Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
'Evacuate Now:' Oregon Wildfires Grow as 500K Told To Flee
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
September 11, 2020

Share

SALEM, Ore. — Deadly wildfires in heavily populated northwest Oregon were growing, with hundreds of thousands of people told to flee encroaching flames while residents to the south tearfully assessed their losses.

The number of people ordered to evacuate statewide because of fires rose to an estimated 500,000 — more than 10 percent of the state’s 4.2 million people, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported late Thursday. The number was calculated by determining how many people live in mandatory evacuation zones, said agency spokeswoman Bobbi Doan.

The Oregon Convention Center in Portland was among the buildings being transformed into shelters for wildfire evacuees.

One fire approached Molalla, triggering a mandatory evacuation order for the community of about 9,000 located 30 miles south of Portland. A police car rolled through the streets with a loudspeaker blaring “evacuate now.”

Inmates were being moved from a women’s prison less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Interstate 5 in Portland’s southern suburbs “out of an abundance of caution,” the Oregon Department of Corrections said.

With two large fires threatening to merge, some firefighters in Clackamas County, which includes Molalla, were told to disengage temporarily because of the danger. Officials tried to reassure residents who abandoned their homes and law enforcement officials said police patrols would be stepped up to prevent looting.

A couple, who declined to give their names, embrace while touring in an area devastated by the Almeda Fire, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, in Phoenix, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Many of the Residents Were Immigrants, With Few Resources To Draw On

The local fire department said on Twitter: “To be clear, your firefighters are still working hard on the wildfires in Clackamas County. They are taking a ‘tactical pause’ to allow firefighters to reposition, get accountability & evaluate extreme fire conditions.”

“We haven’t abandoned you,” the fire officials said.

Residents of the small Oregon town of Phoenix near the California state line walked through a scene of devastation after one of the state’s many wildfires wiped out much of their community. A mobile home park, houses and businesses were burned, leaving twisted remains on charred ground.

Many of the residents were immigrants, with few resources to draw on.

Artemio Guterrez stood helplessly next to his pick-up, surveying the rubble of his mobile home. His children sat quietly in the truck bed and waited for him to salvage what he could. He found a ceramic pot with a smiley face on it, some charred miniature houses from a Christmas-themed village and a cross that formed when two pieces of glass melted together.

Guterrez, a single father of four, had been at work at a vineyard nearby when he saw thick smoke spreading through Rogue River Valley. He raced home just in time to snatch his kids from the trailer park where they live alongside dozens of other Mexican families. They got out only with the clothes they were wearing.

“I’m going to start all over again. It’s not easy but it’s not impossible either. You have to be a little tough in situations like this,” said Guterrez, who had just returned from his mother’s funeral in Mexico.

Oregon Officials Haven’t Released an Exact Death Count for the Wildfires

Entire mobile home parks with many units occupied by Mexican immigrants who worked in nearby vineyards or doing construction were reduced to ash in Phoenix and nearby Talent.

“We’re kind of like a family. We’ve known each other for years, since we came here or even before then,” Guterrez said of his neighbors at Talent Mobile Estates. “We’re living day by day.”

As the fire approached Phoenix, Jonathan Weir defied evacuation orders, even as flames 30 feet (9 meters) high shot from trees. Fearing for his life, he drove his car to the entrance of a nearby mobile home park, where his tires began melting. His home was destroyed as the fire hopscotched through the town of 4,000 residents.

“There were flames across the street from me, flames to the right of me, flames to the left of me. I just watched everything burn,” Weir told a reporter.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that 600 homes were burned by the fire that started in Ashland and tore through Phoenix, the Mail Tribune of Medford reported.

Oregon officials haven’t released an exact death count for the wildfires but at least four fatalities have been reported in the state. One person was killed in wildfires in Washington.

Charred trees stand above a neighborhood devastated by the Almeda Fire, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, in Phoenix, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Journalists Have Captured Searing, Intimate Images of Active and Dangerous Wildfires

Oregon officials said they were shocked by the number of simultaneous fires, which stood at 37 Thursday, according to the state Office of Emergency Management.

Gov. Kate Brown said more than 1,400 square miles (3,600 square kilometers) have burned in Oregon over the past three days, nearly double the land that burns in a typical year in the state and an area greater than the size of Rhode Island.

The Pacific Northwest fires fueled unsubstantiated social media posts blaming coordinated groups of arsonists from both the far left and far right for setting the blazes. Officials turned to Facebook to squash the competing narratives.

Journalists have captured searing, intimate images of active and dangerous wildfires burning in California, due in large part to a decades-old state law that guarantees press virtually unfettered access to disaster sites in evacuated areas that are off-limits to the public. The access isn’t as open in other states prone to wildfires.

Back in Phoenix, Marty Curtis considered herself lucky. Her house was spared and she escaped with her cat, Louie.

“You could see the flames. You could hear things popping — gas tanks and propane tanks exploding,” she said. “I have my house. I have my life. I have my cat and I have my job — and right now, that’s all I need.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

DON'T MISS

Fresno Man Ejected From Car Dies Off McKinley Avenue

DON'T MISS

‘Leave It the Way It Is’: Off-Roaders, Hikers React to Proposal to Change 1.4M Acres of Sierra Forest

DON'T MISS

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

DON'T MISS

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

DON'T MISS

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

DON'T MISS

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

DON'T MISS

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

DON'T MISS

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

UP NEXT

North Korea’s Long-Range Missile Test Signals Its Improved, Potential Capability to Attack US

UP NEXT

Visalia Rollerblader Suffered Major Injuries After Being Struck by Vehicle

UP NEXT

Fresno County Man Indicted for Possessing Stolen Guns

UP NEXT

On Elon Musk’s X, Dems Are an Endangered Species While GOP Goes Viral

UP NEXT

New Vehicles, Face Paint and a 1,200-Foot Fall: The US Army Prepares for War With China

UP NEXT

CNN Bars Pro-Trump Guest After His ‘Beeper’ Remark to Mehdi Hasan

UP NEXT

LGBTQ Supporters Drown Out Westboro Baptists’ Anti-Gay Message in Fresno

UP NEXT

The ‘Black Insurrectionist’ Was Actually White. The Deception Did Not Stop There

UP NEXT

Washington Post Says It Will Stop Endorsing Presidential Candidates

UP NEXT

What Happened When a Barber Told Trump About His $15,000 Electric Bill

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

10 hours ago

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

10 hours ago

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

10 hours ago

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

10 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

11 hours ago

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

11 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

11 hours ago

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

11 hours ago

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

12 hours ago

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

12 hours ago

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

A driver suspected of being under the influence crashed into a California Highway Patrol car early Sunday, officials said. Officers were inv...

7 hours ago

A driver suspected of DUI crashed into a parked California Highway Patrol car at a fatal crash scene in Fresno County, sustaining minor injuries and later being cited. (Fresno County SO)
7 hours ago

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

fresno
8 hours ago

Fresno Man Ejected From Car Dies Off McKinley Avenue

8 hours ago

‘Leave It the Way It Is’: Off-Roaders, Hikers React to Proposal to Change 1.4M Acres of Sierra Forest

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in Game 5 of the baseball World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in New York. (AP/Ashley Landis)
10 hours ago

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

Voters cast their ballots at Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas during the last day of in-person early voting in Nevada on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Nearly 75 million people have cast early ballots, making their voices heard amid worry about the process, the outcome and democracy itself. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times)
10 hours ago

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

10 hours ago

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

10 hours ago

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

11 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

Search

Send this to a friend