19 November 2013
Crash Landing in the Dunes
Coos County Sheriff’s Deputies say the pilot of a small plane that crash-landed on the Oregon Dunes south of Winchester Bay Sunday afternoon was not injured, but his 73-year old passenger was airlifted to a hospital in Eugene.
53-year old Ron Schick of North Bend had to put the plane down after losing power. He told deputies he couldn’t reach the flat.
Rich Smith of Lakeside was airlifted to River Bend in Springfield where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
According to the World Newspaper, Federal Aviation Administration records show the single engine two-seater was a home-built craft certified as airworthy in 1989. The owner is listed as Raymond Hebert of Florence.
Ocean Boulevard Opens
A ‘largely volunteer effort” succeeded in reopening a stretch of roadway in Dunes City this week. It had been closed since August.
Dunes City Councilor Maury Sanders said brush on one side of Ocean Boulevard had been allowed to become heavily overgrown, forcing traffic dangerously close to a steep bank next to Siltcoos Outlet.
Volunteers cleared the brush and placed rock on the slope to prevent slippage of the roadway.
A row of concrete barricades was put in place along the river bank to finish the project.
Ocean Boulevard is the main access route to several homes.
City Administrator Fred Hilden said initial cost estimates to rebuild the roadway were in excess of $220-thousand. The existing project was completed at a cost of less than $2-thousand.
Warm up to heating
Cooler temperatures in the forecast mean more people will be cranking up the heat in the next few days. Unfortunately, that also means they may be cranking up the danger.
Oregon State Fire Marshall Mark Wallace urges everyone to make sure their heating appliances are in good working order. “Have your woodstoves, fireplaces and chimneys cleaned and inspected by a qualified specialist” he says, before using them.
The use of portable space heaters increases this time of year and, he adds, they pose a high risk.
Wallace says woodstove and fireplace related fires are more common but the most deadly home heating fires result from the misuse of portable electric heaters.
He cited recent figures showing that six of the nine home heating related fire fatalities since 2008 were caused by portable heaters.
