Labor Day fires trial: PacifiCorp pushes blame from power lines to Opal Creek fire
In the darkness of Labor Day night 2020, Mill City fire chief Leland Ohrt looked into the sky and saw fire balls spreading overhead and igniting grass and brush fires in the Santiam Canyon.
The fireballs, he told a jury in Portland last week, came from a wildfire that started 12 miles away in the Opal Creek Wilderness — the Beachie Creek Fire — that had exploded and spread rapidly on historic winds, raining embers into the canyon.
The fires did not, he emphasized, come from downed power lines.
“Every fire that we had in the Mill City area, we came to the conclusion it all came from the Beachie Creek Fire,” said Ohrt, a witness for PacifiCorp during the ongoing trial for the class action lawsuit between victims of the 2020 Labor Day fires and the utility.
Now set to enter its sixth week at Multnomah County Courthouse, the historic trial has entered the phase where PacifiCorp is calling witnesses and experts to defend itself after lawyers for plaintiffs rested their case. The utility is trying to avoid paying millions or maybe billions in damages after its power lines were blamed for igniting wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes in the Santiam Canyon, Lincoln City area and southern Oregon.
Ohrt is a key witness for PacifiCorp. The now retired fire chief was one of the few people who stayed all night in the Santiam Canyon on Labor Day, as he led a group of volunteer firefighters widely credited with saving large parts of Mill City.
And Ohrt has maintained, in stories reported in the Statesman Journal and his testimony, that it was the original Beachie Creek Fire, rather than power lines, that did the lion’s share of damage.
Other witnesses and 911 calls played during the trial have detailed fires sparked by power lines, both in the Santiam Canyon and elsewhere.
By emphasizing the Beachie Creek Fire, PacifiCorp appears to be hoping it can limit some liability. As many as half of the 2,500 members of the class action lawsuit are from the Santiam Canyon.
PacifiCorp asks judge to rule for defense in Santiam Canyon
PacifiCorp lawyers last week made a motion for a “directed verdict” that would essentially allow the judge to rule in favor of the defense in the Santiam Canyon portion of the case.
It would separate a Santiam Canyon decision from the other wildfires being considered, which include the Echo Mountain, 242 and South Obenchain Fire.
“Put simply, plaintiffs’ counsel drew an arbitrary boundary purporting to define the Santiam Canyon class members and to separate them from the owners of properties affected solely by the Beachie Creek Fire,” defense lawyers for PacifiCorp wrote. “But not a single witness, and not a shred of evidence, has been introduced to justify the location of that boundary. In order for plaintiffs to prevail on their class claims, they must provide evidence showing that PacifiCorp is liable to the entire class — which means that plaintiffs must have evidence that PacifiCorp caused property damage to everyone in the class area.”
The judge will likely rule on whether to issue a direct verdict toward the end of the trial in early June. Plaintiffs' lawyers haven’t yet responded to the motion.
Dueling experts on Beachie Creek versus power line fires
Much of the trial has centered on a question residents of the Santiam Canyon have been asking since the day after Labor Day 2020: Where did the original Beachie Creek Fire end and the power line fires begin? And which is more to blame for the destruction?
Beachie Creek ignited in mid-August in a remote part of the Opal Creek Wilderness and was monitored by U.S. Forest Service fire crews for weeks before growing to 500 acres and exploding Labor Day night.
Power lines have been implicated for sparking fires in the canyon that night and were seen by numerous eyewitnesses who called 911.
In the absence of a final investigative report on the cause from state and federal officials — which is officially still incomplete — it has been left to dueling experts for plaintiffs and PacifiCorp.
For the plaintiffs, Oregon State University professor John Bailey testified that, based on his fire modeling, there was no way the Beachie Creek Fire could have reached Gates and the Mill City area before midnight on Labor Day, although he couldn’t make the same claim for Lyons.
Bailey’s mapping showed Beachie Creek staying well north of the canyon as eyewitnesses reported fires breaking out.
For PacifiCorp, atmospheric sciences professor Neil Lareau of the University of Nevada used satellite imagery to make the case the Beachie Creek Fire did send long-range embers that caused the ignition at Potato Hill and several spot fires in the Santiam Canyon by about 9:30 p.m. Labor Day evening.
Both sides also presented testimony from other technical experts on the disputed ignitions from power lines.
Testimony speaks to power lines versus original fire debate
Much of the case could be summed up in Ohrt’s testimony. The fire chief, who led volunteer firefighters credited with saving much of Mill City, testified about having to put out fires sparked by power lines.
In cross-examination, he also said he asked PacifiCorp to shut down power because he thought it might be dangerous. They didn’t, he said.
Even so, Ohrt put a lion’s share of the blame on the original Beachie Creek Fire, even though, as a resident of Gates, he is a member of the class of people who could benefit from PacifiCorp having to pay out a judgement.
“You could tell right off the bat that they were going to go after Pacific Power for this,” he said.
The trial is expected to last until closing arguments in early June, followed by jury deliberation.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: PacifiCorp pushes blame from power lines to Opal Creek fire
