This is KGW
news at 11. I would like
to see the city come and actually
test our soil. Test our air in
each specific neighborhood.
Debris from a four alarm fire that
destroyed an abandoned Kmart building
in Northeast Portland earlier this
week rained down on families living
in the Parkrose neighborhood,
and the state says small amounts of toxic
material was found in some of that debris.
Thank you for joining us at 11.
I'm Blair Best.
Neighbors say they weren't made
aware of the potential contamination
until two days after the fire,
and they aired their frustrations at
a community meeting this afternoon.
Ashley Grahams was there.
Health officials met residents at
the Parkrose School District office
sharing information about asbestos
contamination in the Parkrose neighborhood.
But afterwards,
neighbors told me they had more
questions than answers.
Every seat in the room was filled
and many more joined online.
I guess for me it just feels like it
took too long for you all to let us
know what we were supposed to be doing,
waiting for guidance as potentially
toxic debris covers their
neighborhood after the Kmart fire.
Upon that day that the building
had caught on fire, there's large
chunks of debris all on the ground.
The Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality says asbestos was found
in some of the ashy debris,
specifically after.
Testing a sample at Lewitt View Park.
But after testing more samples,
the toxin is not as
widespread as they thought.
If there's not nearly as much
asbestos as we were had feared,
when we get that first sample
came back from the City Park and
that's that is very good news. But
the state and the county are still
running tests and the EPA is trying to
map out how far the debris traveled.
EPA has hired a contractor.
That is conducting that assessment
to identify how far away from the
burned building debris has been found.
After more than two hours of conversation,
neighbors say they still have questions.
There was no information on what other
particles or what other contaminants
we may have been exposed to. If
we could have been at least provided
with some type of map on telling us,
hey, this is the radius of what
we think the contaminants are.
Some type of information
that would actually help us.
Despite the unknowns, the state says
it's safe to clean up on your own.
They suggest watering down the debris
with a spray bottle before bagging it up.
Neighbors were handed plastic gloves,
trash bags and masks on the way out.
The city's response was slow.
Here we are five days later
and I'm getting a trash bag and
some gloves and saying, hey,
just wet it down, you're fine. The
state says they're still
trying to find answers.
We're not done identifying who's
going to do what, so I want to take
these questions back to our emergency
response folks for answering.
As of Sunday night, several schools in
the area have already been cleaned up,
including Russell Prescott,
not Parkrose Middle School and high School.
I'm Ashley Grahams, KGW News.
Well, we're tracking five
major wildfires tonight,
burning from Southern Oregon to the Gorge.
The latest started just a few
hours ago in Clotsop County,
all while hot and dry weather continues
to take over the Pacific Northwest.
Smoke filled skies cover much of Oregon,
a sign that wildfire season is
well underway. It's upsetting, but
I'm trying not to like, let the fear
dictate me. Around 4:30 Sunday evening,
a brush fire started in
clots up county along Hwy.
30 near milepost 73,
impacting the surrounding air quality
and spreading more than 10 acres.
About four hours South in Lane County,
fire crews battle the Bedrock Fire.
It started burning Saturday afternoon
in the Willamette National Forest.
We had resources out all night
working the fire and have resources
out continuing today. Officials
say it spread to 500 acres and
they're expecting it to grow as they
close nearby campgrounds. It's not
that surprising. Like fire season,
we had a really big fire
last year. Up in Oak Ridge.
Heading even farther S to Curry
County is where the state's
largest wildfire continues to burn.
It's called the Flat Fire,
and it's reached just over 20,000 acres
between Gold Beach and Grants Pass.
More than 1000 people are fighting
it from the ground and air.
13 injuries have been reported,
Fortunately, though, none are serious.
Officials believe this one was human caused.
Also in Southern Oregon,
crews fight the Golden Fire.
It's burning east of Klamath
Falls in north of Bonanza.
It's spread more than 2000
acres since Saturday,
structures have been threatened and Level
3 evacuation orders went into effect,
as well as a red flag warning due to the
strong gusty winds and low humidity.
The governor even called for
more resources to fight this one,
and towards the other end of
the state is the Newell Rd.
fire burning on the Washington
side of the Gorge.
This fire spread more than 51,000 acres,
scorching the grasslands of
eastern Clickattack County.
It started Friday afternoon and
the high winds there are making
it difficult for firefighters.
Several structures have been destroyed
and Level 3 evacuations went into effect.
All this to say.
It's turning out to be an extremely
active wildfire season in Oregon.
Well, it has already been a long summer
for crews working on those wildfires.
Meteorologist Joe Ranieri is here
with some good news for them. Joe.
Hey there, Blair, I great Pete's talking
about all the different wildfires burning
throughout across the Pacific Northwest.
And yeah, we haven't seen a
much in terms of rainfall.
Trace amounts is all we've
seen so far this month.
And in terms of rainfall
for the entire summer,
it's basically zero maybe trace amounts here.
In there and that is about it.
Heading into tomorrow, though,
that will be changing as we put
in the rain forecast into motion.
