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News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
ARSON
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Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Jarvis Kennedy of the Burns Paiute Tribe points out the land where the tribe is
inviting guests to stay for the solar eclipse.
ECLIPSE
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Locals who want in on the
fun can purchase a day pass
for dinner and entertainment
for $50. There are about 25
weekend passes left.
“There are many things
I’m looking forward to over
the Pandyfest weekend, but
some major highlights are
time with friends and family
surrounded by rocking music,
tasty food and an epic celes-
tial experience,” Mandy said.
“Counting down the days!”
Several other campsites
and venues are also available
in Grant County.
In Prairie City, the Em-
mel Ranch will have camp-
ing spots near the downtown
area in a field adjacent to the
Prairie City Wood Products
property, and the Riccos will
also offer camping and park-
ing for a view of the eclipse
1.2 miles south of Prairie
City on Strawberry Wilder-
ness Road (County Road 60).
Long Creek School has
tent and RV spots available,
and there will be a Portland
State University learning cen-
ter at the school with a tele-
scope for viewing the night
sky. The NOAA weather cen-
ter will also be at Long Creek
City Hall. For more informa-
tion, visit easternoregone-
clipse.com or call the school
at 541-421-3896 or Jennie
Freeman at 541-508-9247.
Readying a spot outside Mt. Vernon for eclipse visitors
are, from left, are brothers Nathan Kennedy and Jarvis
Kennedy, as well as Nalani Harvey, Ralph Honhongva
and Ambrosia Snapp of Burns. The Burns Paiute Tribe
will hold an eclipse venue for camping and RVing and
entertainment during the weekend of the Aug. 21 total
solar eclipse.
Eclipse update
In other eclipse news, Grant County Chamber of
Commerce office manager Tammy Bremner said there
will be public showers at the Industrial Park and any-
one can pay for a shower there.
HECS has a large room with cots for a large group
at the Industrial building, and they’ll have a large tent
with five cots. Showers are included with those reser-
vations.
The chamber has porta potties for rent, and Bremner
recommends business owners rent one to place on their
properties.
She noted 20,000 copies of a new Grant County map
will be available Thursday, Aug. 10.
Made available by Grant County Economic Develop-
ment and Firewise, Bremner said they are well done
and can be found at the chamber and other locations.
Other spots, including a
few home rentals, are listed
at the Grant County Cham-
ber of Commerce website,
gcoregonlive.com, or call
A lamp was still on in the
living room, so he figured
someone was home, but no
one responded. Cross said he
broke in.
Furniture and walls were
ablaze, he said, and thick
smoke hovered a mere eight
inches off the floor.
“I was on my stomach
crawling through the house,”
he said.
Without a flashlight he
relied on the flames to see.
Cross said he was inside may-
be a minute, though it felt like
an hour, and he saw no body.
Then he had to get out.
Cross said he ran to the
back and spotted an open bed-
room window.
“There was a teddy bear
right there, and I thought there
was children in the house,” he
said, so he broke in through
the window.
Cross said he checked in
and under the bed and again
found no one. But he was not
done.
Smoke billowed into a
small house nearby. Again he
pounded on a door, and again
no one answered. Cross said
he forced his way in, found
the lone occupant still in bed
and woke him with black
smoke filling the home.
“I told him you need to get
out of here and get out of here
now,” Cross stated.
Together, he said, they
hustled a lawnmower and gas
cans out of the yard and used a
hose to hold off flames creep-
ing over dry grass in the yard.
The Pilot Rock Rural Fire
Protection District and the Pi-
lot Rock Police Department
responded to the fire, along
with the Pendleton Fire De-
partment.
“The first fire units on
scene found the house fully
engulfed,” according to Cal-
dera’s statement.
Once firefighters gained
control of the blaze, he report-
EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
The gutted remains of what was the living room of Pilot
Rock resident Larry Castro on Monday after a early-
morning fire gutted the residence on Sunday. Castro died
in what police believe was an intentionally set fire.
ed, they found the body just
inside the front door.
Pilot Rock police secured
the scene and received assis-
tance with the investigation
from Pendleton police, Ore-
gon State Police Arson Unit,
the state fire marshal’s office,
the Umatilla County medical
examiner and the district at-
torney’s office.
Witness statements, evi-
dence at the scene and other
leads, according to Caldera,
led police on Sunday at 9:32
a.m. to arrest Fix for first-de-
gree arson and book her into
the Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton.
