ALSO: BRONZE BIKEMOTORCYCLERENDEZVOUS REVS UP INJOSEPH ARTS AND LEISUREMAGAZINE
SERVING UNION AND WALLOWA COUNTIES SINCE 1896
Fire breaks out on Pumpkin Ridge • Interagency cooperation, quick response times and aerial support contain Monday's blaze to about 8 acres
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By Don lier The Observer
Don lier /The Observer
A firefighter from the Wallowa County Unit of the Oregon Department of Forestry mops up at the Pumpkin Ridge fire Monday. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Forest Service can go on Wallowa-Whitman spring of 2010. The League of Wilderness Defenders An injunction banning all quickly filed suit. This sum noxious weed treatment on mer, a court decision ruled the Wallowa-Whitman Na in theForest Service'sfavor tional Forest was lifted Aug. on two counts but agreed 10, allowing work to continue with the plaintiffs that there for the remainder of the field wasn't enough evidence season. regardingcumulative effects An injunction ordered of herbicide use. June 29 by Ninth Circuit The Forest Service then Court Judge Michael argued that the League did Simon stopped all weed not "explicitly seek a broad treatment on the forest injunction halting all aspects except around administra of the project in its tive sites. complaint." The Forest Service con The forest's 2010 nox tested the decision and a new ious weed treatment plan opinion was issued Friday, was in response to both a allowing weed control to nation-wide executive order continue, including the use of and the Pacific Northwest chemicals. Region's 2005 noxious weed Forest Botanist Gene Yates treatment plan. To align the forest plan with both said weed treatments have resumed.eWe are starting up the national and regional our invasive plant treatment plans, the Wallowa-Whitman again because the injunction undertook an invasive plants is lifted." treatment project. The proj The Wallowa-Whitman ectadopted aplan totreat released its Invasive Plants 22,842 acres of Treatment Project in the SeeWeeds / Page7A By Katy Nesbitt
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Tom Colvin, 63, of Cle Elum,Wash., takes a break from sifting through his belongings Tuesday after his house succumbed to the Taylor Bridge Fire.
• 70 homes charred in Wash.; falling tree kills 20-year-old firefighter in Idaho
worked a fire near Orofino, the U.S. Forest Service said. Along the Nevada-Oregon state line, a vast wildfire grew to about 675 square miles. Over the week end, the blaze prompted evacu CLE ELUM, Wash. iAPl — As ations and forced one firefighter firefighters across the West re to crawl into an emergency fire spondedtoblazes,effortsin W ash shelter. She suffered minor burns ington state were made especially and smoke inhalation, officials diKcult Tuesday as winds pushed sard. fast-moving flames east of a small Near Cle Elum in central town, destroying dozens of houses. Washington, at least 900 people The fire in central Washing were evacuated, and no injuries ton has burned about 70 homes, have been reported. Authorities scorching roughly 40 square miles said that because of wind, heat ofgrassland,timber and sage and dry conditions, the fire danger brush, authorities said. is extreme. State Department of In Idaho, authorities said a Natural Resources Fire Incident firefighter was killed by a fall Commander Rex Reed said late ing tree Sunday. Anne Veseth, a Tuesday that the fire was 10 20-year-old who was in her second percent contained. season as a firefighter, died as she SeeFires / Page7A
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Captain Stan Grove takes the wheel of the La Grande Fire Department's newest addition, a four-wheel drive ambulance powered by a 6.7-liter, turbo diesel engine.
back to spraying weeds
INDEX
Bettina Hansen/SeattleTimes
Pumpkin Ridgeturned a little orange and smoky as a fire brokeouton private property west of Elgin by the water tower on Monday. The almost 8-acre fire was first reported around 11:30 a.m. By 3:30 p.m. Monday, itwas around 80 percent contained, with 100 percent containment achieved Tuesday. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. eWe had a pretty darn good savebecause offastreaction times from everyone," said Ja mie Knight, public information officer for the Oregon Depart ment of Forestry. The fir e burned mainly pine and grass, and fire fighters were able to bring in two bulldozers to create lines to fight the fire. Two helicopters were also called to the fire, as well as an air at tack plane. One of the helicop ters was based out of Pendleton, the other in La Grande. Elgin Rural Fire Depart ment responded to the fire first and called for mutual aid from other departments. Nearly all rural fire departments in Union County were called to the fire, including Imbler, North Powder, Union, Cove, La Grande, as well as the City of La Grande Fire SeePumpkin / Page7A
i.GPilquells
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rumors
adout child adductions iNNIr By Bill Rautenstrauch The Observer
The La Grande Police Depart ment said this week it has been unable to substantiate rumors that have been circulating in the city about an attempted abduc tion of a child or children. Lt. Derick Reddington said itisaccuratethatpolice were calledtwiceovera period of severaldays in regards to some suspicious-appearing activity involving a vehicle and children riding bicycles, but there was no evidence of any sort of abduction or any other type of criminal activity. Reddington said officers on both reports conducted thorough searchesin an attempt to locate a described vehicle without suc cess. He said an investigation was completed by the depart ment. Reddington added that in a separateincident thedepart ment has received a number SeeRumors / Page7A
Bill Rautenstrauch / The Observer
Newly acquired ambulance deemed vast improvement By Bill Rautenstrauch The Observer
Medical and trauma patients served by the La Grande Fire Department aregetting a fi rstclassride thesedays, with the addition of a new ambulance that's built like a truck but drives like a dream. The department recently took own ership of a new Advanced Life Support vehicle that' spowered by a 6.7-liter turbo-diesel engine and equipped with four-wheel-drive. Captain Stan Grove, forone,said it'savastim provement and awelcome addition to the depart ment. "It's nice," Grove said. "I like it
Fu l l forecast on the back of B section
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becauseit's a sm oother ridefor ourpa tients. When they' re hurting, they don' t want to be bounced around." Fire Chief Bruce Weimer said the department has four ambulances, two primary ones staffed with crews around the clock, and two others that can be used when the primary ones are out on calls. Crews are brought in as needed to man the back-up rigs. One of the current ambulances was purchased new in 2005, while two othersdate tobefore 1999.Thechief said the newest ambulance replaces a 1999 Ford E-450 van-type vehicle the department inherited when the SeeALS / Page 2A
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Issue 142 3 sections, 34 pages La Grande, Oregon
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