WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
Fire destroys
Hat Rock home
By PHIL WRIGHT
Staff Writer
Fire burned a couple
out of their home Sunday
evening near Hat Rock
State Park, northeast of
Hermiston.
Conni Hull said her
parents, Connie and Kelli
Maret, ended up at Kadlec
Regional Medical Center,
Richland,
Washington,
after experiencing heart
trouble in the wake of the
fire. Her father suffered
from breathing in smoke,
she said, and her mother
is a breast cancer patient,
but both were stable and
in good condition at the
hospital.
The blaze happened
Sunday around 6:30 p.m.
at 82276 Hat Rock Road,
space 14. Hull said her fa-
ther was cooking dinner
when a lithium battery in
a spare room exploded
while charging. Connie
Maret grabbed a fire ex-
tinguisher, his daughter
said, but it was expired.
He then ran for a garden
hose, but that was too
short and he had to attach
another hose to it.
The Umatilla Rural
Fire Protection District
was the lead agency at
the scene, and Umatilla
County Fire District 1,
Hermiston, also respond-
ed.
The couple owned five
dogs and five cats, Hull
said, and two dogs died in
the fire. No one has seen
the cats, she said, so they
might have escaped. A
neighbor was caring for
the other three dogs.
The American Red
Cross Cascades Region
is providing resources for
the Marets to meet imme-
diate basic needs, includ-
ing temporary housing and
clothing. Hull added fam-
ily and friends are work-
ing out where her parents
could live after that.
The home appears to
be a total loss, Hull said.
Her grandmother left the
home to her parents 10
years ago, and they did
not have homeowners in-
surance and live off dis-
ability benefits. She set
up an online donation ac-
count to help her parents
at www.gofundme.com/
grandparents-lose-house-
to-fire .
STATION:
continued from Page A1
Gorham said the district
hired six new firefighter/
paramedics in order to meet
the increased staffing needs
that will come with the 24/7
station. Two paid firefight-
er/paramedics and an intern
staff the station.
The building is 31 years
old, but this is the first time
it will be staffed around the
clock. It also went through
some upgrades and remod-
els to make the building
more livable. A semi truck
hit the station in June 2014,
and though no one was in-
side the building at the time
of the crash it hit the area
where firefighters would
stay. It took several months
to repair.
The three district em-
ployees staffing the station
on Thursday, March 2, were
Lt. Nate Stephens, firefight-
er and paramedic Dan Shult
and resident intern Hunter
Eynon.
“Before, the closest
(fully-staffed) station was
Station 21,” Gorham said,
speaking about the down-
town safety center shared
with the police station.
“You couldn’t get any am-
bulance response out of
here until yesterday.”
The station has four ve-
hicles, including a brush
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The Marets’ neighbor, Lilli Peterson, took in the Marets’
three surviving dogs, Ozzy, Roscoe and Jasmine.
continued from Page A1
Friday of each month, fami-
lies are encouraged to come
in the mornings and read
with their students.
Tamie Watkinds, a Title
I teacher at West Park, said
one of the most import-
ant things teachers can do
to encourage literacy is to
give children books of their
own, as many don’t have
them in their homes.
“If the kids meet their
(reading) goals, they get
to choose a book to keep,”
Watkinds said. “Books
seem to be a very good in-
centive.”
Rick Cotterell, the prin-
cipal of McNary Heights
Elementary School in Uma-
tilla, said the students have
special dress-up days for
the entire week, and one of
Early morning fire puts family out of home
Hermiston Herald
A fire in Hermiston
did extensive damage to
a duplex early Tuesday
morning, putting a family
of six out of their home.
No one was injured.
Umatilla County Fire
District 1 responded at 3
a.m. Tuesday to the 900
block of Orchard Avenue
to put out the fire. Scott
Goff, a UCFD volun-
teer, said there was fire,
heat and smoke damage
in one of the units and
smoke damage in the
other.
Goff works for the Or-
egon State Fire Marshal’s
Office, but was speaking
on behalf of the UCFD.
He said the fire appeared
to have been started by a
malfunctioning furnace.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Firefighters work to contain a duplex fire in the 900 block
of Orchard Avenue early Tuesday morning.
