Hinton Creek fire burns
nearly 20,000 acres
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
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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.
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242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)