I mean, you can taste it Right .
It's like we're it's like we'ren
the middle of a campfire, you k,
and you, the smoke is falling around.
You get in your mouth.
And he's not the only one feeling that way.
You can see it and certainly smell it.
A big fire at a paper mill in Longview
has been burning for nearly 24 hours,
and it's going to be a while
before it's entirely out.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm Laurel Porter. And
I'm David Molko. The fire at the
Nippon Dyno Wave packaging plan along
with Wildfire Smoke out of Soutn
Oregon and another local blaze.
I made it a really tough day wht
comes to air quality all over our area.
So let's begin with Thomas Schuz
in Longview with an update on
the progress there. Thomas. Yea,
David and Laurel.
A helicopter has been dumping
buckets of water onto this fire
throughout the day, hours at a ,
dissipating much of those flamed
smoke we've seen over the past 23 hours.
But despite the progress,
firefighters know that it's going to be
a long process to extinguish this fire.
Wednesday morning, a helicopter arrived
to help extinguish a fire that has been
roaring since 6:30 Tuesday even.
Around 45 firefighters
work throughout the night,
successfully containing the fire to a
pile of wood chips Wednesday morning,
but now they're tasked with pulg
a port the pile as soon as poss.
It's challenging and it's hazar,
and that's why we're taking our time and
and making sure that we have ale
pieces of place before we really start
getting in there and pulling it apart.
Longview Fire Marshal John Dunay
says that visibility has been an
issue in fighting this fire at e
property most commonly known as
the warehouse or paper company.
Buildings are damaged,
but they don't know how many or
the damage caused by the fire.
Spotters have also been assigneo
watch the chip pile to ensure the fire
doesn't spread in windy conditi.
One resident we spoke with says smoke
was pervasive at his home Tuesday night.
It's in your mouth,
you taste it, you breathe it,
and now it's moving South.
The smokes affected my daughter
20 miles away.
An air pollution advisory has bn
released in Clark and Cowlitz County,
Portland and Vancouver.
Air was in an unhealthy category
earlier Wednesday,
but it has gotten better and Multnomah
County issued a burn ban Win Ste
because of the poor air quality.
If you need inhaler stuff like ,
you probably should be careful.
Other residents aren't as concerned about
the air quality but about neighbors jobs.
It is going to affect the
people who work over.
It's like the paper mills,
you know.
Company officials say parts of
the plan are still operational
despite the fire ongoing.
Now, there haven't been any any injuries,
but firefighters say they don't
yet know exactly when to expect
this fire to be completely out.
You can hear the helicopter acty
dropping the water behind us right now.
They don't know you at yet when
it will be extinguished.
All roads that were affected bye
blaze are now back in operation.
David Laurel
sounds like a lot of work still to be
done and a lot of progress already made.
Thank you, Thomas.
You may have noticed haze around
Portland due to smoke from
various fires and wildfires.
Multnomah County now has a mandatory wood
burning restriction in place as a result.
There's also an air pollution advisory.
Officials say vulnerable peoplee
children and those with serious health
conditions should limit time outside today.
The wood burning restriction wil
be lifted when conditions impro.
That Longview industrial blaze s
not the only fire that contribud
to smoke and haze in the air.
In Northeast Portland,
a fire gutted an old Kmart
building at 122nd and Sandy.
It sparked around 6:30 this mor.
Take a look at this.
But the plume of smoke then
visible for miles.
Some even caught a glimpse
of it from the air.
Portland Fire and Rescue says they did a
reverse 911 call to 50,000 phone numbers
telling people to shelter in pl.
And to close windows because
the smoke was so bad,
firefighters will eventually
able to put that out.
No word there on the cause,
but this particular building haa
bit of a history, you might say.
Since the Kmart closed,
squatters have often broken in.
And while the company that is nw
redeveloping the property wantso
turn it into a freight warehous,
neighbors say no way.
Those kids will just be breathig
diesel fumes all day long,
and then they'll come to Parker
schools and play on the sports
fields and be breathing diesel
fumes all day long.
Prologis, the company that told
KDW they still plan to build
that freight warehouse.
As for claims from neighbors ate
warehouse would impact air qual,
Prologis says they are committed
to being a good partner in the
community and plan to bring grer
logistics infrastructure to Portland.
We are getting our first look at
the arrest of the man authoritis
say has ties to four women.
Whose bodies were found across
our region in recent months.
The arrests happened in
broad daylight in Milwaukee.
Let's bring in Mike Benner who's been
following this story for us for weeks now.
And Mike, it is important to noe
this man has not been charged wh
any crimes connected to the dea.
Yeah, that's right, Laurel.
The Willamette Week identifies.
The man is Jesse Calhoun and he
was arrested back on June 6th on
charges unrelated to the four deaths.
Today we got our hands on
video of Calhoun's arrest.
It all started.
