THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 A3
PENDLETON | FLOUR MILL FIRE
FARMERS, CUSTOMERS SCRAMBLE
MATTHEW WEAVER • Capital Press
P
ENDLETON — Pacific Northwest wheat farmers are beginning to cope with the fallout from Wednesday’s massive fire 10 that left the Grain Craft flour mill in
Pendleton a “total loss.” The company is working with farmers to handle the excess supply, said Natalie Faulkner, director of communications for Grain Craft, based
in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The building was more than 100 years old, Faulkner said. Twenty-two employees worked in the mill. There were no injuries in the fire. Pendleton Police Chief Chuck Byram
said the mill was a “total loss.”
The company does not dis-
close the production capacity
of the building, Faulkner said.
The extent of the damage and
possibility of rebuilding are
not yet known, she added.
“It’s still an active situation.
We are still evaluating every-
thing, just trying to under-
stand the cause and circum-
stances,” Faulkner told the
Capital Press.
Ben Maney, president
of Oregon Wheat Growers
League, farms north of Pend-
leton.
He doesn’t take his grain to
the facility, but “a substantial
amount of farmers” in the area
do, he told the Capital Press.
“It’s been a staple for the
Pendleton community for an
awfully long time, generations,
and it’s always been a central
location (in) town,” he said.
The fire is the latest hit for
growers, after experiencing se-
vere drought last year, Maney
said. Many crops had re-
bounded this year with spring
rains.
“A lot of farmers don’t have
home storage, and they can’t
store that grain on their farm,”
he said. “For this heartbreak-
ing event to happen today, it
puts the community and a lot
of the farmers in a tough sit-
Kayaker
Continued from A1
That stretch of the river is
classified as Class IV and V
whitewater, conditions char-
acterized by extreme difficulty
and danger.
As the search efforts went
cold, law enforcement and res-
cue personnel operated on the
assumption Kollar was dead.
In February, the Deschutes
County Sheriff’s Office sus-
pended the active search and
recovery, scaling down its ef-
forts, but classifying the case as
a missing person case pending
new information.
During the initial search in
the fall, cadaver dogs picked up
on Kollar’s scent in the lower
portion of Lava Island Falls.
But according to law enforce-
ment and search and rescue
divers with the sheriff’s office,
the area of the river where Kol-
lar’s body is believed to be is
far too hazardous for divers to
enter in order to look for and
retrieve his remains.
“Our cadaver dogs alerted
to the scent of human remains
under the water,” Lt. Mike Bi-
ondi of the Deschutes County
Sheriff’s Office told the Bul-
letin via email. “It is difficult
to accurately predict how far
upstream the remains would
be. Generally, we believe he is
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Smoke pours from the Pendleton Flour Mills on Wednesday as firefighters work to control the blaze.
uation. It hits the community
hard.”
Jeremy Bunch, CEO of
Shepherd’s Grain, a farm-
er-owned flour company, sent
located in the lower portion of
Lava Island Falls.”
“There is no safe way to
search that portion of the river
due to current and underwater
obstructions,” Biondi said.
Biondi added that it would
not be advisable for anyone
to attempt to search the area
further given the hazardous
conditions on that particular
stretch of the river.
Sean Jones, a diver with De-
schutes County Search and
Rescue, said he was part of the
initial search effort for Kollar’s
body. Jones has been diving
for the search and rescue team
for 21 years, and he would not
advise any attempt to retrieve
Kollar’s remains, he said.
“Would I advise somebody
to go into Class V whitewater?
No. Not under those condi-
tions,” Jones said. “If you are
talking about pure safety, it is
not advisable. And would I
want somebody to go in there
and do it? No.”
Jones said any attempt to
enter the river and retrieve
Kollar’s remains could result
in him and his colleagues in
turn having to risk their lives
in their capacity as search and
rescue personnel.
“Anytime you have moving
water, it’s moving at a high ve-
locity through obstacles, you
have no visibility, you have re-
an email to customers about
the fire.
“We are working on a con-
tingency plan now and get-
ting wheat staged for move-
duced ability to move, and you
can’t stay still,” Jones said of
conditions on the river. “You
get blown out of position; you
physically can’t hold on. So, the
water moves underneath you
and lifts you up and you are in
the current again, and you can’t
stay.”
Jones said that under certain
conditions, it is physically im-
possible to escape once a per-
son is stuck in the river fighting
against the rushing water.
