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ByHeatherHoelscher hhoelscher@redbluffdailynews.com @DN_Heather on Twitter RED BLUFF A Red Bluff High School junior and varsity swim- mer competed Sunday in the Al- catraz Invitational, a mile and a quarter race in San Francisco Bay. A passionate swimmer and athlete, 16-year-old Ellie Fletcher pushed her own limits and de- cided to join her stepfather and his friend in the race. "My step-dad has been swim- ming (the Alcatraz Invitational) for about six years and I have been a swimmer since I was about five," Fletcher said. "I heard about if from him and then we started training for it." Fletcher has actively been in swim competitions since she be- gan swimming 11 years ago. She was involved in Tritons swim team and with Sun Oaks Aquat- ics Racing in Redding. "I have been swimming all summer for a summer team," Fletcher said. "I also swim for the high school, so that has kind of been my training." Fletcher also joined her team- mates, stepfather Mark O'Sullivan and his friend Billy Groom, at a lake to do some open-water swim- ming to continue her training for the big day. "They helped her a lot," said Linda O'Sullivan, Fletcher's Mother. Fletcher placed 90th in the wet suit group, out of the 530 who par- ticipated. SWIM Localteen completes Alcatraz Invitational COURTESYPHOTO Pictured, from le , are Billy Groom, Ellie Fletcher and Mark O'Sullivan a er they finished the Alcatraz Invitation swim competition. By Janie Har The Associated Press MIDDLETOWN Two men died af- ter rejecting orders to evacuate. Two others were killed after de- clining pleas by friends and fam- ily to leave. Some survivors say they never even received notice that one of the most destructive California wildfires in recent memory was quickly approaching and they should leave immediately. Five people were killed when a pair of wildfires tore through Northern California, blowing up unexpectedly during a heat wave and burning hundreds of hard- to-reach homes, many prized for their privacy. The death toll has raised ques- tions about whether more could have been done to save lives. Authorities defended their warnings and rescue attempts, saying they did all they could to reach people. "You may get that notice, or you may not, depending on how fast that fire is moving. If you can see the fire, you need to be going," said Lynnette Round, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire. Round said 66-year-old Mark McCloud and 82-year-old Owen Goldsmith died after rejecting evacuation orders to leave their Calaveras County homes. The body of 72-year-old Bar- bara McWilliams, who used a walker, was found in her home in Anderson Springs in the other fire in Lake County. Her caregiver, Jennifer Hitt- son, said there were no evacua- tion orders when she left McWil- liams' home around 3 p.m. Sat- urday and no indication the fire was serious. High school math teacher Bill Davis, who lives near McWil- liams, said he watched the smoke rise, but it wasn't until the elec- tricity failed that he called Cal- Fire and waited on hold for an hour. "When I finally got through ... they said my street was not on an evacuation order, but you might want to leave. I was never told, 'Get the hell out of there, there's a huge fire coming at you,'" he said. By 5:30 p.m., with the smoke thicker and helicopters grounded, he knew he should go. "That's when I started rounding up my cats and leav- ing," he said. 5 PEOPLE KILLED Some say they weren't warned about wildfires Staff Report RANCHO TEHAMA Tehama County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched Thursday to the 17000 block of Statecoach Road to respond to a report of a man in possession of a firearm and a machete attempting to set a neighbor's fence and property on fire. They identified the suspect as Omar Soriano-Marcelino, 37, of Rancho Tehama. He was ar- rested and booked into Tehama County jail on felony charges of evading arrest, terrorist threats, arson, possession of a short bar- rel shotgun and resisting arrest, according to a press release is- sued Friday by the Tehama County Sheriffs' office. Through investigation, it was learned that Soriano-Marcelino had threatened to shoot the vic- tim and burn the victim's house down. He did suc- cessfully light the fence and the vic- tim's shed on fire with minimal damage, accord- ing to the release. Before Soriano- Marcelino was identified, he fled the scene, accord- ing to the release. He later drove past the victim's residence, when the victim pointed out and iden- tified him. Deputies attempted to stop the vehicle, but were unable to due to the pursuit reaching speeds up to 70 mph. The car pursuit ended when Soriano-Marcelino drove down Horseshoe Court, a dead