Fire destroys house to start busy Jamboree Sunday for SHFAD

Scott Swanson

Sunday was a busy day for Sweet Home firefighters.

Already dealing with an influx of 14,000-some Jamboree fans on the high school and Sankey Park grounds, they started their morning with a house fire in the 3500 block of Juniper Street.

According the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, personnel responding at 9:21 a.m. to a report of the blaze found the structure “well involved” when they arrived.

The fire moved into the residence from an attached shop and carport, according to a district statement.

Occupants of the house were two adults and a child. Names were unavailable.

The mobile home-type structure was a total loss, but no one was injured and 40 percent of the home’s contents were saved, according to SHFAD.

The Red Cross responded with temporary housing and resources to meet other basic needs, it said.

Two engines and 15 firefighters responded, along with two lighter units and a Lebanon fire engine on a mutual aid assist.

Chief Dave Barringer said an investigation indicated that the fire originated where a freezer was jammed up against an outlet in the shop.

“That’s our best guess as to the point of origin,” he said. “Nothing was plugged in incorrectly. It didn’t look like bad wiring.

“The freezer looked like it was pushed up against the plug-in, causing some resistance in the wire.”

He recommended that people make sure heavy appliances are not pressing directly on plugs in outlets and that outlets have cover plates and are not loose – all of which can cause resistance, which can create heat.

“From a safety standpoint, if a plug-in is to the side, it’s better. If it’s kinked or turned, resistance is running through the wire.

“That’s all an increased fire risk for safety,” he said, noting that a similar danger is light cords that are crushed underneath the legs of heavy furniture.

Two other recent house fires, on July 28 on Pleasant Valley Road and on July 31 on Liberty Road were preventable as well, he said.

The Pleasant Valley fire was caused by a barbecue left too close to a house, in which a grease fire ignited after the unit was shut off.

He said the resident of the home burned in the Liberty fire had disposed of some smoker chips in what the resident thought was dirt in a plastic barrel planter.

“It was actually a drier mossy-type flammable substance in that dirt,” Barringer said. “What we believe happened was they put the chips in the night before, innocently thinking it was dirt. The heat and wind over top of it kicked it off, burning the plastic barrel, which was next to fiberglass sheathing on the house.”

SHFAD officials responded to 20 calls, including eight fire investigation calls on Sunday, as well as a grease fire that flared up in the Sweet Home Rotary Club burger cart on the Oregon Jamboree grounds midway through Kenny Rogers’ performance Sunday evening.

Firefighters arrived within seconds, from their own booth about 75 yards away, to extinguish the blaze before it could do any structural damage, Barringer said.

He said he responded personally to a call at 2414 Harding St. at 4:35 p.m. Sunday, where a resident had left a burn barrel in progress.

“Nobody was home and the burn barrel was on fire next to the house, next to a cedar fence,” he said. “I took their hose and put it out.”

Under the stringent fire rules imposed last week, no open fires are allowed within Sweet Home city limits with one exception: cooking fires within approved rings, on a green lawn and a minimum of 30 feet away from a structure, with a hose readily available.

For more information, contact SHFAD at (541) 367-5882.

Outside city limits, fires are only allowed within approved rings in campgrounds.

“Check with the camp host,” Barringer advised.

Mowing of lawns and use of other power equipment is also banned from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

SHFAD and Linn County Sheriff’s deputies also responded to two rollover accidents Sunday.

At 2:22 p.m., a 17-year-old driver rolled a 1999 Saturn at 44040 Whiskey Butte Road, said Sheriff’s Lt. Michelle Duncan.

Neither the driver nor a 17-year-old passenger, whose names were not available, were transported to the hospital, she said.

At 9 p.m. Sunday an “inexperienced driver” minor driver from the Scio area got the tires of her 1997 Jeep “off the gravel” at 46047 Quartzville Drive, rolling it over onto its top, Sheriff’s Lt. Michelle Duncan said. She did not disclose the names of the three occupants, two of whom were taken to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital with “minor injuries.”

Barringer said the call volume for SHFAD has been high since July 31.

Normally, the summer rate average for daily calls tends to hover around 12, but since the beginning of the month, the average has been more like 18 or 19, he said.

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