The American Red
Cross is providing aid to
two adults and four chil-
dren, according to a press
release.
The Umatilla Rural
Fire Protection District
also sent firefighters to
support the effort, Goff
said.
truck, an interface truck, a
water tender and a medic
unit.
Stephens said the district
always budgets for new
equipment, but didn’t pur-
chase any new engines or
trucks for the station yet.
“Probably a new engine
is needed next,” he said.
Gorham said the current
staff at Station 22 will stay
there for the whole year,
and in January, other fire-
fighters will rotate in.
The increased hours for
the station were made pos-
sible when the Hermiston
and Stanfield departments
merged in 2016, creating
the UCFD. The consoli-
dation of the two districts
resulted in a combined tax
rate of $1.75 per $1,000
assessed property value for
Hermiston and Stanfield
residents.
The merger is expected
to generate about $900,000,
which will go toward new
staff, replacing vehicles
and toward staffing the
Punkin Center station full-
time. UCFD Chief Scott
Stanton said he estimates
about $625,000 of the funds
generated from the merger
would go toward staffing
the station.
14 years, Youngman sold
it to Pam Monger. Terri
Hymas, the current own-
er, purchased the salon in
2011.
For more information,
call 541-567-2911.
Get ’em’ while they last
Four scholarships in the
amount of $2,500 each are
available from the Hermis-
ton Education Foundation.
The awards will be giv-
en to seniors from Hermis-
ton High School who will
attend college or university
academic programs. Im-
portant factors in the eval-
uation of applicants include
academic scholarship, com-
munity service, leadership
and financial need.
The application is due
by Friday, March 24, with
interviews to follow. Ap-
plications are available at
the high school counsel-
ing office or the Herm-
iston Chamber of Com-
merce, 415 S. Highway
395.
For more information,
call George Clough at 541-
314-3182 or write HEF,
P.O. Box 1096, Hermiston,
OR 97838.
A celebration of 100
years in the making comes
to a close Sunday as local
Girl Scout Cookie booths
shut down for the season.
The next few days
are your last chance to
buy the eight varieties
offered, including Thin
Mints, Samoas, Tag-
alongs, the gluten-free
Toffee-tastic and more.
Boxes are $5 each.
To find a local sales site,
visit www.girlscoutsosw.
org/en/cookies/find-cook-
ies.html and enter your zip
code.
Cotterell said McNary
Heights is below the state
average in literacy rates,
with more than 60 percent
of the student population as
English language learners.
One of their goals, he said,
is to align the intervention
process across grade levels,
so kids don’t have to adjust
to a new program each year.
Headings said compared
to other schools with chal-
lenging populations — high
poverty, high ELL popula-
tions — West Park is above
average. But compared to
the entire state, Headings
estimated the school is at or
below the average literacy
rate.
Watkinds said one of the
new programs she is using
this year seems to be hav-
ing some success. The pro-
gram, called Fast ForWord,
uses repetition to help kids
understand new concepts
and words.
“Kids need, on average,
14 to 30-something repeti-
tions to understand a new
concept,” he said. “For kids
who struggle with reading,
that’s not enough. With the
new program, they get hun-
dreds or thousands of repe-
titions of the same sound,”
she said. “We’re seeing
really nice gains with kids
who’ve struggled in the
past.”
IN BRIEF
Longtime beautician
goes out in style
READING:
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
FROM PAGE A1
Buttercreek Salon is
planning to celebrate long-
time beautician Kathy
Youngman’s retirement.
The celebration is Satur-
day from 3-5 p.m. at Butter-
creek Salon, 315 S.W. 11th
St., Hermiston. Everyone is
invited to drop in and con-
gratulate Youngman.
After attending beau-
ty school in Pendleton,
Youngman started working
as a beautician in Herm-
iston in 1973. She bought
Buttercreek Salon in 1983.
After owning the salon for
the highlights is a school-
wide parade in which each
class makes a float based
on a book they like. The
school also has guest read-
ers in classes throughout
the week.
“Each day there’s an
emphasis on reading, and
at lunch, the kids answer
comprehension questions
and can win prizes,” he
said. “It’s so much fun for
the kids.”
Education foundation
offers scholarships
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