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Local News 07 21 26 · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:05
  Speaker B: Welcome to the KMUD News. I'm your news Director April Lewis and I'm glad to be with you for this broadcast. This episode is jam packed and we're moving straight into our main stories. Topics covered include the recent ICE arrest of a Eureka resident, including an interview with his wife, the kidnapping of Forest Service biologists at Gumboot Lake. Local fire departments discussed yesterday's woods fire near Redway and Port Terminal Uses are debated for the Humboldt Bay Area plan. This is KMUD News. Yesterday's woods fire just north of Redway was a stark reminder of how close danger can be during fire season. KMUD News reports Yesterday's woods fire in the hills north of redway around the 400 block of Wood Ranch Road was was a good reminder to stay prepared this fire season. The fire was first reported around 4pm on Monday, July 20 and posed a high risk to the area at that point. The fire measured 10 acres and was threatening to spread quickly to 50 acres, according to scanner traffic at the time. However, a quick response by Cal Fire and local volunteer fire departments led to the woods fire having its forward progress scanning stopped by 6:30pm only a few hours later. Only one resident needed to be evacuated and the threat to structures was quickly eliminated. We spoke with Bryceland Volunteer Fire Department Public Information Officer Camilo Stevenson to learn more about yesterday's fire near Redway. Camillo first spoke on how local departments were alerted to the fire.
• 1:48
  Speaker C: We're entering into peak fire season, we're not there already and there's a lot of resources that have been mustered to respond to the conditions. There's a lot of dry fuels out there. We have threats of lightning, threats of dry lightning. And so yeah, there's been a lot of resources called up and we were ready to respond. And the woods fire was particularly interesting because normally we respond, we're either on patrol or we're going to be at our stations or at home with our radios and pagers waiting for something to get called in. In this case, the fire was visible from the conservation camp, the Eel River Camp, and we started hearing radio traffic. They had seen visual signs of the smoke and my crew with Bryceland were returning to mutual aid Assistance with Garbville for medical call. And as soon as we left Garberville we could hear the radio traffic and we looked up and we could see the plume of smoke, the calm of smoke rising. So it wasn't like we were waiting for someone to, you know, ask for help from or you know, called 911. In this case it was A direct visual confirmation that there was a fire.
• 3:17
  Speaker B: Bryceland fire public information officer Camillo Stevenson then spoke on how a quick, coordinated effort between Cal Fire air support and local departments on the ground quickly got the woods fire under control and how favorable weather conditions also helped that effort.
• 3:32
  Speaker C: Cal fire is extremely effective with their air resources, and so they were quick to respond. And the hand crews from eel river camp were right next door, so they were also very quick to respond. We were already in our engine and responding, and behind us were Redway, Garberville and Phillipsville sent their water tender. And so we got a lot of people on scene pretty quick to this fire, and that's a good thing because it was. It was moving. We had a lot of resources available, but we are, you know, we have to adapt to the conditions that we're given. And in this case, we were lucky that it wasn't a lot of wind, and we're lucky that the fire didn't start at the bottom of a large, you know, hill. This. This was like on the side of the hill, but it was burning up to the top, and then we could caught the fire at the top, which is, you know, geographically where you want to stop a fire along a ridge line or somewhere where it's naturally just going to lose energy. Any starts that happen with slopes above them obviously are going to spread faster due to the conditions, and then any kind of wind or other conditions like that can push a fire out of control pretty quickly. Despite our best efforts, we're truly grateful
• 4:59
  Speaker B: to the Bryceland volunteer fire department and firefighters from a number of other local departments and Cal Fire for their efforts yesterday combating the woods fire. Today, Tuesday, July 21, KMUD hosted the first touch a truck event of our summer fun drive, which focuses on fire safety. Yesterday's blaze near redway was a good reminder to stay ready and that a fire can quickly get out of control if the right conditions are present. We spoke with telegraph ridge fire chief Tanner spies at our touch a truck event to learn more on how residents can stay prepared for future wildfires.
