By Shelby Case
Now that a fire has consumed a mobile home on property in the Juniper Acres Subdivision, a larger issue some county residents in that area is forming a fire district.
Rick Wells, the chairman of the Juniper Acres Task Force, said, "our issue from the county perspective is safety."
He said many roads in the development are impassable, making it extremely difficult for emergency vehicles to respond to crises.
The Crook County Sheriff's Office has concluded that because the mobile home was in the subdivision and therefore not covered by any fire district, no fire personnel responded on Wednesday.
At about 11:27 a.m., the sheriff's office responded "to a reported residential fire at a residence located south of Prineville in the Juniper Acres Subdivision on Oak Lane," according to Crook County Undersheriff Jim Hensley.
"When deputies arrived, they found a single-wide mobile home was a total loss," Hensley wrote. "The property owner, Aaron Wuthrich, and several neighbors were extinguishing spot fires in the surrounding juniper trees and sagebrush. The fires were extinguished in about one hour."
Hensley explained that because the property does not receive fire protection from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or from a rural fire district, about six neighbors cooperated to put the blaze out with buckets and hoses.
The mobile home and all contents were destroyed.
There's a question of coverage for property owners and fire protection.
"That's up to the residents up there, because they don't pay any taxes to the fire district," Hensley emphasized. "People who are in the district pay taxes to the fire district."
BLM personnel handle range fires. In the case of the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center, they dispatch emergency personnel only for state- and federal-protected lands, such as for a range fire.
"They do not respond to structure fires," Hensley said.
"If it's state lands or if it's a state range, then it falls under the state's jurisdiction, which is up to the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center's boundaries," Hensley said.
The undersheriff said the CCSO responds to any fires in the county and assesses each situation to see if any lives or property are in danger.
"We will do whatever we can to help the public," Hensley emphasized.
Wells said the 5,200-acre area has about 520 total lots but he said "there's some of them divided in two."
"It's off the grid," Wells said in terms of roads and services.
Wells and others have several key goals. One is to form a road district for the development. They also want to create a fire district and one for water.
Juniper Acres has existed since 1962, long before the Oregon land use laws were enacted in the early 1970s.
"It's not actually a subdivision. It's called a platted subdivision by the State of Oregon," said Wells, who also serves on the Crook County Planning Commission.
"There is no water at Juniper Acres, but there is water available at the Alfalfa store, which is just a short distance away," Wells added.
He is optimistic that fire, road and water districts can be formed soon.
"I'm hopeful that we'll have the paperwork done within a week to 10 days," the task force chairman said. A fellow resident, Dave Jeffers, has been drafting a document which Wells is going to provide to Crook County Court Judge Scott Cooper and County Counsel Dave Gordon. After that is reviewed, then another public meeting will be held.
Hensley said that in his 25 years in law enforcement in Crook County, he has seen times when Crook County Fire and Rescue District personnel responded to a fire.
"If it was in the fire district or not, they came," the undersheriff said.
For example, in the late 1980s a fire engulfed a mobile home in the Prineville Lake Acres II subdivision. Hensley called dispatch and crews from the fire department rushed out.
"Fortunately, no one was in that home," he said.
Keith Eager, who has served on the Crook County Fire and Rescue District board for seven years, emphasized in his remarks that he is simply one board member and does not speak for the board.
"My understanding is that we are obligated to respond to stuff that's within our fire district," Eager said. "We're not obligated to respond out of the fire district, but often times we do. There's no policy that I know of that says we won't. But Paulina has no fire district. Are we going to respond out there? So where is it realistic to respond to outside of our fire district? The fire chief makes that decision, depending on equipment and personnel available."
Dennis Bauldree, who is the acting chairman of the fire district board, commented on the potential of coverage for the Juniper Acres subdivision.
"As a board we make policy and as a board we could make a policy on that issue, and not just one board member," Bauldree said. He said the fire district personnel handle operational portions of the district "and we do the policy part."
Hensley said he and the state fire marshal visited the mobile home property.
Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, the undersheriff said, "it appears the fire started in the middle of the mobile home in the area where there was a propane heater and from all indications the fire started in that area." |
