On Tuesday, July 11th 2023, at about 8:08 PM, the Fortuna Police Department was contacted by the parent of two
juveniles. The parent told police that she had been told by the two juveniles that a carnival employee grabbed one
of the juvenile’s arms in an alleged attempt to pull the juvenile into a vehicle, which was parked nearby.
The Fortuna Police Department is currently investigating the matter to substantiate facts surrounding this report.
Further, the Fortuna Police have identified a person of interest in this matter. Coordination with management
personnel associated with the carnival has also been completed.
The Fortuna Police Department is asking all members of the public and/or potential witnesses to please come
forward with any known information concerning this matter. Members of the public and/or witnesses can reach
the Fortuna Police Department at 707-725-7550.
Cal Fire Division Chief Jon Heggie, shown at San Diego County Fire Station 44 in Pine Valley, served as a fire behavior specialist for one of California’s worst wildfires, the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex. Photo by Kristian Carreon for CalMatters
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie wasn’t expecting much to worry about when a late summer fire erupted north of Santa Cruz, home to California’s moist and cool “asbestos forests.” This place doesn’t burn, he thought, with just three notable fires there in 70 years.
Heggie’s job was to predict for the crews where the wildfire might go and when, working through calculations based on topography, weather and fuels — the “immutable” basics. For fire behavior analysts like Heggie, predictable and familiar are manageable, while weird and unexpected are synonyms for danger.
But that 2020 fire was anything but predictable.
Around 3 a.m. on Aug. 16, ominous thunder cells formed over the region. Tens of thousands of lightning strikes rained down, creating a convulsion of fire that became the CZU Lightning Complex.
By noon there were nearly two dozen fires burning, and not nearly enough people to handle them. Flames were roaring throughout the Coast Range in deep-shaded forests and waist-high ferns in sight of the Pacific Ocean. No one had ever seen anything like it.The blaze defied predictions and ran unchecked for a month. The fire spread to San Mateo County, burned through 86,000 acres, destroyed almost 1,500 structures and killed a fleeing resident.
“It was astonishing to see that behavior and consumption of heavy fuels,” Heggie said. “Seeing the devastation was mind-boggling. Things were burning outside the norm. I hadn’t seen anything burn that intensely in my 30 years.”
Almost as troubling was what this fire didn’t do — it didn’t back off at night.
“We would have burning periods increase in the afternoon, and we saw continuous high-intensity burns in the night,” Heggie said. “That’s when we are supposed to make up ground. That didn’t happen.”
“Seeing the devastation was mind-boggling. Things were burning outside the norm. I hadn’t seen anything burn that intensely in my 30 years.” — John Heggie, Cal Fire battalion chief
That 2020 summer of fires, the worst in California history, recalibrated what veteran firefighters understand about fire behavior: Nothing is as it was.
As California now heads into its peak time for wildfires, even with last year’s quiet season and the end of its three-year drought, the specter of megafires hasn’t receded. Last winter’s record winter rains, rather than tamping down fire threats, have promoted lush growth, which provides more fuel for summer fires.
Cal Fire officials warn that this year’s conditions are similar to the summer and fall of 2017 — when a rainy winter was followed by one of the state’s most destructive fire seasons, killing 47 people and destroying almost 11,000 structures.
US Forest Service teams deploy drones to capture photographs and infrared images, which are used to map fires to find areas where flames are still active and where they might spread. Photo by Andrew Avitt, US Forest Service
It’s not just the size and power of modern wildfires, but their capricious behavior that has confounded fire veterans — the feints and shifts that bedevil efforts to predict what a fire might do and then devise strategies to stop it. It’s a dangerous calculation: In the literal heat of a fire, choices are consequential. People’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.
Cal Fire crews now often find themselves outflanked. Responding to larger and more erratic and intense fires requires more personnel and equipment. And staging crews and engines where flames are expected to go has been thrown off-kilter.
