
acknowledging that his loss
should have been prevented.
“Today we remember his
life,” said the Rev. Samuel Mo-
ran, a Guatemalan pastor at
Ministerios Restauración con-
gregation in Portland. “Let the
lessons we’re learning from his
life benefit all workers in the
field.
2 0 2 1 C E N T R A L O R E G O N B U I L D E R S A S S O C I AT I O N
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