Meth labs get fire training attention
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
In a comprehensive training for Goldendale fire department volunteers Monday night, police department spokesman Reggie Bartkowski gave away all the trade secrets of meth amphetamine makers.
"The whole process for making meth is not for public information," he said, "but if you're going into a burning house, you need to know what you're facing." The fire department volunteers are going through intensive and on-going training to ensure their preparedness for any possibility that might arise at a fire scene.
As an example of the kind of unique danger that could face volunteers entering a meth lab to put out a fire, Bartkowski explained that a particular substance used in the process will actually explode on contact with water. "You need to watch for these thin, long strips of what looks like aluminum foil," he said. The strips are lithium, taken out of lithium batteries. "You don't want to get water on those."
As Bartkowski went through the procedure for making meth, he cited several highly dangerous chemicals employed in producing the drug. Making meth is a very dangerous job, his training made clear, for more reasons than simply being illegal. The danger increases dramatically with the stupidity of the makers; judging from some of the stories Bartkowski told, that condition seems rampant.
"They'll do things that are incredibly dangerous," he said. He spoke of one part of the process that often involves taking a highly volatile container in a car. "Suddenly it explodes, and the car windows are blown out. You just hope their kids aren't in the car."
Over the 90-minute training, volunteers were told the entire meth-making process, from beginning to end. During that time, six batches of meth could have been made-the process can be completed within about 15 minutes.
"They've gotten faster with the process," Bartkowski said. "They get it quicker over time."
Bartkowski went over a brief history of meth, saying it was invented by German scientists in 1878 but left largely overlooked by the scientific community of the time. During World War II, American scientists took a fresh look at it with a view toward sustaining the stamina of troops. Because of meth's dramatic and pick-me-up high-kind of like caffeine on mega-steroids-the U. S. military began issuing the drug to ground troops. It came in a cylinder that allowed meth vapors to be quickly inhaled. Highly addictive, the drug became covetously sought when troops began coming home. It was outlawed in 1960, whereupon illegal manufacturing immediately started.
Meth has an enormous advantage for its users over most other drugs, Bartkowski said. Typical highs from heroine and cocaine last only up to four hours. A meth high can last 12 to 16 hours. But its very advantage also becomes one of its most perilous faults.
"You take meth and you've got this 16-hour high," Bartkowski said. "You start to come down, and you need more right away. You can keep this going for four or five days, running on this high and not even sleeping the whole time."
But when sleep does come, which it inevitably does as the body hits its clear limits, a meth user can go into a slumber so deep that children and pets will go unfed and unattended-even their own bodily functions are often left to occur of their own on the bed. When the body is finally rested, the whole cycle begins again.
"Meth users will do anything they have to, to keep buying more and more meth," Bartkowski said. Commonly cited practices for meth users include selling off food stamps and WIC benefits and ubiquitous thievery.
Bartkowski said there are a number of key indicators that are clear signs of a meth maker. "If you see a plastic two-liter soda bottle wrapped with duct tape," he said, "you can give us a call; that's most likely someone making meth." Unusual quantities of Sudafed (the most essential element in the making of meth), match packs with the striking portion of the pack scraped off, and lithium batteries are also signs of a meth lab.
A seemingly innocuous sign of a meth user is tins of Altoids or similar breath mint containers sitting in a car. "If we see an Altoids container," Bartkowksi said, "we know to check it out." Meth is commonly carried in such containers.
Volunteers for the fire department are actively sought by the department to complement its existing contingent of volunteers. Trainings occur most Monday nights at 7 p.m. at the fire hall on Court Street. The next volunteer training is Oct. 12.
Vintage cars try to tame the Loops
Andrew Christiansen
Reporter
Two separate groups tried to tame the Maryhill Loops this month, one going downhill and the other heading up. The results in both cases are best described as draws with very few spectators or participants disappointed with the outcome.
Last week Maryhill Museum of Art opened the Maryhill Loops to the Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts (SOVREN) for their annual timed runs up the famed course that is older than the vintage cars that run it. The weather was much more cooperative than it was for the International Gravity Sports Association (ISGA) who ran their world cup event during intermittent rain, earlier in September. During that event, the smart racers gave in to the hill and made a point of staying on their skateboards as they slid through the corners. Those who charged ahead crashed on nearly every one of the hill's 25 turns.
While it wasn't rainy, staying on course was still a problem last week. In the words of SOVREN's sole Goldendale member, David Kincaid, Maryhill Loops is the most dangerous course that SOVREN runs. "Increasing radius corners" fool even the most seasoned drivers, a couple of whom saw their cars leave the course on the end of a tow truck.
The event itself is mostly for fun. Even event organizers didn't bother to find out who won, but typical times on the two-mile car course were 2:15 to 2:20, says Kincaid. The cars run one at a time and are in four different categories: prewar (pre-1941), vintage (1941-1961), historic (1962-1969), and formula (single seat, open-wheeled cars up to 1972). Kincaid drove a formula V, meaning powered by Volkswagen, one of several cars he owns.
There were six runs up the hill, supposedly timed, although the clock wasn't working on at least two runs. It didn't really matter. "There is no winner, per se," says Kincaid, "we get points for showing...nobody wants to tear up their vintage cars."
So, the 11th SOVREN Maryhill Loops race, held in conjunction with the "Car is King" weekend at Maryhill Museum of Art, went off without an important hitch and the drivers and crowd that watched the race from trackside or perched high on SR97 had an enjoyable afternoon, perhaps unaware of the unique history of the road. In some ways more unique than the cars that ran it, the Loops were built by Samuel Hill between 1909 and 1913, experimenting with materials and design at a time when the car was certainly not king.
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