Homeowners fleeing fire east of Lincoln City tell harrowing tale of their escape Wednesday as blaze doubled to 2,400 acres

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

Dale Voris was sleeping at his parents’ home along Oregon Highway 18 in Otis when he heard the loud knock on the door at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“Get out now!” the Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy yelled.

Voris on Tuesday had already prepared his parents, Rick and Debbie Voris, to evacuate as two fires north of the highway threatened the rural-residential areas around Otis and Rose Lodge.

“When the deputy knocked on the door it was on top of us,” Voris told YachatsNews on Thursday from his home in Hillsboro. “It was a quick grab-and-go and down the driveway we went.”

What they encountered was an inferno as the two-day-old Echo Mountain fire doubled in size to 2,400 acres Wednesday and jumped to the south side of the busy highway connecting Lincoln City with the Willamette Valley.

The video that Voris took with his cell phone shows trees and structures erupting in flames as he raced west into Lincoln City from his parents’ home two miles up Highway 18. (Warning: The video contains language some might find offensive.)

“It was intense and scary,” said Voris, who grew up in Lincoln City and still has a gutter business there.

Voris was able to get back into the area Wednesday afternoon. The inferno somehow spared his parents’ home, he said, but hundreds of others were not so lucky.

Homes along North Bank Road were lost, as were many homes along North Panther Creek Road and its side streets north of the Salmon River. Some homes in Highland Estates, which sits to the south above the highway, burned. Two mobile home parks, Salmonberry and Cherry Hill, suffered losses, as did some properties along East Devils Lake Road.

Staff from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife’s hatchery along the Salmon River were evacuated but the hatchery was spared.

“We’re blessed. We’re lucky,” Voris said Thursday. “There are so many others who are just devastated. It’s absolutely shocking to see. It’s devastating and heartbreaking.”

The Oregon Department of Forestry said it could be days before an accurate and official account of the losses are available. The Oregon Office of Emergency Management’s website on Friday was listing 100 structures lost in the fires, but ODF officials said they had no idea where that number came from.

“No one’s out there and counting yet,” Ashley Lertora, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said Friday.

But the agency’s infrared maps and video by homeowners posted to various Facebook groups show the devastation wreaked by the Echo Mountain and Kimberling fires.

“There were numerous structures lost,” Michael Curren, district forester for the ODF’s west Oregon district, told YachatsNews on Thursday.

Fires double in size Wednesday

Coastal communities in Lincoln County were struck this week by unusual east winds that reached 55 mph and forests that had grown tinder-dry during a long summer. The resulting chaos — downed trees, power lines, smoke from Oregon and local fires — also came as residents and local governments were were trying to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting impact on businesses and vital summer tourists. Hundreds of people, a nursing home and even a hospital were forced to evacuate in north Lincoln County and just as many or more people stepped up to help.

The two fires burning east of Lincoln City grew from 1,000 acres Tuesday to 2,400 acres Wednesday and reached the north edge of the city.

After evacuating people in the fire’s path Wednesday, fire crews Thursday began attacking the fires, creating containment lines as weather improved. What caused the fire has not yet been determined.

Much of Lincoln City was without power again Friday morning because of an outage by Pacific Power, which provides electricity to that area. Lincoln City police said it appeared a tree had fallen across a main line and that the utility was trying to locate the problem and fix it.

On Thursday, firefighters were able to keep the blaze within its existing boundaries, said Lertora.

“Thursday was a really good day,” Lertora said. “We were able to keep the fire within its footprint. We were able to get a little more on the offensive.”

Fire bosses have been able to get into some neighborhoods, she said, but a full report on how many homes and other structures have been damaged or destroyed will have to be done by an assessment team from outside the area.

Although the area is still closed to the public, Lertora said some property owners are trying to get back into the fire zone to see if their homes were burned or spared.

“We all understand the anxiety,” she said. “But people need to stay away. It’s still an active fire zone.”

There are just 100 firefighters from the Oregon Department of Forestry, firefighters from Newport, Lincoln City and Depoe Bay departments, and loggers from private forest companies battling the blazes. There are no air tankers or helicopters available to help because massive and deadly fires near Estacada, in the Santiam Canyon, along the McKenzie River and near Medford have stretched all firefighting resources thin across Oregon.

“Normally a 2,400-acre fire is a big deal, especially on the west side,” said Lertora. “But the others are mega-fires.”

The agency is getting help from a small incident management team flying in from Florida. There are 11 engines, seven water tenders, nine bulldozers and two tree-falling crews. Six hand crews include personnel and heavy equipment from Hancock Forest Management, Weyerhaueser, Miami Corp., and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and four 10-man crews from Oregon correctional facilities in Tillamook and Salem.