“We live in this new reality,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a recent Cal Fire event, “where we can’t necessarily attach ourselves to some of the more predictive models of the past because of a world that is getting a lot hotter, a lot drier and a lot more uncertain because of climate change.”
CalFire has responded by tapping into all the new technology — such as drones, military satellites, infrared images and AI-assisted maps — that can be brought to bear during a fire. Commanders now must consider a broader range of possibilities so they can pivot when the firefront shifts in an unexpected way. The agency also has beefed up its ability to fight nighttime fires with a new fleet of Fire Hawk helicopters equipped to fly in darkness.
“We live in this new reality. ..We’re enlisting cutting-edge technology in our efforts to fight wildfires, exploring how innovations like artificial intelligence can help us identify threats quicker and deploy resources smarter.” — Gov. Gavin Newsom
The state has thrown every possible data point at the problem with its year-old Wildfire Threat and Intelligence Integration Center, which pulls information from dozens of federal, state and private sources to create a minute-by-minute picture of conditions conducive to sparking or spreading fires.
“We’re enlisting cutting-edge technology in our efforts to fight wildfires,” Newsom said, “exploring how innovations like artificial intelligence can help us identify threats quicker and deploy resources smarter.”
An unforeseen assault on a coastal town
The 2017 Thomas Fire stands as an example of what happens when a massive fire, ignited after a rainy winter, veers and shifts in unexpected ways.
The blaze in coastal Ventura and Santa Barbara counties struck in December, when fire season normally has quieted down. Fire veterans knew fall and winter fires were tamed by a blanket of moist air and fog.
But that didn’t happen.
“We were on day five or six, and the incident commander comes to me and asks, ‘Are we going to have to evacuate Carpinteria tonight?’,” said Cal Fire Assistant Chief Tim Chavez, who was the fire behavior analyst for the Thomas Fire.“I looked at the maps and we both came to the conclusion that Carpinteria would be fine, don’t worry. Sure enough, that night it burned into Carpinteria and they had to evacuate the town.”
Based on fire and weather data and informed hunches, no one expected the fire to continue advancing overnight. And, as the winds calmed, no one predicted the blaze would move toward the small seaside community of 13,000 south of Santa Barbara. But high temperatures, low humidity and a steep, dry landscape that hadn’t felt flames in more than 30 years drew the Thomas Fire to the coast.
“I looked at the maps and we both came to the conclusion that Carpinteria would be fine, don’t worry. Sure enough, that night it burned into Carpinteria and they had to evacuate the town.” —Tim Chavez, Cal Fire Assistant Chief
The sudden shift put the town in peril. Some 300 residents were evacuated in the middle of the night as the blaze moved into the eastern edge of Carpinteria.
In all, the fire, which was sparked by power lines downed by high winds, burned for nearly 40 days, spread across 281,000 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and other buildings and killed two people, including a firefighter. At the time, it was the largest wildfire in California’s modern history; now, just six years later, it ranks at number eight.
The unforeseen assault on Carpenteria was an I-told-you-so from nature, the sort of humbling slap-down that fire behavior analysts in California are experiencing more and more.
“I’ve learned more from being wrong than from being right,” Chavez said. “You cannot do this job and not be surprised by something you see. Even the small fires will surprise you sometimes.”
Warmer nights, drought, lack of fog alter fire behavior
Scientists say the past 20 years have brought a profound — and perhaps irreversible — shift in the norms of wildfire behavior and intensity. Fires burn along the coast even when there’s no desert winds to drive them, fires refuse to lay down at night and fires pierced the so-called Redwood Curtain, burning 97% of California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods.
The changes in wildfires are driven by an array of factors: a megadrought from the driest period recorded in the Western U.S.in the past 1,200 years, the loss of fog along the California coast, and stubborn nighttime temperatures that propel flames well into the night.
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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Born August 5, 1936, in Denver and shortly after moved to Selma, Calif., Jim attended Selma High School, where he earned his letterman sweater playing football, swimming, and diving.