Castro’s neighbors de-
scribed him as quiet and
pleasant. They said after his
wife died about four years ago
he didn’t leave the one-story
home.
Neighbors also said Cas-
tro’s garage caught fire a few
weeks ago, and some ques-
tioned if Fix was involved in
that.
Oregon Circuit Court re-
cords show Fix has multiple
criminal convictions dating
back to 2011 for methamphet-
amine possession and failure
to appear. Arson is the most
severe charge she has faced.
Castro’s daughter, Laurie
Sammons, and her boyfriend,
Zion Jacobson, came from
their place in Canyon City to
salvage what they could at the
Pilot Rock home. Jacobson
said they found some photo-
graphs and other memorabilia
that helped ease the pain, but
they wanted answers.
“For closure, it would be
nice to know more,” he said,
but he understood the police
were still investigating.
Castro hailed from Califor-
nia and worked for the Loui-
siana-Pacific
Corporation,
Sammons said, and transfered
years ago to the mill in Pilot
Rock, which the company
owned at the time. He was
retired for a number of years,
his daughter said. She was the
only of his four children to
live in Oregon. The rest are in
the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sammons said she had last
spoke to her father about four
months ago and wondered
about his relationship with
Fix. She said one neighbor
told her he urged her father
to break ties with Fix, but he
would not because she had
nothing to rely on.
“My dad was just a very
loving person and would help
anyone he could,” she said.
Caldera asked anyone with
information about the case to
call the local dispatch center
at 541-966-3651. He stated
the investigation is ongoing
and referred questions to the
district attorney’s office.
them at 541-575-0547.
“There are still a lot of
accommodations available,”
said chamber office manager
Tammy Bremner.
Eagle photos/Rylan Boggs
Three Rainbow attendees man a hydration station after the Rainbow Gathering. With
temperatures reaching close to 100 degrees, dehydration is a major concern for
volunteers cleaning up the site.
RAINBOW
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05649
many volunteers on the clean-
up crew prefer not to give
their full name, including
Scott. He said attendees who
stayed after the gathering
have been naturalizing the
area by removing trails, fire
pits and latrines, ensuring
all holes are filled in and
spreading duff over dis-
turbed areas.
“The idea is to make it
look like we were never
here, but we’ll never achieve
that,” Scott said.
He explained the vegeta-
tion will need time to bounce
back, and they can’t simply
wave a magic wand and re-
move all traces of the people
who attended the gathering
this year.
Scott typically works
clean-up at gatherings, and
said this one is better than
some.
“I’ve seen smaller gath-
erings produce more trash,”
he said.
He attributes this to a
downhill walk to the parking
lot, allowing people to more
easily remove what they
brought in, and a dry cli-
mate, which didn’t ruin gear
with heavy rains.
While the few are left
to clean up after the many,
Scott doesn’t feel animosity
toward those who left be-
Scott, a volunteer on the
clean-up crew, stands for
a photo after the Rainbow
Gathering Friday, July 14.
hind uncleaned campsites.
Instead, he directs it at the
hangers-on who refuse to
leave the gathering but ar-
en’t assisting with the clean-
up.
“You can’t clean the
house while all the children
are inside,” Scott said.
The majority of the area
is anticipated to be recov-
ered within a year, while
some smaller areas will take
significantly longer to re-
cover, according to a Forest
Service press release.
“Only time will tell, but
we will do our very best to
continue to document dam-
ages and impacts to the land,
water, and wildlife as well as
establish long term monitor-
ing to assess impacts,” Blue
Mountain District Ranger
Dave Halemeier said.
One of the biggest pri-
orities for those cleaning
up is the removal of trash.
Everything from cigarette
butts to tents were left at the
gathering, and volunteers are
slowly moving it to the front
gate, where it is then trucked
to the transfer station outside
John Day.
David, a volunteer work-
ing near the gate, said rough-
ly 90 percent of the trash
has been removed from the
forest. At the gate, he and
other volunteers work to sort
through garbage, recycling
and abandoned camping
gear and clothing.
Piles of shoes, sleeping
bags and tarps are dwarfed
by the mountain of garbage.
Lesa, another volunteer
working at the gate, said
they plan on removing all
trash from the site, but need
all the help they can get.
“A lot of people left with
empty vehicles, which is not
OK,” she said.
As part of the recovery
efforts, long-term water
quality monitoring sites will
be established and resource
specialists from the Forest
Service will work with gath-
ering clean-up crews to ensure
efforts meet Forest Service
standards, according to the
Forest Service press release.