We're going to be looking at those showers
moving onshore along the Oregon coast.
Pretty much.
First thing tomorrow morning,
right around at sunrise, we'll start to
see some light showers move through.
When does arrive here in the metro area?
I'd say by late morning,
early part of the afternoon.
I'm expecting between 10:00 and
1:00 o'clock tomorrow afternoon,
10:00 AM and 1:00 o'clock Monday afternoon.
That's the window where we'll be seeing
some of those showers push on through.
Now this is a weak system.
We're not going to be seeing a day after
day of rain over the next few days or so,
but we will be seeing some
cool and cloudier conditions.
So that will definitely help crews who are
battling those wildfires across the state.
Meanwhile the.
Of course there could be some
severe weather popping up along
the Washington coast with the
chance for some thunderstorms.
We're going to be seeing any
threat of thunderstorms tomorrow,
but by Tuesday morning we'd be
seeing some pockets of sprinkles
and a little bit of some drizzle.
But Tuesday afternoon and beyond
we'll start to see another round of
sunny and warm conditions, not hot.
I don't have anything above 8 and five
pretty much for the seven day forecast,
which we'll talk about a
little bit later in the show,
but I want to bring in the air quality maps.
You can kind of see we're going to be
looking at the green that's all good
throughout the West side of the state.
Through parts of Bend and Redmond,
the the orange and red color,
that is the unhealthy category.
Again,
you're going to be seeing sunny and
hazy conditions through that side
of the state heading into tomorrow.
As that wind kind of shifts a little bit,
some of the wildfire smoke that's
burning in that section of the state.
I'll talk more about that in a few minutes.
All right, Joe, thanks so much.
And as Joe mentioned,
Portland is once again dealing
with sweltering heat this summer.
Counties in the metro area
are looking into which
neighborhoods are most vulnerable.
Thomas Schultz explains how this
information will help people
prepare for extreme heat. Around
100 volunteers drove around the
Portland metro area this weekend,
collecting heat and humidity data.
County officials say that will help
determine where they need more
cooling shelters in shady areas.
With sensors in place,
volunteers shut their car
door and hit the road.
Doing their part to find out
how to alleviate rising
temperatures in Portland. When
we have had really hot days, we do see
an increase in heat related illness.
Volunteers are driving these
sensors around Washington,
Multnomah and Clackamas County.
This is the first time the counties
have worked together to map out
heat zones across the city.
They have us going to a mobile home Pkwy,
Locating Portland's heat islands.
Those are neighborhoods hotter
than surrounding communities.
One neighborhood can be up to 18
degrees hotter than another, yeah.
Kathleen Johnson is a public health
coordinator in Washington County.
So here's the sensor.
She says hotter neighborhoods may
have fewer shady areas and more heat
absorbent surfaces like sidewalks.
The hotter the neighborhood,
the more severe extreme heat can be.
We're
really trying to center the health
aspect of it and really preserve
human life and prevent illness,
she says. In 2021, nearly 100 people
died in the metro area during a.
Dope temperatures reached a record
high 116 degrees in late June.
Now, better information will help counties
determine where to add cooling shelters
in trees to create shadier areas. We
need more trees. We need to
maybe come up with better
ways to pave our Rd.
that doesn't reflect as much heat.
The data will be available
by the end of the year.
It will also be used to accurately
update Multnomah County's
Heat Vulnerability Index.
Thomas Schultz, KGW.
New Tonight Portland fire has put
out a fire that started in a porta
potty at Cherry Park Elementary
School in Southeast Portland and
it threatened the main building.
That fire was reported around 8:15 tonight
at the school off SE Harrison and 140th.
Firefighters said it had spread
into the school, but they were
able to put it out quickly.
No word yet on how it started
in the porta potty.
Well, a Newburgh family is
without a home tonight after a
fire damaged their house today.
It was reported a little after three on
Madrona Drive on the city's east side.
The worst of the fire was
on the backside of the home.
Tualatin Valley fire says everyone
was able to get out safely,
but the fire moved up into
the eaves and attic space.
No word yet on the cause.
Okay, take a look at this.
A crash this morning in North Portland
ended up with one car on top of another car.
This happened around 8:45 this
morning at MLK in Northeast Lombard.
A small SUV was hit by one car and came to
rest on its side on top of a third car.
Firefighters used a system of jacks to
stabilize the SUV and cut through the
windshields with a saw to get the driver out.
They were not injured though,
and neither were the two people
in the bottom car.
Wow.
Well,
now to an update on yesterday's deadly
shooting at Legacy Good Samaritan
Medical Center in Northwest Portland.
One hospital security guard
died in the shooting today.
Legacy Health said the Good
Samaritan Family Birth Center will
remain closed until further notice,
but the ER is open.
Legacy officials also said that a
second employee was injured in the
shooting after being hit by shrapnel.
That employee was treated and released.
After an hours long manhunt yesterday,
police found the gunman outside a
bank in Gresham that led to a standoff
and police shot and killed him.
The identity of the gunman or his
motive have not been released.