FEATURE
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By Magdalena Bokowa
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s 30 different wildfires continue to burn—so vast they can be seen from space—toxic flames that blanketed the West Coast have forced many Central Oregonians to grapple with this grim and historic event, first-hand. More than 7,500 firefighters from nearly 40 states and three Canadian provinces are battling the blazes in Oregon, according to the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. Data shows nine people dead, five still missing, with a staggering 2,268 homes destroyed, along with 1,556 other structures. More than 2,500 evacuees are in shelters scattered across the state—including dozens in emergency housing in Central Oregon. Nearly 3,400 survivors have signed up for individual assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The effects—beyond the smoky haze—are staggering. What was once old growth. Gone. As the winds howled and gusted up to 60 miles per hour on the eve of Labor Day Monday, Kiger Plews, 29, prepped for the upcoming windstorm by going into town and buying batteries in case the power went out. His house, near the McKenzie River in the tiny incorporated town of Vida, sat right next to his brother’s and his parents’. Plews was calm. His other family members were not. “My brother was a little more on edge than normal because it was so dry
out,” says Plews. They knew downed power lines could quickly start wildfires. “Whereas my mom just had this sinking, gut feeling, knowing the winds were strong and coming from the east. She knew something was off and different about this situation. We had scares before in that area, but it was just those high winds and the dryness. She knew it was the perfect storm.” Plews’ mother didn’t just have a sixth sense about fire; she had 30 years of experience dealing with it. Chief Christina Rainbow Plews, or Chief Rainbow, as she prefers to be called, is the fire chief of the Upper McKenzie Rural District Fire Department—one of fewer than 50 women in the U.S. to be ranked that high. Kiger Plews recalls the moment he heard the fire alarms go off in his mother’s home, signaling a downed powerline at the Holiday Farm RV Park, which blew into some grasses and started off as less than 1/10th of an acre in size—the start of the devastating Holiday Farm Fire. Sticking his head out the window, he watched as his mom ran to her rig, wildland gear on, to begin what would be a nearly 60-hour work shift. As she left, she said to his dad, “This is my worst nightmare.” Within hours, the fire, pushed by those strong winds that she had feared so much, would jump across Highway 126 and into residential areas. She Kiger Plews
A scene from Vida, where multiple members of the Plews family—one of whom is fire chief for the Upper McKenzie Rural District Fire Department—lost their homes.
Kiger Plews
Kiger Plews’ home in Vida, Oregon—along with the homes of other members of his family were devastated in the Holiday Farm Fire.
would be calling a Level 3—a “Go Now” evacuation order, and within hours, the fire would stretch more than 20 miles, incorporating the communities of McKenzie Bridge, Blue River and Vida. “I think everybody sort of thought I’d lost my mind,” Chief Rainbow said about issuing the Level 3 order. “It was clearly getting bigger by the minute, faster than we could drive.” She didn’t think the fire would stretch the 20 miles her order extended it to, she said, but it did. Officials have agreed her choice to evacuate so extensively prevented catastrophic loss of life. Chief Rainbow effectively saved hundreds of lives as she and her volunteer battalion drove around blasting sirens and personally knocking on doors telling people to get out. Those areas have since been dubbed by those who’ve returned as a “total loss.” In Blue River, just east of McKenzie Bridge along Highway 126, one resident, Sean Davis, said, “It doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just a name.” In the Holiday Farm Fire, an estimated 173,094 acres have burned, with over 300 structures reported lost. Among
those are the homes of about a half-dozen firefighters on Chief Rainbow’s crew—including her own family’s. A recent GoFundme set up by Bend resident and Blue River native Kaili Swetland, whose own family lost structures within the fire, garnered more than $50,000 for the McKenzie Bridge firefighters who lost those homes. Kiger Plews is overwhelmed by the devastation, but also remarks on the unity among Oregonians. “I would never wish this upon my worst enemy,” he said. “The feeling of helplessness, vulnerability, fright, anger, anything you can think of, it’s all rolled up into one emotion. “But at the same time, I think a lot of people might have lost hope in the good of people, the good in society. And it’s really shitty that it had to be something like this to shed light on the fact that there are still a lot of really, really, really good people out there. “Over the last few days, I’ve seen people from opposite ends of the political and cultural spectrum, people from different parts of the U.S., different Continued on page 10
VOLUME 24 ISSUE 32 / SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 / THE SOURCE WEEKLY
Survivors speak, climate scientists weigh in on the historic devastation of the Oregon wildfires