Strong east winds that raked the area earlier in the week died overnight Wednesday and Thursday there were light winds from the south/southwest that could help the fire stop advancing to the west.

“We finally have most people out of the way,” Lertora said. “Today we can really get in there and attack the fire.”

Thursday evening fire managers reported that moderate weather had allowed crews to “gain traction and make progress towards extinguishing this fire,” according to an ODF news release.

Curran said it was too dangerous Wednesday to get crews into the heart of the fire. Trees, limbs and power lines were still coming down, he said.

“The fire is not moving too fast anymore,” he said.

Curran said as winds shift from east to west crews will also be focusing on creating containment lines so the Kimberling fire east of Rose Lodge does not move east into the heavily treed Van Duzer corridor of Highway 18.

“To be clear, it has not moved east at all,” he said. “We’re just putting in good work to keep it from moving that way.”

Curran said while a 2,400-acre fire on the west slope of the coast range is unusual, it’s not without precedent.

“Some of the largest fires in the history of the state have occurred in the Coast range,” he said, referring to the 350,000-acre Tillamook Burn that ravaged the northwest Oregon coast from 1933-51. “We do see fires of this (current) size in the coast range, but just not as often as people experience in central and southern Oregon.”

Echo Mountain and Kimberling fires

Lincoln County and the ODF issued some updates Thursday, including:

• Evacuation orders are still in effect for north Lincoln City, Otis, and Rose Lodge areas. No one is allowed back in these areas. Some evacuees may be allowed back Thursday into areas that are no longer in danger;
•  There is new fire growth north of the Panther Creek area of the Echo Mountain fire. Bulldozers are working in most areas Thursday with the goal of completing containment lines Friday. Fire crews are working in the Kimberly Mountain area to protect communication towers and equipment;
• There is still have a thick layer of smoke in the area from the fires and the county is also receiving smoke from fires in the Cascade range;
• Electrical power is still out in parts of Lincoln City and north county areas. Pacific Power crews are walking the ground to inspect lines and equipment. Other crews are clearing the area of timber and debris making it safe to restore power lines. Power needs to be restored before people are allowed to return to their homes and road closures lifted. Restoring power to the hospital is a priority so it can reopen.

How events unfolded Wednesday

Other details from Wednesday include:

• The Lincoln City evacuation ordered by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office initially covered homes and businesses from Northeast 40^th Street – which is near the Safeway on the north side of town – all the way to Otis. It included all of the homes on East Devils Lake Road. The evacuation area expanded throughout the day Wednesday. The Echo Mountain fire burning southwest toward Lincoln City set a spot fire near the Chinook Winds casino’s golf course, which prompted the county’s evacuation notices.
• An evacuation center was initially set up at the casino but had to be moved to Oregon Coast Community College in the South Beach area of Newport after the area around the casino was also ordered evacuated. Wednesday evening the American Red Cross moved the site to the Newport Recreation Center, where 223 people spent the night. Camping areas for evacuees were also opened at Toledo High School.
• Residents of one assisted living center in north Lincoln City were taken to the Shilo Inn in Newport, where they were being sheltered. The Newport Chamber of Commerce was asking for community help to feed them.
• Early Friday, the Oregon Department of Transportation reopened U.S. Highway 101 through Lincoln City. It had been closed to through-traffic since Wednesday. Oregon Highway 18 is still closed.  Travelers should check ODOT’s TripCheck website for updates.
• Nine patients and staff from Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital were evacuated Wednesday morning and taken to its sister hospital in Newport. Samaritan also closed its clinics.
• Oregon State University closed its Hatfield Marine Science Center and Extension offices in Newport Wednesday until further notice.
• The Lincoln County School District announced there would be no work Thursday and Friday for district employees. “Stay home and care for your families and for yourselves,” Superintendent Karen Gray said in a districtwide email.
• Members of South Beach Church in Newport served meals to evacuees Wednesday night, and were making plans for meals the rest of the week.

Links to information and resources you can explore yourself

Air quality in Yachats (or your local area) from AIRNOW.gov

Oregon fire and smoke interactive map: The Statesman-Journal newspaper in Salem has a map updated hourly.

The National Weather Service forecast for the central Oregon coast.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s emergency management website

Complete fire reports from throughout the Northwest from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center

Oregon Office of Emergency Management dashboard on current fires

Link to OregonLive’s Wednesday morning fire news

Oregon road closures, warnings from the Oregon Department of Transportation

Central Lincoln PUD’s map of electrical outages

People who evacuate can register as safe or check on people who registered as safe here