• 5:35
  Speaker D: You know, out here in the hills, a lot of the times we might be cut off from other people by some significant distances and roads and just knowing what's going on, having situational awareness, we call it in the fire service about things like weather patterns, red flag warnings, times when there's more threat. It's not always equal. The times when there are higher chances of catastrophic wildfire, there's certain times where the weather is very ripe for it and just knowing when to Be very careful about fire, you know, fire season, knowing what resources are available, being ahead of the game. If there is the potential for evacuation, if there is ever an evacuation in your area, you, you want to be prepared. You don't want that to be the first time you're thinking about it. You want to be thinking about go bags, what's important to bring. And so, yeah, just having that awareness of when that's happening. So you can sign up for the Humble Alert program that will text you information. As you mentioned, Watchduty is an excellent resource these days. It's an application you can get on your phone. It'll give you notices about fires that are close by, give you some information. KMUD is obviously a great resource. You know, be listening to the radio and the news program does a great job putting that information out. Same with red headed black belt. So yeah, I'd say very important to know what your informational resources are and to pay attention to those, especially as we get into deeper fire season.
• 7:14
  Speaker B: Telegraph Ridge Fire Chief Tanner Spies also spoke on firewise Communities, a program led by the National Fire Protection association, or NFPA for short, that can help entire neighborhoods be better prepared for fire events.
• 7:29
  Speaker D: Firewise is an NFPA program that basically recognizes communities for their efforts in fire reduction, specifically around their own homes, or what they call the home ignition zone. So communities can get together and organize to become Firewise recognized. And basically what that entails is they go through a process where they do a community wildfire risk assessment, they do a three year action plan, and then their community members like identify how many homes are in their area. And they're set up to basically do at least an hour of fire preparation work per home, which is a pretty low bar around here, you know, because it can include weed whipping, that kind of stuff. So those are what are called the resident volunteer contributions. Those are basically just collected and, and then put into the application. It's an annual application. NFPA then gives a certificate of recognition for firewise, which just shows that your community is doing what they can from the most grassroots, most base level. So there's no obligation, it's all voluntary. It's a really easy program to get involved with. It's a great starting point for community organizing. It's a really great structure to just get people thinking about how to strategize the work, how to connect with other residents and just start at the most basic level around their own homes.
• 9:01
  Speaker B: It's officially peak fire season in southern Humboldt and other regions inside KMUD's listening zone. We hope hearing from the Bryceland and telegraph ridge fire departments helps create a better understanding of how to prepare yourself and how quick local response is needed to prevent the spread of wildfires. KMUD's Fire Safe Fund drive is continuing this week and we'll be hosting an additional touch a truck event with the petrolia volunteer fire department on Thursday, July 30th, starting around 11am at our studios in Redway. Reporting for KMUD, I'm April Lewis. 2 U.S. forest Service employees were taken hostage at gunpoint in Siskiyou county last Thursday, prompting the FBI to fly agents and a hostage rescue team into Reading to help end the standoff. Now, federal prosecutors have filed kidnapping charges against a father and son. Lisa music has been covering this story since it broke and brings us this update, including audio recorded during the standoff itself.
• 10:12
  Speaker E: This week, federal prosecutors filed kidnapping charges against a father and son accused of holding two U. S. Forest Service biologists hostage for 15 hours in the Shasta trinity national forest. What you're about to hear is actual radio traffic from that standoff obtained by this reporter, recorded as the man accused of holding the hostages tried to reach the FBI directly.
• 10:38
  Speaker A: Ready, Jeff. This is Charles Perry speaking. I have two biologists in my custody right now. I tried to make contact with the FBI through the law enforcement agent that is in the ranger station here in Shasta. We're at gum booth. I'm requesting FBI investigators speak to so that I can release these hostages. Over.
• 11:11
  Speaker E: That's the man who identified himself as Charles Perry. Federal investigators say his real name is Joseph Charles Henriksen, 49. According to a federal affidavit filed by FBI investigator Robert Russell Quinola and reported by the SAC B. Henriksen approached two U. S. Forest Service biologists on July 16 while they were conducting fieldwork studying frog habitat near gumboot lake campground deep in the Shasta trinity national forest near the southern border of Siskiyou county. He was carrying an AR15 style rifle. The affidavit says he ordered them to turn around, raise their hands and zip tie their wrists behind their backs, then walked them to a camping trailer where he and his adult son Phoenix Henriksen, 23, had been living.
• 12:02
  Speaker A: Hi copy. How would you like for them to make contact with you in person? Reading copies in person at 1558?
