Holiday Forest Fire

On the evening of September 7, 2020, Labor Day, a huge fire broke out up the McKenzie River, which is near where we live. It continued on for several weeks burning 173,000 acres of forest destroying  over 400 homes. Amazingly, only one person perished and we had heard that he waited too long to get out as the authorities had advised. 

They say it was caused by a very unusual wind storm, the kind that only happens every 100 years. The wind downed power lines which ignited the fire. The winds were coming from the north and east causing the fire to spread very quickly within a matter of hours engulfing several thousands acres and traveling several miles. 

This is my husband, Eric, cutting down a tree that was still ablaze up at the forest fire. Let me start from the beginning of our story from this event.

We enjoyed a lovely Labor Day holiday floating the Willamette River and picnicking with our kids. 

In the late afternoon, all four of our cell phones went off with an emergency message warning us of very high winds expected in that evening. 

By the time we had gotten home the wind was very strong and it blew in smoke from another fire north east of us. You can see how much our flag is flying in the wind. 

Eric got his wind gage out and measured 29 miles per hour.

It was a very eerie feeling, the sky was dark and it was windy, but it was hot. 

Suddenly our power went out, so we went to bed having no clue what was coming to our county. 

The next morning when we got up the sky was so dark with black smoke. 

We still had no power, so my husband set up our generator and we plugged in a few things including the TV and cable box. 

We turned on the news and were so very sad to hear of the huge fire that had broken out up the McKenzie River. They named it the Holiday Farm Fire as that's where it origniated. We still did not know very many details, but we were devastated to hear that the whole town of Blue River was gone. How can that even be? 

Eric is a skilled timber faller and two days later he was asked to work for the Forest Service to cut down trees that were hazardous or in the way of the first responders. I must admit, I was very worried and concerned for my husband, this was very dangerous work and they wanted him to work 12 hour days indefinitely. Here he is leaving at 5:30am to head up to the fire. My only thoughts were, Lord, please be with him!

At the same time, we still had no power and the air quality was so poor. I'm thankful we had our generator and could keep our refrigerator and freezer running.

We were advised to stay indoors as the Air Quality Index was at 450, which is hazardous. 

I took this photo at 2:00 in the afternoon, it was so dark and eerie, it reminded me of the solar eclipse. 

The fire continued to spread and this was such a scary time for so many people. There were still people missing and many of our friends had been evacuated. I was constantly in prayer. 

Eric took just a couple of pictures from the burn site. This was the morning debrief that the Fire Chief and team held for all the first responders. They did this every day. 

And here's a picture of some of the devastation. He said he had never seen anything like it. Everything was black and so many homes and buildings were just completely gone, all that remained were brick chimneys. 

Eric worked 12 hour days and was just beat when he got home. He basically came in the house, showered, ate dinner, relaxed a bit and went straight to bed. We still had no power, but would watch the news using our generator.  They showed a map of the fire and this is where Eric has been working. Look at how large that fire line is, it's just devastating!

I was not only worried about my husband fighting the fires, but our 3rd son, Grayson, is a lineman, and he was up at the fire site restoring power (this photo is from a few years ago). I'm so very proud of him. 

Grayson recorded the fire as they were driving through, unbelievable! 

This is a photo of his crew working up there. They worked at record speed, removing all of the burnt equipment, erecting new power poles and reinstalling power. 

It was neat when my husband and son met up at the fire and got this picture in front of the historical covered bridge that the firefighters were able to save that first night. 

I was also worried about our youngest son who was working for Oregon Department of Forestry fighting forest fires in The Dalles at the time. 

He works very hard. 

I am so proud of my husband and sons working at dangerous jobs in dangerous conditions. They are true heroes!

Needless to say, these were very stressful and scary times for us, our family, our friends, our community, our State. I am so thankful to God for protecting us.