After high school, he joined the United States Marines Corps and then the United States Navy serving 23 years including service in the Vietnam Conflict.
After retiring from the Navy Jim became involved with church ministries in the Hanford, Calif. area. Wishing to serve the Lord, Jim moved with his wife Janice, to McKinleyville, where he pastored churches, led men’s studies, and counseled individuals for 35 years until he passed on July 1, 2023, at age 86.
Jim is preceded in death by his wife, Janice Proctor, and grandson, Brandon Van Sant. He is survived by his daughter, Michelle Proctor, sons Richard Allbritton (wife Lynda) and James Richard Proctor Jr (wife Sandra), eight grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
Memorial Service ~ Saturday, July 15 at 0900 hrs ~ Telios Christian Fellowship, 1575 L St., Arcata.
Interment ~ Saturday, July 15 at 1200 hrs ~ Greenwood Cemetery, 1757 J St., Arcata ~ Military Honors.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Jim Proctor’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Press release from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force:
Rucker.
On July 10, 2023, Humboldt County Drug Task Force Agents and HCSO Deputies served a search warrant at the residence of Dusty Rucker (Age 42) located on 4000 block of Van Dyke Court in Arcata. After a multi-week investigation and several neighborhood complaints, the HCDTF believed Rucker was in possession of narcotics for the purpose of sales and in possession of several firearms.
Upon arrival at the Rucker’s residence, Agents located and detained a Tamerra Schumacher (Age 43) inside the residence. Rucker was not present during the service of the search warrant. As Agents were processing the scene, Schumacher became verbally aggressive and started to physically resist. Agents were able to control Schumacher, place her in handcuffs, and secure her in the back of a patrol vehicle without further incident.
Schumacher.
Once the scene was secure, Deputy McKenzie and his K9 partner Rex assisted with the search of the residence. K9 Rex alerted to several locations inside the residence indicating narcotics and/or firearms were present.
Agents searched the areas that K9 Rex had alerted to and located two semi-automatic 9mm handguns, multiple rounds of live ammunition, homemade explosives, ballistic body armor, ¼ ounce of fentanyl, 3 grams of methamphetamine, digital scales and a CA Exempt license plate belonging to a Humboldt County owned vehicle.
After locating the explosive devices inside the residence, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team responded to the scene. HCSO EOD was able to safely remove the explosives from the residence. At the conclusion of the search warrant, HCSO EOD transported the explosives to a secure location where they were rendered safe.
Schumacher was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where she was booked for the following charges:
11370.1(A): Possession of a controlled substance while armed with a loaded firearm
PC 148(a)(1): Resisting, Delaying, Obstructing a Peace Officer
The HCDTF will be pursuing an Arrest Warrant for Rucker for the following charges:
29800(a)(1): PC Prohibited person in possession of a firearm
30305(A)(1): PC Prohibited person in possession of ammunition
11370.1(A)HS: Possession of a controlled substance while armed with a loaded firearm
11377(A) HS: Possession of a controlled substance
11350(A): Possession of narcotics
Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes are encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.
An offshore wind turbine’s floating platform, measuring 100 feet tall and 425 feet long per side, being assembled onshore. (For scale, that’s an adult human circled in red in the lower right.) | Screenshot from Harbor District video.
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The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District — or let’s just call it “the Harbor District” for short — will host a public “scoping meeting” Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Eureka’s Wharfinger Building, located at 1 Marina Way.
What’s a scoping meeting, you ask? Well, the Harbor District recently announced that, per the rules of the California Environmental Quality Act, it is developing a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for a major renovation of the Port of Humboldt Bay.
That’s right: The district is preparing to meet the needs of the multinational, federally stimulated offshore wind industry, and tomorrow night’s meeting will give the public its first opportunity to weigh in on the “scope” of environmental issues that should be included in the report.
