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.
