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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 2018)
Hinton Creek fire burns nearly 20,000 acres HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 137 NO. 30 6 Pages Wednesday, July 25, 2018 The Hinton Creek fire burned 15-20,000 acres last week. -Contributed photos. Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Andrea Nelson makes third trip to Kenya Andrea Nelson of Lex- ington recently made her third trip to Kenya to work with educators from prima- ry and secondary schools. She first visited the country in 2012 while a doctoral student at George Fox Uni- versity. Her second trip was in 2015 to complete her dis- sertation research on Ken- yan principals and how they work within their diverse cultural communities. Since receiving her doctorate of education she has continued working at Heppner High School as well as teaching for George Fox University in their Master of Education program. This most recent trip took her to Kisumu on the Andrea Nelson teaches students in Kenya. -Contributed photo. east side of Lake Victoria. to buy the higher priced, There she led profession- “Working with the women’s low quality soap from the al development sessions group of Musembe was one market. Also, it gives them on student engagement, of the greatest experiences an opportunity to make and lesson development and of this most recent trip. I was able to sell soap as part of their teacher self-re- combine my small business operations.” flection. She She said other fun ex- passion for worked alongside periences of the trip includ- teaching and colleagues from ed her visit to the Karen my love of George Fox Uni- Blixen Museum in Nairobi soap making versity, including and visiting the hippos on in a way that two recent gradu- Lake Victoria. She hopes to was so reward- ates of the educa- return again to continue her ing. I taught tion program. Andrea Nelson work with the teachers there the group sim- Nelson indi- and to visit the many friends cated the highlight of the ple soap making, so that she has made over years. trip was not in a tradition- they no longer would have al classroom. She said, A fire between Hinton Creek and Willow Creek started around 1 p.m. on July 17, burning between 15-20,000 acres before it was extinguished. Fire crews from all over the area fought the fire, aided by local ranchers and farmers. Mutual aid calls went out and fire agencies re- sponded from Lexington, Ione, Boardman, Station 7, Condon, Pilot Rock, East Umatilla County, Pendle- ton, Hermiston, Stanfield, Helix, South Gilliam Coun- ty, Oregon Department of Forestry (from Pendleton and Fossil) and US Forest Service. Morrow County Sher- iff’s Office and Morrow County Emergency Man- agement were on scene along with Morrow County Road Department, ODOT and OSP for traffic control. Community members pro- vided food and beverages for the fire fighters on the scene and locals filled the fire hall with more food and drink for the returning fire fighters. Fire Chief Rusty Estes later commented that the wildfire tabletop exercise that was conducted earlier in the year did its job. He said this event went much smoother because of that exercise. It was a fairly calm and orderly event, with no chaos and no panic Estes stated. The fire burned mostly between Hinton Creek and Willow Creek and from a few miles east of Heppner to a few miles up Hanna Arbuckle Road. It burned grassland, fences and cor- rals. No structures were lost in the fire. There were 11 residences and 43 outbuild- ings threatened on Hinton Creek and six residences and 23 outbuildings threat- ened on Willow Creek, with 17 residences and 66 out- buildings protected in total. Emergency Manage- ment and the Sheriff’s Of- fice would like to remind our citizens to sign up for AlertSense, our mass no- tification program. Please go to www.co.morrow. or.us or AlertSense.com or Morrow County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page to sign up. You can also email your information to Help@ AlertSense.com. New county building to be discussed at Chamber meeting Proposed Irrigon facility to be presented Wilson Prairie fire burns at OHV park Above is the proposed floor plan and square footage of the proposed new county facilities in Irrigon. Fire fighters respond to Wilson Prairie Fire in Morrow County. -Contributed photo. The Wilson Prairie fire was reported Monday after- noon around 3:30 p.m. The fire was reported as burning on Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) protected lands within the Morrow County OHV park, approx- imately twenty-three miles southwest of Heppner. The cause of the fire is under investigation and there were no evacuations or closures in place at the time of the press release. The fire was reported to have burned an estimated 120 acres, burning in grass, brush and timber. Firefight- ers made significant prog- ress overnight building fire line around the fire. Aerial resources, in- cluding five Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs), two Type 2 helicopters and two large air tankers were engaged, along with dozers and firefighters. ODF was assisted by resources from Umatilla National Forest and the Morrow County OHV park. Overnight the fire held inside the existing retardant lines used to box in the fire and check the spread. On Tuesday additional re- sources arrived to relieve firefighting personnel who worked throughout the night to stop the spread of the fire. Since the fire was reported, firefighters were able to use dozers to build a fire line around most of the fire. Additional resources assigned to the fire include two contract crews, two Oregon Depart- ment of Corrections crews, three dozers, two water tenders, eight fire engines from ODF and three initial attack modules from the Umatilla National Forest’s Heppner Ranger District. Work also began mopping up fire and heat adjacent to the fire line, strengthening the lines to reduce the risk of the fire moving outside the perimeter. Regulated closure is in effect for ODF’s Central Oregon District. Specific restrictions, intended to reduce human caused fires, can be found at www.ODF- centraloregon.com. Phase A of the Public Use Restrictions (PURS) for the Umatilla National Forest is in effect. For more information regarding these and other restrictions on the Umatilla National Forest visit www.bmidc.org. Year-to-date the district has responded to 41 human caused fires, six more than the ten-year average for this time period. These fires have burned over 200 By David Sykes The proposed new 15,779 square-foot county building planned for Irri- gon will be the subject of a Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday, August 2 in Heppner. The County Commissioners will be on hand to give an update on the progress of the building plans. Cost of the building is acres. Dry fuel conditions throughout the region com- bined with continued hot and dry weather in the fore- cast have the potential for rapid fire growth. expected to be between $3.5 and $5.2 million, and will include substantial increas- es in space for the justice court, planning department and a common area for meetings, etc. Planning for the new facility has been going on for some time, and Crow Engineering has produced a facility plan being used by the commissioners in their decision making. Crow had proposed to hold public meetings in each of the county communities to roll out the proposed facility, however those meetings may not be held after all, as there has been no an- nouncement of any com- munity meetings. The Chamber of Com- merce meeting is open to the public and will be 1 p.m. at city hall. A lunch of roast beef sandwich- es with horseradish aioli, garden salad, chips and cookies will be served by the Gateway Café. The cost is $10, and anyone wishing to attend needs to contact Sheryll Bates at 541-676- 5536 by July 31 to ensure a lunch will be available for you. The public is invited to attend. Windfarm activities and other county business will also be reported at the lunch meeting. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. PERENNIALS - TREES - SHRUBS 20% OFF Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)