The idea, as recently explained in a thorough and informative YouTube video featuring Rob Holmlund, the Harbor District’s director of development, is to transform the district’s largely vacant former industrial property on the Samoa Peninsula (home to the dilapidated remnants of the old pulp mill and Hammond Lumber Mill) into a state-of-the-art “heavy lift marine terminal,” a compound where the jaw-droppingly massive wind turbine components could be manufactured, assembled and then loaded onto ships.
(Watch that whole video if have an hour to spare and want to get a good baseline understanding of how the industry could impact our region.)
Here’s the Harbor District’s latest conceptual drawing depicting the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal:
The Harbor District is justifiably optimistic that our (currently rather sleepy) Humboldt Bay is perfectly positioned to become the epicenter of offshore wind energy manufacturing and distribution on the West Coast, a place that could potentially host the lion’s share of industrial production and distribution for floating wind farms from Oregon down to Morro Bay.
Holmlund says there is “a suite of new industries that all need to be created on the West Coast [and] that currently do not exist.”
With the Biden administration calling for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy — enough to power 10 million homes — to be up and running by 2030, energy companies will need big supplies of everything from turbine blades and nacelles (the housings for the generating components) to mooring lines, towers and transmission cables.
All of these industries could — and by all sound reasoning — should be located right here on the shores of Humboldt Bay, according to the Harbor District. To that end, the district has entered into exclusive negotiations with multinational logistics firm Crowley, the company that aims to actually build the heavy-lift facility out on the peninsula.
While local conservation leaders are stoked about the carbon-emission-reducing potential of offshore wind development, they have voiced concern — right here on the pages of the Outpost, among other places — about just how green the port itself will be.
They point to the diesel-guzzling machinery — cranes, trucks, forklifts, etc. — that operate such ports, as well as the fossil-fueled tugboats and ships that could wind up hauling the massive infrastructure out to sea.
A community group called the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience (CORE) Hub has been closely monitoring this project and plans to have representatives at Wednesday’s meeting. In a voicemail left for the Outpost, a member of CORE Hub said representatives will be on hand to advocate for community benefits and protections for tribes and surrounding communities as well as the local fishery.
In a jointly authored opinion piece, local environmental leaders recently called on the Harbor District to commit to a zero-emissions green port by employing such emerging technologies as electrified terminal equipment, on-shore power stations for idling ships, fully electric tugboats and battery storage facilities.
“We would love to see a commitment to a green port from the get-go,” saidJennifer Savage, a 20-year resident of the Samoa Peninsula (and a friend of mine). “It only makes sense that a project designed to move us away from fossil fuels would be clean and climate-friendly itself.”
While the Harbor District has insisted that its port-development project extends only as far as the harbor entrance — which is to say it’s distinct from the offshore wind farms themselves — Savage and others argue that all aspects of the development, including support activities, should be identified and analyzed as part of the Harbor District’s environmental review process.
Jennifer Kalt, executive director of environmental nonprofit Humboldt Baykeeper and one of the authors of the recent opinion piece, said this kind of advocacy isn’t about obstructionism.
“It’s hard to say ‘zero emissions’ without people thinking that we’re asking them to reach an unachievable bar, but that’s not at all what we’re doing,” she said. “We don’t want to make perfect the enemy of good. We just want it to be planned right from the start.”
Kalt noted that much of the technology to facilitate offshore wind energy at this scale — from the massive floating turbines to the electrical transmission infrastructure — is still years away, so the Harbor District should be willing to rely on advances in green electrification options, too.
“This is going to be a publicly funded project to a great extent, so we need to make sure that the public trust [resources] in Humboldt Bay and all the surrounding communities … will be protected,” Kalt said.
Savage also called on Crowley to enter into a Community Benefits Agreement that includes commitments to hire locally and provide job training such as internships and apprenticeships.
“I think it’s really important that the Harbor District and Crowley see the community as valuable partners and make real commitments to make sure everything is done right from the beginning,” Savage said.
The Harbor District’s Notice of Preparation of Draft Environmental Impact Report, which you can download by clicking here, will be circulated for a 30-day review and comment period. If you can’t make it to the meeting Wednesday, you can also submit comments by emailing Rob Holmlund at districtplanner@humboldtbay.org.
