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153rd Year • No. 28 • 16 Pages • $1.50
Where there’s smoke
Fire offi cials explain process of reporting, fi nding fi res after
blaze near Prairie City erupts two days after being reported
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Creek after riding about a mile and hiking
to a higher elevation to get a clearer view
of the smoke and its location. She said she
snapped a photo of the smoke and shortly
after saw a plane directly above the smoke
but could not determine what fi re agency it
The next day, she said she did not see any
smoke.
“I assumed that it had been taken care
of,” Voigt said.
Voigt said two days later, when the fi re
blew up, she checked the online fi re log and
saw someone had tagged
her smoke report as a
“false alarm.”
She said that was
“weird” and that she saw
from a map of the fi re
that it started within the
“legal description” ODF
had documented for the
report she made.
Though thankful for fi re crews’ quick and
aggressive response, some residents believe
a now fully contained fi re 3 miles north of
Prairie City could have
been avoided.
According to Ore-
gon Department of For-
estry, a passing thunder-
storm ignited the Dixie
Creek Fire on July 1.
The fi re was “smolder-
ing” and “unobserved”
until wind and scorch-
ing heat allowed it to
Tracking, lightning
explode on July 3, rip-
strikes and
ping through upwards
‘holdover fi res’
of 500 acres and
Christie Shaw, ODF
prompting Prairie City
public information offi -
offi cials to scrap the
Contributed photo cer, said over 250 light-
fi reworks show. The
wind kept the blaze The Dixie Creek Fire smoke plume is seen Saturday, July 3. The smoke was originally ning strikes hit the John
Day Unit from June 30
from tearing through reported July 1, but fi refi ghters were unable to locate it.
and July 1. Those light-
structures, according to
ODF.
belonged. Nonetheless, she said at the time ning strikes created “holdover fi res,” which
are dampened by rain or burning in fuels
Ricolla Voigt, Grant County deputy dis- it appeared they were on it.
trict attorney and a landowner near Dixie
A short time later, she said, a fi re engine that don’t produce a visible column of
Creek, said she reported smoke coming arrived at her house, and she described smoke. Shaw said they go undetected for
from the Ricoh Ranch on July 1, a little where she saw the smoke and pointed out a time before they gain enough intensity
before 4:30 pm.
what was in the photo before texting it to to dry nearby fuels and spread across the
landscape.
She said she made a second call a lit- them, and they left at 6:30 p.m.
tle after 6 p.m. and told dispatch the smoke
“After that,” she said, “I don’t know
See Fire, Page A16
was coming from the other side of Dixie what happened.”
Contributed photo/Cheryl Hoefl er
A helicopter emerges from the smoke of the Dixie Creek Fire July 3.
MyEagleNews.com
Fugitive at
large after
rollover
Jason Skinner, 43,
is a white male with
a felony warrant for
his arrest
Blue Mountain Eagle
A man with a felony war-
rant is at large after a roll-
over crash in a stolen vehicle
Saturday near the border of
Grant and Harney counties.
Jason Skinner, 43, is a
white male who has a fel-
ony warrant and appeared
to
avoid
searchers
and trackers
responding
to a crash
reported at
1 p.m. Sat-
urday near
Jason Skinner the
Grant
and
Har-
ney county line, accord-
ing to a press release from
Grant County Sheriff Todd
McKinley.
McKinley advised anyone
traveling on the Burns-Izee
route — near County Road
68 and Forest Road 47 in the
Alsop Mountain area — to
call 911 if Skinner is seen.
He said two diff erent par-
ties reported seeing someone
who matched the description
on the Izee Highway in Crook
County at 11 a.m. Sunday.
“The report to us was
delayed by about three
hours,” he said, “... so more
than likely he is out of the
Izee area.”
McKinley said the vehi-
cle Skinner was driving
was reported stolen Sunday
when the owner from Harney
County discovered it missing.
John Atkins of Burns
called 911 Saturday to report
he had been in a rollover
crash and didn’t know where
he was. He stated he and
the driver, later identifi ed as
Skinner, were taking the back
roads from Burns to Bend.
Through the eff orts of
Grant County Sheriff ’s
Offi ce, Grant County Search
and Rescue, Grant County
Air Search, Grant County
Emergency Communications
Center and multiple other
agencies, Atkins was located
at 5:30 p.m. from an aircraft.
Deputies made it to his loca-
tion at about 6:50 p.m.
Atkins reported he was
uninjured and was trans-
ported to Harney County.
Skinners whereabouts remain
unknown.
Dollar General opens its doors
New store one of fi ve
planned in Eastern
Oregon this year
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
John Day’s new Dollar
General opened its doors for a
“soft opening” Monday.
Torry Mayfi eld, Dollar
General district manager, said
Saturday the goal is to open
and hire more employees.
According to Mayfi eld,
the store plans to have a total
of about 10 employees. Cur-
rently, he said, they have hired
four.
Mayfi eld said fi lling open
positions and “freight logis-
tics” have been two challenges
in getting the store ready for
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
The Dollar General store in John Day had a soft opening Monday.
its soft opening.
Mayfi eld said Dollar Gen-
eral plans to open four more
stores in Eastern Oregon this
year. He said they would
mostly be along Interstate 84.
Currently, the company’s
webpage lists 65 stores in Ore-
gon and upwards of 17,000
across the U.S.
According to Dollar Gen-
eral’s 2020 annual report, the
From left, Dollar General’s Torry Mayfi eld, district manager,
Shelley Reilly, general manager, and Jennifer Guido, training
manager, pose at the store Saturday.
company plans to open more
than 1,000 additional stores in
2021.
In addition, the company
touts that roughly 75% of
Americans live within 5 miles
of a Dollar General.
The store’s hours of oper-
ation will be from 8 a.m. to
10 p.m. seven days a week.