Oregon News from the AP

AP-OR–1st NewsMinute,344
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

MADRAS, Ore. (AP) – Firefighters have contained a 1,000-acre
wildfire that had threatened more than 20 homes in central Oregon.
No homes were lost and no one was injured in the Elk Fire although
one outbuilding was reported burned. Oregon state fire marshal’s
spokesman Justin de Ruyter said last night that additional fire
crews mobilized from western Oregon under a declaration by Gov.
John Kitzhaber have been taken off the fire line and will be sent
home. The origin of the wind-driven fire that started Monday has
been traced to a resident’s burn barrel.

MCMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) – The Yamhill County sheriff’s office
says a man who started a 5-acre fire by setting of fireworks will
likely be fined and have to pay firefighting costs. The 37-year-old
from New Mexico was charged with reckless burning for Monday’s fire
north of Sheridan. The sheriff’s office says he was inspecting a
home he recently inherited from his father and found a box of
fireworks. The first one he lit started a grass fire.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon State Police say a driver raced
southbound on Interstate 5 yesterday at speeds in excess of 100
mph, passing cars on both shoulders of the freeway and crashing
into a series of other vehicles. A pursuit that involved state
troopers, Marion County sheriff’s deputies and Salem police ended
south of Salem when the fleeing car left the freeway, crashed into
a guardrail and was pinned there by a trooper’s patrol car. Lt.
Gregg Hastings says troopers arrested 32-year-old Adrien Arin Chase
of Portland for investigation of multiple counts.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Friends of a Silverton High School student
who loved farming and was fatally injured an ATV crash on the
family farm painted a bench in front of the high school in green
and yellow John Deere colors in his memory. Seventeen-year-old
Bradley Jensen was an FFA student. He had been working Saturday on
the farm near Silverton when his four-wheel ATV hit a hole and
threw him over the handlebars. He died Sunday at a hospital.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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