A rural fire chief and several of her volunteer firefighters in Oregon lost their homes and station house to the Holiday Farm Fire as they battled the blaze for the last few days.
Except for Plews, every firefighter on the team is a volunteer who adds the dangerous work to an already bustling life. Samantha Winningham, a lieutenant with the Upper Mckenzie crew, is one of those volunteers.
“Literally the whole town of Blue River is totally leveled, so three of our houses and our business, the fire station, the post office, the local clinic,” Winningham said. “And we’re in a really small community, so a lot of our close family friends [lost their homes] too. It's all gone.” She and the rest of the crew went door-to-door to evacuate families, dealing with heavy winds that sent embers that forced them to hide behind their equipment. All the while there was barely any cell reception, making it difficult to even know how their loved ones were doing.
In the days she’s been able to spend with her family, and almost everyone in their small town who has been displaced, Winningham said she’s been able to find some hope that Blue River will rebuild better than it was before. Lindsie Cline, right, hugs her sister-in-law Brittany Cline at an evacuation center in Springfield, Ore., on Sept. 10, 2020, after their families fled the Holiday Farm Fire.“Rainbow made the call to raise the evacuation level early so that the citizens in her jurisdiction had time to get out safely,” one of the fundraising organizers, Wren Arrington, said in the GoFundMe description. “Rainbow is a full blown, grass roots, salt-of-the-earth hero.
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