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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2016)
News Blue Mountain Eagle FIRE Continued from Page A1 Eagle file photo Summer school students write on a white board in this file photo. School starts soon for local districts. School is soon back in session Blue Mountain Eagle Sharpen the pencils, ill the backpacks and watch out for buses — Grant County students return to school this month. Monument and Day- ville students begin school Monday, Aug. 22. Students at Grant Union, Humbolt Elementary, Seneca, Prairie City and Long Creek begin class on Aug. 29. At Grant Union, junior high students in grades 7 and 8 start Monday, Aug. 29, with high school students joining in the following day. A TTENTION L ADIES Ratified on Aug. 18, 1920: Amendment XIX.* The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. helicopter rappel crews flew to the scene. The smoke- jumpers arrived first, so the helicopter crews had to wait, he said, but the smokejump- ers could not jump directly to the fire area and had to hike in from the meadow below. He said they did not reach the fire until 11:30 a.m., though planes were dropping retardant by 11 a.m. At 5:41 p.m., a helicop- ter was reassigned from the Mason Springs Fire, which was still within its contain- ment lines, to the Berry Creek Fire, which continued to grow, according to a For- est Service report about the 2015 fire season. At 9:10 p.m., the report states, a spot fire jumped the retardant and control lines, and the firefighters were pulled off the Berry Creek Fire due to aggressive fire behavior. A firefighter was also trans- ported to the hospital for heat exhaustion, the report states, and a larger Type 3 management team was re- quested. The Mason Springs Fire was still contained within the fire lines that evening, Walker said. A firefighter who worked the fire said the engine crews camped near the fire line overnight and began working to mop up the fire the next morning. At 8:28 a.m. Aug. 13, the Berry Creek Fire was es- timated to be 50 acres and actively burning, and the Mason Springs Fire was still contained at about 10 acres, according to the Forest Ser- vice report. At 10:30 a.m., air tankers were dropping retardant on the Berry Creek Fire, and hand crews were constructing fire line on the Berry Creek Fire and rein- forcing the lines on the Ma- son Springs Fire. At about 2 p.m. Aug. 13, with high winds, Walker said a spot fire was discov- ered outside the lines on the Mason Springs Fire that firefighters were unable to C ONGRATULATIONS to all of the 4H/FFA members at this year’s fair! Thank you to all the supporters who made the sale a huge success. Wednesday, August 17, 2016 contain. The report states a helicopter, two air tankers and one bulldozer respond- ed, and the Type 3 manage- ment team from the Berry Creek Fire assumed control of both fires and continued to share resources between them. By the end of the day, the report states, the Mason Springs Fire had grown to 500 acres and jumped High- way 395, and an even larger Type 2 management team was ordered. The following day, with 30 mph winds recorded mid-morning, the fire spread down Canyon Creek toward Canyon City, and a Type 1 management team, the larg- est, was ordered, accord- ing to the report. Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emer- gency Conflagration Act, authorizing the request for local firefighters to respond, and 12 engines and 32 vol- unteer firefighters respond- ed to assist Canyon City, the report states. Despite their efforts, the two fires burned together, according to the report, and 39 homes were destroyed as the fire grew to 22,000 acres that day. The Canyon Creek Com- plex was designated as the nation’s top ire priority on Aug. 16, the report states, and the Type 1 management team took control as more resourc- es responded to ight the ire. By Aug. 19, the report states more than 900 people were ighting the ire, but it could not be extinguished until September after growing to 110,000 acres and destroying 43 homes. Burning questions a year later A sizable crowd of about 100 people gathered at the Forest Supervisor’s Ofice to ask questions about the ire on short notice Tuesday after the meeting was announced Sunday. John Day resident Howard Gieger asked if another pub- lic meeting could be sched- uled with more notice and said he believed an indepen- dent investigation of the ire should be conducted. Beverlin, the forest super- visor who served as agency administrator on the ire, said the community is free to fund and conduct an independent investigation. He said he hoped the community could move forward and heal af- ter this meeting, rather than schedule another. He said, however, the Forest Service would take and respond to written questions. A woman who lost her home in the ire asked why more resources were not sent to put out the ire when it was known high winds were ex- pected the afternoon of Aug. 13. Walker said they were aware of