At a gas station on Southeast
McLaughlin in Milwaukee,
approximately a dozen undercover deputies
and unmarked cars and with guns drawn,
moved in on Calhoun and his
girlfriend as they were fueling.
We're told law enforcement firet
least one rubber bullet at Calh,
who managed to get away.
He ran across the street and
jumped into the Willamette Rive.
Calhoun eventually got tired
and came back to shore.
Where he was taken into custody.
A man who witnessed Calhoun's at
agreed to speak to us as long as we did
not show his face or share his .
Here's what he had to say.
I was
like, I wonder what this guy di.
It seems whatever he did was ve,
very important. Or that required that
much law enforcement effort. I should say
so. It's unclear exactly what Calhoun did,
but according to the Multnomah
County District Attorney's Offi,
Calhoun had ties to four women e
bodies have been found in recent months.
Two of those women are identifid
as Bridget Webster and Ashley R.
In a recent interview with a YouTube,
Calhoun's current girlfriend
said he had been in an on again,
off again relationship with Real and he would
give drugs to Webster in exchange for sex.
The girlfriend did not know how Calhoun
was connected to the other two victims.
Calhoun is currently being held
in the Snake River Correctional
Institution in Eastern Oregon.
His girlfriend has spoken to him in prison.
She mentioned in that interview on YouTube
that Calhoun did not really say anything
about the deaths of the four wo,
only that he was roughed up durg
his arrest on those unrelated charges.
David. Thank you, Mike.
Appreciate the update there.
You know,
this is a complicated story and we continue
to learn new details here every.
Now the first of the four women
was found dead back in February,
though it was only this week tht
we learned about the potential
link among those four.
Investigative reporter Evan Watson has a
timeline of how it's all unfolded so far.
At
this time, no charges have been
filed in connection with the des
of four women earlier this year.
But investigators say they have
at least one person of interest,
and Jesse Calhoun is in custody.
Here's the background
of what we know now.
In June of 2021, Jesse Calhoun,
who was serving time for burgla,
car theft, and assaulting an officer,
had his sentence commuted by
then Oregon Governor Kate Brown.
Brown was giving early release to inmates
who helped fight wildfires in 2.
In July of 2021,
Calhoun was released from custo.
She was scheduled to get
out in the summer of 2022.
Now to this year.
Police found Kristen Smith
dead in Portland in February.
She had been reported missing by her family.
In December.
Charity Perry was found dead in
east Multnomah County on April .
Bridget Webster was found dead in Polk
County about a week later on April 30th.
Then a week after that Ashley Rl
was found dead in Clackamas Cou.
On June 4th,
the Portland Police Bureau reled
a statement saying it had no
reason to believe the deaths
of these women were connected.
At that point,
PPB said it was in contact with
other law enforcement agencies o
consider possible connections.
Just two days later, on June 6t,
Clackamas County deputies arrested Jesse
Calhoun in Milwaukee for parole violations.
On June 30th,
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike
Schmidt sent a letter to Governor Tina Kotek.
Asking her to revoke Calhoun's commutation,
which would make him serve the
rest of his prior sentence,
Kotek revoked Calhoun's
commutation on July 3rd.
Then, this week,
investigators revealed they have found
links between the deaths of Smi,
Perry,
Webster and Real.
They said there is no active dar
to the community at this time.
Willamette Week published the
first story identifying Calhoun
as the potential serial killer.
There are still many unknowns h.
The D A's office hasn't explaind
what exactly connects the death,
plus we still don't have
charges in these cases.
But Calhoun is in custody at a e
prison with his earliest release date
currently listed as June 9th oft
year. So many questions Evan Watson there.
If you've missed any coverage of
these investigations, you can ch
up on the cases and how this has
all developed anytime on kgw.co.
And of course, we will keep you updated.
On the Oregon coast, we recentld
issues with Cougars after one ws
spotted on the iconic Haystack ,
forcing a temporary closure
of Cannon Beach on Sunday.
Well, Washington is also seeing
problems with the big cats.
A cougar attacked a dog
by Lake Cushman today.
That's just West of Seattle.
Wildlife officials are
now hunting for the cat.
A team of hounds is also
helping look for the cougar.
Officials say if it's found,
it will likely be killed.
A woman who witnessed the attack
says a man was walking his dog
on a leash when it happened.
She says the cougar came out ofe
woods and immediately grabbed the dog.
She used an air horn to try to scare it away.
He had a hold of the dog's leasd
when the cougar grabbed the dog,
it pulled him to the ground.
So he was laying on the ground.
So that was kind of my other fe.
If the cougar let go with the dog, he'd
go after the next lowest thing, which was.
Yeah, it was pretty scary actua.
The dog is OK if you encounter a cougar.
Safety tips include don't run, make noise,
and appear large if attacked, fight back,
and bear spray can also help deter them.