• 12:16
  Speaker E: That's the FBI negotiator identified in court records as Russell Quinniola trying to establish contact. The standoff stretched on for hours. Law enforcement say Henriksen used one of the hostages own phones to alert authorities of the alleged kidnapping sin he had taken two, quote, fed biologists, end quote, hostage and had, quote, live rounds ready, end quote, while asking to talk things through with an FBI investigator.
• 12:48
  Speaker A: There's someone out there at the campsite who can hear me. This is Russell with the FBI. All right, Agent Russell. Well, what you need to do is you need to try to get yourself in an area where I can hear your voice. There's a red Bronco. Red Ram, rather an old model Ram with a camper on it. A Bronco camper. I can hear you. If you stop from there, you'll be safe. Your best to send somebody up unarmed. Talk to me from that camper.
• 13:20
  Speaker E: According to a press conference last Friday, negotiations were established around 4pm Thursday, about five hours after the two Forest Service employees were taken hostage. The negotiations continued into the early morning hours of Friday, July 17, before both hostages were released around 1:50am the two suspects surrendered approximately 40 minutes later.
• 13:47
  Speaker A: Charles, come on out. Are you coming to jump this or are you not coming? That's all I need to know. Yes or no? Over. Are you comfortable putting the rifle down and coming to a point where you feel safe and yelling to us? Listen, you come. But you know, because if you have one that might trigger something and be. You never know. Or you have a rifle and upv, it might be something new to show on the road. These ladies would like to come on over.
• 14:18
  Speaker E: Siskiu County Sheriff Jeremiah Larue said that two female biologists were assessed at the scene and are doing well. Quote, we are very relieved and grateful. It's been a very emotional past couple days, Larou said. FBI Sacramento's acting special agent in charge Brian Tosh ask anyone with information about the case to contact the Bureau. Court records show this isn't the first time Joseph Henriksen has been in the legal system in Washington state. He was charged in 2022 with a hate crime after allegedly throwing fireworks at a property owned by landlords of Russian and Ukrainian descent. That case never went to trial. A court found him not competent to stand trial. And after the state failed to transfer him for court ordered treatment, a judge held Washington's Department of Social and Health Services contempt and eventually dismissed the case. Court filings show Henriksen used the alias Charles Perry as far back as 2020. Joseph and Phoenix Henriksen appeared in federal court in Sacramento today and did not enter. Please. They're each charged with kidnapping a federal employee. Phoenix also facing an aiding and abetting charge. And if convicted, they face up to life in prison. A preliminary hearing is set for August 3rd reporting for KMUD News, I'm Lisa Music.
• 15:58
  Speaker B: A Eureka man is in ICE custody after he was pulled over in Wyoming while driving on a family vacation. After telling the family they were only receiving a ticket, ICE agents arrested Rudy Gonzalez and put him in federal custody. Reporter Ryan Hudson spoke with Luz Moreno, Gonzalez's wife.
• 16:17
  Speaker F: A Eureka man is in ICE custody after a traffic stop nearly a thousand miles away from Humboldt County. Gilberto Jimenez Gonzalez was pulled over for a broken headlight in Rock Springs, Wyoming, while driving with his family to Iowa for a family vacation. After telling the family they were only receiving a fix it ticket for the headlight out, Gonzalez was arrested and put into federal custody. His wife, Luz Moreno, was in the car and recorded what happened. The late night traffic stop was initiated by Sweetwater county sheriff deputies as the family drove back to their hotel following a dinner at Denny's, which was the only place open, you know, in a
• 17:05
  Speaker G: drive back to the hotel, the police stop us. We were not driving fast. We were driving fine. But he saw a light bulb that he was like, in front. Ms. Light bulb. So they stop us and they ask us for, you know, our. Our driver license. And. And this person, he asked me also my driver license. Even I was in driving. He's like, I need to know who. Who that I'm talking with. And I give him my driver license and the insurance. And they asked me if we would have been drinking. I say no, actually, we had just dinner in Dennis, and we had actually hot chocolate. There's no reason I can get my car.
• 17:51
  Speaker H: Okay, so what's happening right now, Gilberto, is I'm instructing you to get out of the car so we can speak to you. Okay. So you can either step out, right?
• 17:59
  Speaker A: I don't have it. Racing for out of the car.
• 18:04
  Speaker H: It's really simple, Gabriel, to either step out, or we'll make you step out.
