Month: April 2017

Here’s the link to an initial article by The Observer.

The Drone Guy (sorry, I forgot his name in the heat of the action; see the previous post UPDATE: Was it Jordan Meyer?) works out of LaGrandeAlive.TV.  You can see some of his output below and on LGA TV’s Facebook page.

Trying to drive home after a late morning meetup with my car-fiend-friends I encountered traffic jams just after noon. In this ridiculously small town, yet. In attempting to dodge the blockages, I soon discovered the source of the problem — billowing smoke just over the tracks in the vicinity of Les Schwab. I circled around the underpass to avoid Adams and parked on the far side (Pepsi plant) close to the street closures. Once I walked up the slope to the railroad tracks, I could see sizable groups of people standing on the roadway and just beyond, the Quail Run Motor Inn was ablaze.

I worked myself closer and had to cross a rather deep 10- or 12-foot ditch and scramble up a steep embankment to the edge of the highway, the limit afforded to civilians. Over the course of the next hour or so, I met the LaGrandeAlive.TV camera drone operator (more to follow with/about him) and a number of bystanders and half a dozen or so of the survivor/escapee motel residents, all of which provided some interesting and even riveting conversation. Particularly with two of the heroes of the day — the couple in the front unit who detected the fire, called it in, and got some of their neighbors out, including a wheelchair-bound individual. (Unfortunately, I did not have a means of writing and I don’t think I can recall a single name of any of the people with whom I chatted.  Update: I think the drone guy was Jordan something …) Anyway, some documentation, more or less in random order.

more to come …