Remember: This project is about port development, not the offshore wind farms. Check back later this week for a report on Wednesday’s meeting.
Below, one more image to convey the gob-smacking size of the floating platforms, atop each of which will be mounted turbines that are more than 1,000 feet tall from the ocean surface to the tip of the blades. If you were somehow able to lower one of the platforms into the heart of downtown Arcata, it would cover virtually the entire Arcata Plaza and obliterate several surrounding businesses:
On July 2, 2023, at 7:20am, the Arcata Police Department responded to the 5000 block of Boyd Road, for a man down in the roadway. Upon arrival, officers located a male subject, deceased of an apparent gunshot wound. The decedent has been identified as 36-year-old Joshua Paul Gephart, who was recently living in the Arcata area.
APD Detectives have secured an arrest warrant for PC 187(a)- Homicide, for 24-year-old Gregory Nelson Mattox, of McKinleyville in connection with the homicide.
Gregory Nelson Mattox is described as a white male adult, approximately 5 foot 11 inches tall, thin build, with dark hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and tan pants. Mattox may be in possession of a handgun and is considered armed and dangerous.
APD asks if you see Mattox, immediately call the Arcata Police at 707-822-2424 or call 9-1-1. This case is still under investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Johnson at 707-822-2424. More information will be released when available and appropriate.
Crossed wires. Photo by cottonbro studio via Pexels.
The latest report from the 2022-2023 Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury paints a not-so-pretty picture of the first floor of the Humboldt County Courthouse, where the Board of Supervisor, the County Administrative Office and the Office of the County Clerk Clerk of the Board — the latter two of which support the Board’s work — are quartered.
These offices are the head of the snake of county government. As the GJ notes, the Board of Supervisors is both the legislative and the executive head of the county. Supervisors not only decide how the county should spend an annual budget in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars, but also oversee the projects that they undertake with that half a billion.
So it’s not so good, in the opinion of the Grand Jury, that the firehose of information that comes into these offices isn’t adequately tagged and managed and forwarded to the appropriate inbox for action and/or information. The result, it alleges, is “poor
direction, poor oversight and missed deadlines.”
One way this chaos manifests, according to the Grand Jury, is in the sometimes very slipshod and haphazard way in which various county-created advisory boards and commissions meet … or don’t. The Jury writes:
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is at the center of a complex “input” and “output”
information flow, but there is no log or calendar of communication received or due to be
received or sent systematically distinguishing information from action items. The BOS is, for
example, unaware that several committees may only be meeting sporadically, may have
vacancies, may lack diverse community representation, may not be submitting mandated
advisory reports to the BOS, or may be inactive. The Audit Committee, Behavioral Health
Board, and Disaster Council are cases in point.
What’s the problem with these cases in point? Well, for instance, the Disaster Council, which was instituted in 2015 and to which the Board of Supervisors appoints a member every year, appears not to have ever met since that date. The Audit Committee has met only three times in the last two years.
Why do we have committees and commissions and councils on the books that meet rarely or never? The GJ believes that the County has more or less forgotten that they exist, or hasn’t been able to unbury itself from the informational deluge long enough to get them going again.
“It appears the BOS has a reactive approach to County tasks instead of a proactive approach,” the GJ writes.
What’s the solution? The Grand Jury doesn’t care for the fact that the Board of Supervisors share clerks from the County Clerk’s office to help manage the info flow. Hire more clerks, the GJ says, and also assign each supervisor her or his own, dedicated clerk. Do that starting in January! Also, get those functionally inactive committees up and running again. Simple!
Elsewhere in their tour of the top offices, the Grand Jury finds that:
There’s a general lack of representation from Humboldt’s eight federally recognized tribal entities in the Board’s advisory bodies. Get more tribal representation on those committees, please!
The county should employ a full-time grant writer, so as to go after more grants.