the weather and had all available resources ighting the ire. He said in- cident commanders on ires throughout the West would all agree there were not enough resources available to ight all the ires that year. “Everybody was out of ireighters at that point,” he said. “... We just ran out of people.” Beverlin said obtaining additional resources would be easy this year because there are fewer fires. He said, in contrast, the 12,000- acre Rail Fire currently burning near Unity has twice as many crews fighting the fire than were on the Can- yon Creek Complex, which was twice the size, when the Type 1 management team took over. Traci Weaver, who served as a public information of- ficer on the fire, said agen- cies cannot afford to staff for the worst-case scenario that occurred with the “perfect storm” of weather condi- tions last year. John Morris asked why a bulldozer line was construct- ed on his property without his permission instead of on Forest Service land. Bev- erlin said he would have to approve a dozer line on the Strawberry Wilderness Area, but he was not asked by the firefighters in the field. He said, in hindsight, he would have approved a dozer line in the wilderness, but he is not sure if he would have granted the request at the time. Former ireighter Fritz Phillips of John Day asked why a Malheur National For- est’s Facebook post indicated the Mason Springs Fire had been both contained and con- trolled, the latter indicating the ire is essentially out. Beverlin admitted that Phillips was right about the post but said it was a mis- communication between public information personnel and the ire managers, who never actually called the ire controlled. Someone asked if the Mason Springs Fire was pa- trolled the night of Aug. 12. The ireighter in charge said he walked a lap around the ire that night before camping beside it. Walker added the fire was within the containment lines the next morning when firefighters began working to extin- guish hot spots. He said it G RAND C HAMPIONS Jessica Carter Buyer: Iron Triangle was contained until about 2 p.m. Aug. 13. Walker said no one saw how the spot fire that jumped the containment lines started. He speculated that cutting down a hazard- ous tree at about that time may have sent an ember be- yond the lines. Another person asked why it took firefighters so long to respond to the Berry Creek Fire, stating it was re- ported at 6 a.m. but firefight- ers did not arrive on scene until 11 a.m. Walker said, if someone reported the fire at 6 a.m., it was not logged in dis- patch, but he said it was hectic with 12 fires reported that day. He said the Ber- ry Creek Fire was reported and logged in dispatch at 7:22 a.m. He said aircraft were en route by 8:50 a.m., but the smokejumpers who were over the fire first had to jump to the meadow be- low and hike in. Someone asked Walker what the firefighters had learned if a similar situation occurred in the future. Walker said, in hind- sight, he wished he would have kept the two hand crews he released when Burns requested them, even though Burns sent one crew back when he requested it. He said the work order for the helicopter took too long, and the helicopter should have been launched sooner. He said he has already asked the night dispatchers to con- tact him sooner if something occurs — and they have this year — so he can direct the operations sooner. A woman who described the fire as “an act of God” asked Beverlin if policies and procedures could be changed from the top down to prevent catastrophic fires from occurring in the future. Beverlin said firefighters perform after action reviews after every incident to try to learn from them. “Because of the signif- icant number of fatalities that have happened on wild- fires, there are some real strict safety guidelines that we have to comply with,” he said. Although no one was killed on the Canyon Creek Complex, the National In- teragency Fire Center re- ports 164 wildland firefight- ing fatalities from 2006 to 2015. Of those, 46 were for medical reasons, such as a heart attack, but many were from entrapment, burnovers and other accidents. At least one firefighter has died each year since 1958, accord- ing to NIFC, and more than 1,000 firefighters have died in the last 100 years. “... There’s that balance of safety of firefighters and then aggressive suppression efforts,” Beverlin said. Please call 541-523-2522 or visit www.eltrym.com for movies and showtimes. Jesaka Culley Buyer: Iron Triangle $9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth Erika Dickens Buyer: Standard TV & Appliance and Gander Ranch 04290 A8 Hannah Vaughan Buyer: Doug’s Motor Vehicle Repair R ESERVE G RAND C HAMPIONS Robbins Farm Equipment Hailey Carter Buyer: Chester’s Thriftway Cowen Weaver Buyer: Willow Creek Trucking Ellie Justice Buyer: Chester’s Thriftway 3850 10th St. Baker City 10218 Wallowa Lake Hwy. La Grande 1160 S Egan Burns 86812 Christmas Valley Hwy. Christmas Valley 541-523-6377 541-963-6577 541-573-6377 541-523-6377