NEWS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2021
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Echo farmer helps fi ght Elbow Creek Fire
By BRYCE DOLE
STAFF WRITER
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Echo farmer Lloyd Piercy poses for a portrait with his
Caterpillar D6N Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Stanfi eld. Piercy
recently spent several weeks using his bulldozer to help cut
fi relines and roads at the Elbow Creek Fire near Troy.
Lloyd Piercy was looking
for a bit of adventure.
Piercy, who turns 70 on
Thursday, Aug. 12, recently
returned from helping fi ght
the Elbow Creek Fire with a
team of more than 400 fi re-
fi ghters in the Blue Moun-
tains near Troy. A self-de-
scribed adrenaline junky, he
drove a bulldozer and cleared
roads and cut fi re breaks for
fi re crews.
But it had been more than
two decades since he worked
for a fi re department near
Moses Lake, Washington.
“It was kind of fun,” said
Piercy, a longtime Echo res-
ident and farmer who owns
wineries outside of the town.
The fi re burned through
approximately 22,960 acres in
Oregon’s Grande Ronde River
Valley, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry,
which on Aug. 2 reported
the burn was 95% contained.
The forestry department also
reported it’s Type 1 Incident
Management Team 3 handed
management of the fi re to a
smaller Type 3 organization
on Aug. 3.
After heading up to the
town of Maxville, in Wallowa
County, to help a friend pro-
tect his cows from the wild-
fi res that had begun to sweep
through the nearby mountains
weeks ago, Piercy got a call
from fi refi ghters asking if he
could bring his bulldozer to
help them in the fi ght.
For more than a week,
he said he was positioned at
the heart of the fi re, where
the embers hopped over the
roads and smoke trails ran up
the hills among the steep can-
yons. But when he arrived, he
realized most bulldozers were
attached with more safety
equipment than his. He felt
somewhat out of his league,
he said, but he added there
were plenty of men around his
age driving tractors.
“It’s a job for loggers,”
Piercy said, “not farmers.”
One night, he got the
opportunity to push a trail
with his dozer through what
he described as a hotspot.
“It was exciting,” he said.
“I felt protected because of
everyone around me, but I
also know there’s a level of
protection they can’t off er you
in a fi re. A lot of smoke.”
Piercy said he was fasci-
nated by the way fi refi ghters
used science, weather patterns
and other strategies to curb the
spread of the blaze.
He also said he was pleased
with the effi ciency of support-
ers, noting the large meals his
team received throughout the
day, which he estimated to be
thousands of calories daily.
Each morning they received
fresh coff ee, hash browns,
eggs, sausage, cold cereal,
milk and juice. During the
day, they ate sandwiches,
vegetables, apples, canned
tuna, bags of nuts and chips.
Every night they received a
salad and a warm meal.
“It’s logistically amazing,”
he said.
Restaurants in towns up to
two hours away over windy
gravel roads fixed meals
for the fi refi ghters. Schools
received funds for allowing
fi refi ghters to camp in their
yards. Everybody in town
who wanted to work and help
out could get a job, he said.
They were serious about sav-
ing their forests.
“It’s an industry,” he said.
“It energizes those towns.”
Although he enjoyed the
experience, Piercy said he
doubts he’ll ever fi ght a fi re
like the Elbow Creek Fire
again.
“I’ve realized,” he said,
“this is probably a young
man’s work.”
Beyond cars, Hermiston dealership cares about people
By TAMMY MALGESINI
COMMUNITY EDITOR
Rogers Toyota of Herm-
iston recently made a $2,000
donation to help area foster
families.
The money was presented
July 23 to Marvin Hamilton,
a recruitment and retention
champion for District 9 and
12 (which includes Uma-
tilla and Morrow counties)
of the Department of Human
Services Child Welfare pro-
gram. The donation, Hamil-
ton said, will go to the fos-
ter parent and child welfare
fund. It will be used for the
retention of resource homes,
event funding and other
needs of foster families.
“These funds is what dis-
trict 12 ODHS offi ce relies
on when it comes to pur-
chases of items that are not
part of state approved fund-
ing but helps the retention
and welfare of resource fam-
ilies,” he said.
For example, Hamilton
said every year there is an
Umatilla and Morrow county
resource parent appreciation
dinner. The special gather-
ing is held to recognize the
resource families. He said
the event expenses add up
with renting the hall, cater-
ing and entertainment.
“The funds to have such a
dinner is a result of commu-
nity donations and fundrais-
ing within the department,”
Hamilton said.
Rogers Toyota is no
stranger to helping the chil-
dren of Umatilla and Mor-
row counties, Hamilton
said. In addition to dona-
tions, they have hosted past
fundraisers.
In early April, Hamilton
approached Glenn Silaski,
the dealership’s general
manager, about a donation to
the child welfare program to
provide community support
for foster children and fam-
ilies in the area. Hamilton
said Silaski saw an oppor-
tunity to do more than just a
simple donation.
Being a part of the com-
munity and giving back is
important to Rogers Toyota.
Marvin Hamilton/Contributed Photo
Rogers Toyota of Hermiston recently made a donation to area foster families through the
Department of Human Services Child Welfare program. Pictured, from left, are Erica Baker, TJ
Valdez, Jose Camarena, Luis Camarena, Marvin Hamilton, Glenn Silaski, Raymond Aguilar, A.J.
Garcia, Stevan Coon and Irydiana Zapata.
A family-owned company
that’s celebrating its 50th
anniversary this year, Silaski
said the reason they’ve been
around that long is because
they stay connected to
the community.
“There’s so many vulner-
able kids out there,” Silaski
said. “Finding little ways to
make their lives a little more
normal has traction with us
and our customers.”
Silaski recently rallied
his professional sales team
and with every car that
was sold during the month-
long campaign, a percent-
age was earmarked for the
child welfare program. The
sales staff energetically sold
vehicles but with the linger-
ing impacts of COVID-19,
Silaski said there weren’t as
many people interested in
coming out to buy a car.
Pressing toward their
goal to help area foster fami-
lies, the Rogers Toyota sales
team raised $1,000. Silaski
and his crew didn’t stop
there, they asked their cor-
porate offi ce to match what
they had raised to double
the amount donated, which
brought the total to $2,000.
“We plan on making it
bigger and better next year,
if we don’t do something in
between,” he said. “But we
will for sure be giving more
in the future.”
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