Oregon's Holiday Farm Fire reaches 105,000 acres under severe lack of resources - The Register-Guard

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Jordyn Brown   | Register-Guard

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Oregon's Holiday Farm Fire in the McKenzie Valley grew exponentially Wednesday, expanding the danger area west into the Thurston hills and prompting more evacuation notices as wildfire conditions across the West worsened. 

As of Wednesday morning, fire officials said the wildfire had engulfed 105,000 acres of the McKenzie Valley. That is just an estimate, though, as firefighters are facing a critical lack of resources to fight the blaze. They still were focused on evacuations and saving structures Wednesday.

The fire's potential spread could be tracked by the new Level 3 (“go now”) evacuation notices issued by Lane County early afternoon Wednesday. 

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The "go now" evacuations included areas on Highway 126 from the McKenzie Ranger Station to the intersection of Thurston Road, including all roads to the north and south of the highway up to Walterville School; and Mohawk Valley north of the McKenzie River and east of Marcola Road, including Upper Camp Creek and Camp Creek roads.

There also was a Level 1 ("be ready") notice for Highway 126 to Bob Straub Parkway to Jasper Road east to Thurston Road where it intersects with Highway 126, north to the McKenzie River. That notice displaced the Thurston High School shelter for supplies and support, relocating it to Silke Field next to Springfield High School.

"We're seeing consistent, explosive growth on this fire," said Oregon State Fire Marshal spokesperson Damon Simmons. "This fire is moving, and it's due to these (Red Flag) conditions." 

Normally, for a fire of this size, there would be more than 1,000 firefighters mobilized to attack it, he said. But on Wednesday morning, there were only about 190 available among state and local resources, reflecting an overall lack of firefighters available to battle the many fires across Oregon and the West. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, there were 46 active fires in Oregon that had burned nearly 477,000 acres.

The small number of firefighters that were available was apparent at the Thurston Middle School's Incident Command Center, where there were fewer than 50 tents set up in the field that would typically be filled with tents. 

Because of understaffing, firefighters haven't been able to start addressing the blaze, leaving the Holiday Farm Fire 0% contained Wednesday morning. Officials had no new estimates on the fire’s size or containment just before 3 p.m. Wednesday.

"It's bump-and-run firefighting, it's going from house to house and trying to stop it where we can and then keeping on moving," Simmons said.

More: Utilities in Oregon shut off power in effort to prevent additional fires

"We are not getting opportunities to get a line around this fire right now — we're trying to rescue people from these communities still, we're trying to stop this fire from burning down whole communities when we can."

Air assets are also in high demand, but in order for them to be used, air conditions have to be suitable for flying. Even then, they are typically directed to fires that could be mostly put out after the drop of fire retardant and water, to conserve ground resources.

"But that's a scarce resource on a good day," Simmons said. 

Many Lane County evacuees went to Thurston High School for supplies and support Tuesday and Wednesday, but as the evacuation zone grew, donations were redirected in the afternoon to Silke Field.

Volunteers rushed to organize piles of donated toiletries, unload armfuls of clean socks and clothes and pass out food to people in need. Residents arrived in overwhelming volume to offer what they could to those affected. People also dropped off supplies for the firefighters. Stores and people also dropped off pallets of water and Gatorade, and snacks for those at the incident command center. 

Donations flow in for displaced Oregon residents

Donations for those impacted by the wildfires are directed to Silke Field at Thurston High School in Springfield on Sept. 9, 2020.

Brett Yancey, chief operations officer for Springfield Public Schools, said the district nutrition staff has been serving firefighters since they set up Tuesday.

"It's nice because we're a bigger district, so we have the resources," Yancey said. "The community has really come together."

The start of school also was a casualty of the fires. The Springfield School District on Wednesday delayed the start until Sept. 21. It was supposed to begin Monday.

"The Holiday Farm Fire is affecting SPS families, staff, and the community," an email to parents of Springfield students said. "This time gives everyone some space to cope with the damage, care for friends and family, and to help provide aid to those in need."

Lane County also opened smoke and fire respite centers Wednesday in Eugene and Creswell.

These daytime sites, which have a limited capacity because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are designed to provide places for anyone who does not have access to indoor shelter or power to come indoors.

Sites include Lane Events Center at 796 W. 13th Ave.; Hilyard Community Center at 2850 Hilyard St.; Petersen Barn Community Center at 870 Berntzen Road and Creswell New Hope Baptist Church at 597 S. Front St. The county said the Bob Keefer Center, 250 S. 32nd St. in Springfield, also is set up as a day-use smoke and heat respite center.

Gov. Kate Brown called the state's blazes unprecedented, piling on in a year of other unprecedented events.

Until now, the biggest fires in the Pacific Northwest have been in the eastern or southern parts of the region — where the weather is considerably hotter and drier and the vegetation more fire-prone than it is in the region's western portion.

Fires in 2017 and 2018 crested the top of the Cascade Mountains — the long spine that divides dry Eastern Oregon from the wetter western part of the state — but never before spread into the valleys below, said Doug Grafe, chief of Fire Protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry.

"We do not have a context for this amount of fire on the landscape," he said. "Seeing them run down the canyons the way they have — carrying tens of miles in one period of an afternoon and not slowing down in the evening — (there is) absolutely no context for that in this environment."

This story will be updated. 

Contact reporter Jordyn Brown at jbrown@registerguard.com or 541-338-2203, and follow her on Twitter @thejordynbrown and Instagram @registerguard.

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September 10, 2020 at 07:11AM
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Oregon's Holiday Farm Fire reaches 105,000 acres under severe lack of resources - The Register-Guard

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