ONTARIO ON MASSIVE FIRE EXPLOSION : 4 teenager just found dead in a massive fire burning community mourns…
One person died Wednesday morning after a fire burned part of a homeless encampment known as “The Flats” on the outskirts of Ontario, Oregon.
“He was funny, always outgoing,” said Isabelle Vasquez, who lives there. “It’s sad.”
The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call at 8:14 a.m. reporting the fire. Ontario Fire and Rescue arrived just minutes later, with mutual aid provided by Vale, Fruitland, Payette, Parma, and Canyon County fire departments.
Crews found one person dead inside an RV after extinguishing the flames, Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson said. Authorities are working to identify the victim, and the Oregon State Fire Marshal is investigating.
The Flats, a collection of privately owned properties, has been a known problem for MCSO.
“This isn’t the first fire we’ve had out here,” Johnson said. “We’ve had several over the years, including a homicide, drug use and dealing.”
He said it is a “fire hazard, environmental hazard, health hazard, and a quality-of-life issue for the neighborhood.”
The sheriff’s office has to “continue our efforts to clean these encampments up so we don’t have another tragedy like we had today,” Johnson said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “We offer our condolences to the family and loved ones of the individual who lost their life today.”
The county partnered with several nonprofits in an effort to clean up the area, including Community in Action.
Priscilla Garcia, housing homeless programs manager, said two outreach workers check on people’s well-being in the area almost daily.
“People don’t end up homeless just to be homeless,” she said. “It’s always due to some sort of hardship. It’s a really unfortunate event that happened. We’re all really saddened. We want to be here to best support and help them.”
Vasquez started living at The Flats about six months ago. She lives out of her car.
“I’ve always been an independent woman, a hard worker,” she said. “But after my father died and both my brothers died, life just went downhill.”
She said the issues at the encampment are “not as bad” as authorities say.
“It’s just everybody struggling … no money, you know,” she said. “Just trying to live day by day.”
Sheriff Johnson said conditions at The Flats have worsened over the last couple of years, blaming a now rolled-back Oregon ballot measure that decriminalized small amounts of hard drugs.
