JOHN DAY — Firefighters battling the Canyon Creek Complex fire will probably remain on duty for at least another two weeks, and it could take until winter before the fire is completely out.

George Ponte, forest ranger for the Oregon Department of Forestry, told a crowd of about 200 attending a community meeting Sunday that the fire will take a great deal of time and effort to fight.

Ponte spoke during the public portion of the meeting, following a separate meeting for residents who had lost their homes Aug. 14, when the fire went out of control.

At least 36 homes were destroyed in the still-active fire that has burned 48,201 acres and remains uncontained.

Joan Hopper said she didn’t have words for how she felt about losing her home. Her emotions, she said, were still raw.

“The community cares about the community, and that’s the bottom line,” she said. “It’s a beautiful community.”

Ron White said he was working, and unaware of the situation, the day the fire went out of control.

He was living at a friend’s house at Cougar Crossing in the canyon.

After delivering packages in Dayville for the company he works for, he headed home for the day.

“I was told that the Berry Creek Fire was under control and wasn’t concerned about it,” he said. “I came around the corner from work outside Dayville, and that’s when I saw it (the big plume of smoke).”

He said he was stopped at a road closure in Canyon City near the Golden Dragon Restaurant.

“All I got was what I had in my work truck,” he said, adding that he lost guns and other belongings in the fire.

He said that his company is taking good care of him for the time being.

Malheur National Forest Supervisor Steve Beverlin said some of the firefighters, their friends and neighbors also lost homes.

“That hits home, and that’s difficult,” he said. “Our folks are doing everything they can to get that mountain under control.”

He added, “We can’t do it alone, we need the help of everyone. Grant County is a resilient county and will come out the other side — they always do.”

Fire behavior analyst Tobin Kelley said temperatures in the area would be hotter this week, but lighter wind speeds would keep the fire behavior quieter.

“We might see an increase in fires being established at a bottom of a drainage or the bottom of a slope … but without the really strong wind, it’s not going to want to push it,” he said.

Jeff Surber, operations section chief, said there are engines, hand crews, air tankers, helicopters and two Type 1 hotshot crews at work.

“They’re building a line and making sure that gets secure up there,” he said.

He said crews are working at Whiskey Gulch and Pine Creek to create a buffer between houses and the fire coming down the hill.

Red Team Incident Commander Jim Walker, who is the Oregon State Fire Marshal, said his team has structural responsibility for the fire.

“In my opinion one structure lost is one too many, but they did a great job of protecting a large number of structures that day (Aug. 14),” he said.

Over 40 engines with career firefighters from throughout the state have arrived from areas including Hood River, Portland, Toledo, Bend and elsewhere.

“Those are communities that see your community as important,” he said.

“They’re here and will be here as long as they’re needed to do the best job that we can possibly do in protecting the infrastructure of your community as well as your homes,” he said.

Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer described the Canyon Creek area as “an apocalypse.”

He said, “It actually looks like a nuclear bomb went off up in this canyon.”

When the roads open up — which wasn’t expected for a few more days — Palmer said he would like people to be respectful of private property, for drivers to be safety-minded and for caution to be used with fire.

John Day Fire Chief Ron Smith related the Aug. 14 event to the movie “Perfect Storm” where a small fishing boat faces a 100-foot wave.

The wind event that came down through the canyon “created a perfect storm, and the fire won this one,” he said.

He said the Berry Creek and Mason Springs fires — which became the Canyon Creek Complex — were understaffed from the beginning for the amount of terrain involved.

Ten local volunteer firefighters were fighting the fire along with U.S. Forest Service crews, which were also limited due to other fires.

“These folks stayed as long as they possibly could trying to protect exposures until it got so unbearable, then for the sake of safety they were told to back out, come back down,” he said.

“There is nothing here that we have that you can put in a suitcase or watch in your front room that is worth a firefighter’s life,” he added.

Had the circumstances happened on any other day, things may have gone differently, he said.

“The Berry Creek Fire was pretty much close to being a done deal — contained,” he said.

The Mason Springs was acting up Thursday night, but later calmed a little, he said.

“It looked like we had a pretty good handle on it, and then the inversion came through, the cold front,” he said. “We had a big wind, and that’s what sort of blew everything up and sent it down the canyon.”

Think about trying to run 40 or 50 miles an hour — you can’t keep ahead of a fire like that,” he said. “We had brands, the hot spots that the fire picks up and blows, they were dropping those things anywhere from a half-mile to a mile ahead of the fire, so, with limited resources, you do what you can do, and that’s all that you can do.”

He welcomed residents to consider signing up to be a volunteer firefighter for any of the city fire departments in Grant County.

“These firefighters went way above and beyond, and it just didn’t turn out good,” he said.

The meeting closed with a question-and-answer session.

There were queries about when roads would be open and about power to the county.

One man asked about the fire lines.

An official said there are miles and miles of fire line and still not enough people to watch them.

He said planes fly overhead and people call in what they see.

Another person asked if there is any containment of the fire.

An official said the fire is only 5 to 10 percent contained because of natural barriers and added containment would mean they don’t have to constantly watch the fire. He said once it’s pulled in 100 feet, then it’s somewhat contained, and this will happen as more crews fight the fire.

Steve Dunn had a suggestion for the audience.

“I grew up here, I love this county,” he said. “Your forest supervisor said it best — he said they can’t do it alone.”

He said the community could come together to volunteer with the fire chief.

“Here’s my suggestion so that it doesn’t happen again: Get together, create a volunteer wildland fire team under the direction of the chief, and you want to work in partnership with these people,” he said. “Thank them — they’ve done a great job — but do it. These are your forests, you live here, you protect them.”