• 18:07
  Speaker G: Okay.
• 18:08
  Speaker H: I tried to ask nicely. Okay.
• 18:11
  Speaker F: Moreno, speaking in mostly English, tried to explain the situation.
• 18:18
  Speaker H: He's talking to him right now.
• 18:19
  Speaker G: I know, but I'm. He's my husband, and we've been driving for a long time. We've been driving, all right? And the only thing we have to drive is our driver license. Everything is at home. So right now, we only have our driver license. It's all clean. So there's no excuses for you guys. I'm not gonna. We have our driver license. We have the. The insurance.
• 18:49
  Speaker F: For a few minutes, the situation seemed to de escalate. An officer told the family he'd issue a written warning for the headlight and told them, you're good to go. Then, just a few minutes later, the officers returned with additional ICE agents and the tone shifted. Moreno can be heard asking why her husband is suddenly being arrested.
• 19:14
  Speaker G: Why? He said why he's arrested. Okay, No, I need to know. He's my husband for more than 30 years. Why you guys arresting him? I need to know what is the reason, Mr.
• 19:27
  Speaker F: The officer's answer centered on Jimenez Gonzalez's California driver's license. California issues driver's licenses to residents regardless of immigration status. Having one is not, by itself proof of anyone's legal status one way or the other. However, a person holding a California quote, real ID indicates to officers that a birth certificate was produced to the DMV in order to acquire that designated real id.
• 19:59
  Speaker G: Do you have anything like that, have a passport? If I live more than 34 years in the United States, why should I have that? I have my driver.
• 20:07
  Speaker H: Yeah, you have your driver's license? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're not concerned with your driver's license.
• 20:11
  Speaker G: Right.
• 20:12
  Speaker H: His driver's license.
• 20:13
  Speaker A: Right.
• 20:14
  Speaker H: It says federal term limits apply. So you need to see a passport to verify that he is a resident of the United States. Right.
• 20:23
  Speaker G: Okay, that's what.
• 20:25
  Speaker H: That's what we're doing. We're going to verify, make sure that he comes back as US Citizen or illegal resident, anything like that. Once it's verified, if it is, then he's good to go. If not, then obviously they have their procedure that they follow.
• 20:40
  Speaker F: Moreno told us that after her husband had been taken into custody, officers gave her no paperwork, no names, no badge numbers, and no case number associated with her husband or any information on any alleged crimes he had committed.
• 20:57
  Speaker G: Yeah, they took him. They don't give me any paperwork or any phone numbers or any names. Nothing. No notes, nothing.
• 21:08
  Speaker F: Moreno chose to follow officers to a nearby detention facility, where she was then turned away and spent the rest of the night and the following morning still trying to get information.
• 21:19
  Speaker G: I need on writing. On writing, what is the charges in the reason and why he isn't here? I need on paper, I need on writing everything that he's arrested for. And I need the names of the officials, the police people. I need their names.
• 21:41
  Speaker F: I need to know we can confirm that Jimenez Gonzalez is no longer in Sweetwater County Jail. He has been transferred to ICE custody. Jimenez Gonzalez has lived in Eureka for about 40 years. He and Moreno have been married for 31 of those 40 years. She grew up in Eureka and graduated from Eureka High School, and they met when he was 14. The couple has five adult children and two grandchildren. Moreno has said that the ordeal is overwhelming, but she wants their story to be told.
• 22:17
  Speaker G: I don't have nothing to hide and this is not just for me. This is for everyone who is going through the same thing. And even it's even worse. There's people dying and people getting killed and this is not okay. This is not right. And we're immigrants. We're coming for a dream here. We're doing our best to work and be honest and pay our taxes and work for food on our tables. And this is so discriminated and it's so racist. You know the law. It needs to be for the people, not against the people.
• 23:07
  Speaker F: This case hits close to home because it's the first confirmed ICE activity that has impacted a Humboldt county family so far this year. Separately, Central Del Pueblo, a Humboldt based organization supporting local immigrant community members, has confirmed two detentions last week in Mendocino County. The organization runs a rapid response network and offers regular Know youw Rights trainings in an effort to clarify rumors. Centro will only post verified information on their platforms of Facebook and Instagram, but community members can report suspected ICE activity to its hotline at 707-200-8091. Reporting for KMUD News, I'm Ryan Hutson.