end road. He armed himself with a short barreled shotgun and a machete and fled the scene, ac- cording to the release. At 6:48 p.m., Soriano-Mar- celino was found in the area of Shawnee Court and was still in possession of the machete and shotgun. He refused to follow commands to drop his weap- ons. He then put down the shot- gun and machete but contin- ued to advance on deputies, ac- cording to the release. He was stopped with a Taser and taken into custody. Bail was set at $218,000. RANCHO TEHAMA Mancaughtafterpursuit Community.....A3 Opinion............A4 Farm ................A5 Weather ........B10 Sports.............. B1 Classifieds......B9 Index............... ## INDEX Pet adoptions may happen quickly for many of our furry friends. Regrettably, there are some who languish. PAGEA3 COMMUNITY Thechallengeofless adoptable animals North State elected officials will host a forum Tuesday to hear from experts about the future of water. PAGE A6 LIFESTYLES Water forum scheduled for Tuesday in Chico Bowe Bergdahl le post as part of elaborate plan to expose problems in unit, in- vestigator says. PAGE A10 MILITARY HEARING Investigator: Bergdahl tried to show problems Seven avid hikers smiled for a group photo before heading into a narrow canyon in Zion National Park. PAGE A7 ZION NATIONAL PARK Photo found a er floods reveals hikers who died PHOTOS BY JULIE ZEEB — DAILY NEWS Chandes Goodin checks some of the plants she is growing as part of her job at the Sacramento River Discovery Center through a grant being administered in Tehama County by the Job Training Center. By Julie Zeeb jzeeb@redbluffdailynews.com @DN_Zeeb on Twitter REDBLUFF The Job Training Center has taken on the task of pairing employers with em- ployees and the drought all at the same time. The organization has been selected to help with an $18 million federal grant the state received, the National Dislo- cated Worker grant, that was then given to two consor- tiums to administer state- wide. The Northern Rural Train- ing and Employment Consor- tium was awarded one of the two grants and is who the Job Training Center is work- ing with for this project, said Business Services and Mar- keting Manager Kathy Gar- cia. "As we have been in a drought, the workforce de- velopment community has asked what it can do to help," said Development Manager Carrie Ferchaud. "What we landed on was deploying a work force to high impact drought relief projects and planting people in good work sites." Phase one of the grant was awarded in July with the tar- get population being those who had been unemployed on a long-term basis and those people who had been affected by drought, Ferchaud said. "We placed those peo- ple qualified in work sites for public agencies and non- profits where they could work to relieve the effects of the drought. It's been really fun to match the candidates. We know from history that we can't change the drought, but we can impact it." Projects include the re- placement of inefficient irri- gation systems and measur- ing an orchard to determine how much watering is actu- ally needed, Ferchaud said. A group has created a web- site: http://redbluffsaveswa- ter.org/ that shows the effect the drought has and water conservation tips. Another group endeav- ors to educate the public through a speaker series that focuses on the drought, co-hosted by the Job Train- ing Center, the city of Red Bluff and the Resource Con- servation District of Tehama County. On Sept. 9, the group gave the first presen- tation on efficiency in land- scaping and how to have healthy soils. Presentations are slated for Sept. 30, Oct. 14 and Oct. 28. For more in- formation on the series, call 527-3013, ext. 116. Interns learn new skills while gaining job history and sometimes get to teach peo- ple at their job sites things they know, Ferchaud said. Tehama County receives group of drought interns TEHAMA COUNTY Sunny High: Low: 96 60 PAGE B10 Soriano- Marcelino Pictured from le Angelina Chamblee, Monique Tacke and Alan Marshall take measurements for a preplan under the supervision of Red Bluff Fire Division Chief Matt Shobash. The trio are interns through a grant program administered through the Job Training Center. WILDFIRE PAGE 9 INTERNS PAGE 9 ALCATRAZ PAGE 9 » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, September 19, 2015 $1.00 AN EDITION OF THE CHICO ENTERPRISE-RECORD Good morning, thanks for subscribing Gary Napier BEEF N BREW Downtown festival kicks off at 5 tonight Farm A5 EDUCATION ReedsCreekclass wins newspaper contest Lifestyles A6 DON'TBE SCAMMED Scamalerts Readour online scam alert section to learn how to avoid being scammed. VISIT REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM/ SCAMALERT Volume130,issue216 7 98304 20753 8