“There becomes a point
where the water is moving and
being so dynamic a person
can’t just go into a spot and
stop. And then the risk of en-
trapment. There are logs and
rocks and holes and stuff in
there and say, if your leg goes
through it, and the velocity of
the water is stronger than you
are, you’re stuck,” Jones said.
He added that such condi-
tions could be mitigated by a
highly involved process using
ropes, extra personnel and cer-
tain physical barriers used to
divert water flow. However,
for Jones and his colleagues on
the search and rescue team,
the number one priority is the
preservation of life.
Kelli Wittman of Tumalo
Creek Kayak & Canoe said
while a lot of the river close to
Bend is classified as difficult or
expert whitewater, the major-
ment to another Grain Craft
mill,” Bunch said. “Unfortu-
nately, there will be an inter-
ruption in flour supply as we
work through these details.
ity of deaths occur on milder
water.
“Most deaths and casual-
ties happen on Class II and
Class III water because there is
a lot of river etiquette or river
knowledge that sometimes
people either get passive about
or complacent about because
they are a harder paddler, or
because they simply don’t
know and are just getting into
the sport,” Wittman said “But
more casualties happen on
those easier sections than those
harder sections.”
Wittman said some of the
most common hazards on the
river are downed trees, which
are always moving and could
be there one day and gone the
next. Rocks with holes in them
are easy to get stuck in, she
said, and the powerful current
of the river is capable of ero-
sion, creating voids underneath
rocks that could trap people.
“In this kind of situation,
you might not come out at all,”
Wittman said. “We definitely
try to run our lines and set up
safety around those kinds of
hazards so that if something
were to happen our team is set
up to help get you out of there.”
“It’s definitely a wild river. It
always changes. It always has
risks,” Whitman added. “It is
not guaranteed safety.”
█
jsiess@bendbulletin.com, 541-617-7820
We apologize for the incon-
venience this causes. We are
working hard to minimize this
flour supply interruption and
will provide a timeline update
very soon.”
The cause of the fire was
“mechanical failure,” the po-
lice chief, told the Capital
Press.
On Tuesday, dispatchers re-
ceived a report of black smoke
coming from the mills, “with
no visible flames,” according
to a police department press
release. The fire department
responded, extinguished the
small fire and remained on
fire watch.
The fire subsequently
reignited at about 4 a.m.
Wednesday and became fully
engulfed due to the dry grain
and the wooden structure,
Byram said.
Employees identified the
source of the fire, Byram said.
“It happened in the mill
itself, with one of the pieces
of equipment, with a rubber
bushing or housing that obvi-
ously got too hot and started
the fire,” he said.
It’s the middle of harvest,
Byram said, so the mill was
processing a lot of flour. He
didn’t have an exact figure, but
said Grain Craft employees es-
timated there were “hundreds
of thousands of pounds of
processed flour in the bins.”
There is no estimated cost
of damage yet, he said.
Madras
Continued from A1
Detectives also found hazardous conditions like black
mold and improvised copper electrical wiring that by-
passed circuit breakers. The alleged illegal marijuana farm
also used pesticides and insecticides, which can threaten
residential water supplies. The grow site had a handmade
water system that pulled from neighboring wells.
It’s possible the people responsible could be charged for
the water theft.
“That’s probably the least of their issues,” Vander Kamp
said.
Marijuana grown in Central Oregon was transported to
Portland, where it was distributed nationally, according to
police.
The search was tied to a coordinated search of six prop-
erties in Madras and Culver in June. And it may be affili-
ated with a bust in April in La Pine, though Vander Kamp
said that was too early to confirm.
Many of the workers in recent busts are Chinese na-
tionals who came to America via Mexico, Vander Kamp
said. Suspects interviewed in the June raid said they were
promised jobs in Chinese restaurants in the Pacific North-
west. When they arrived in Central Oregon, they worked
a few days in the restaurants then were told they were be-
ing transferred to a marijuana grow site.
“We talked to one guy who did it for six months, and
some of them just hang around for a few days,” Vander
Kamp said.
Marijuana grown on the West Coast has cachet on the
U.S. East Coast. Product that sells for $900-$1,200 per
pound on the West Coast can be sold for three times that
in states where marijuana is illegal.
The illicit product grown in Central Oregon is typically
sold in the New York Metro area, Ohio and parts of Flor-
ida. After that, the money is diverted through Chinese
restaurants in the Northwest and ultimately returned to
China or Hong Kong, Vander Kamp said.
█
Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com
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