• 24:06
  Speaker B: The extent of Humboldt Bay industrialization was debated by the county's Planning Commission as it workshopped a major planning document. Daniel Mintz reports.
• 24:17
  Speaker I: The Humboldt County Planning Commission is rolling up its sleeves on a considerable chunk of work. The Humboldt Bay Area plan and how to handle port terminal uses is an early focus of discussion. The extent of restricting heavy lift marine terminals, which will be necessary for wind energy but could also be used for other industrial purposes, was weighed as the Commission held a June 16 workshop on the plan during a public comment period. Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper voiced support for the plan's disallowance of support facilities for oil and gas drilling in a separate port zoning map. But a paragraph on allowing heavy lift terminal operations for wind energy adds other permitted heavy lift port operations to the allowance which CALT advised against.
• 25:10
  Speaker J: We're really concerned about the addition to the port overlay zone, which was added just on Friday that says in addition to offshore wind support, it would also include other permitted heavy lift port operations. That's on page 57 of the workshop draft. And you know, this is Other heavy lift terminal operations are not anything that are even being speculated upon right now. And so we're really concerned that closing the door on one really heavy industrial extractive Industry that would be devastating to the bay and our coast would just be replaced potentially with another one, which we don't even know if there is such a thing yet. The Humboldt bay area plan can always be amended in the future, so there's really no reason to open the door to this kind of use right now.
• 26:04
  Speaker I: Justin Mogenet of Hog Island Oyster Co. Also warned against heavy lift terminal operations, saying, I urge the county to continue to support sustainable industries like aquaculture instead of chasing large industrialized dreams. Much of the commissioner's discussion focused on whether the heavy lift terminal policy should only allow support for wind energy, as discussed in this exchange between commissioners Noah Levy and Peggy o'. Neill.
• 26:32
  Speaker K: You know, the heavy lift marine terminals are needed to provide support for offshore wind development. I don't hear anybody wanting to take that out. But what was added in the last revision was that phrase right after it. Or for other permitted heavy lift port
• 26:47
  Speaker F: operations, like if they're making ships, they used to make ships here. So if they decided to make ships here, again, wouldn't be able to do it because we took that out.
• 26:59
  Speaker K: I mean, there are certain uses of a heavy lift port that I would not want to signal my personal receptiveness to. That's obviously just me, but I mean, I acknowledge your point. I think what you're right to draw the connection. You know, Commissioner Curiosity was saying, I think we should signal that in certain places, high density development may be appropriate within this area and arguably the opposite here. We want to signal that we don't want this to be used for a major cargo shipping facility.
• 27:38
  Speaker I: Commissioner Todd Fulton said heavy lift terminal operations shouldn't be limited.
• 27:43
  Speaker L: I'm having a hard time dealing with why we are chaining ourselves down to specific things we can and cannot do. Everything that you may personally be opposed to or whatever the case may be still has to go through a planning process and they come through here. But I think by limiting what we can and can't do with our port,
• 28:04
  Speaker H: currently
• 28:06
  Speaker L: we're dying for jobs here anyway. So we're limiting ourselves in situations like, yes, yes, it's a very sensitive. They. I'm with you on that, but I'm not comfortable restraining ourselves from anything done in the future.
• 28:24
  Speaker I: After more discussion, commissioners agreed to revisit the policy language later. Another topic under debate is high density housing of more than 30 units per acre. Commissioner Jerome Curiazzi questioned why it was taken out of an earlier version of the plan, saying the Humboldt Bay area is where the majority of resources, businesses, jobs, etc. Tend to coalesce around O' Neill disagreed, citing tsunami and sea level rise threats. Ultimately, there wasn't enough support for putting high density housing back into the plan. The workshop will continue at the commission's Aug. 6 meeting. The plan covers 21,000 acres of the Humboldt Bay area and and its policy content includes chapters on tribal history and environmental justice, land use, biological resources, public access and coastal hazards and adaptation in Eureka. For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
• 29:24
  Speaker B: That's all for our news broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our rotation of broadcast engineers Dennis Marr, Katie Phillips, Bianna Federico, Michael, Ben McCaskill, Larry Lashley and Javier Rodriguez. Also thanks to our reporters for this broadcast, Daniel Mintz, Ryan Hudson and Lisa. Music I'm April Lewis. Stay tuned. In.