Into the fire and out the other side

It was supposed to be a day to remember a dear friend and celebrate a couple’s new life together. It ended up as the beginning of a long nightmare for so many in Eastern Oregon.

Julie Mansfield Smith looks back on the wildfires that began with lightning strikes around her home in Kimberly with equal measures horror and appreciation. The fires grew, moved fast and devoured along the way, but the owner of Mossy Oak Cupper Creek Land Company also saw neighbors helping neighbors and the power of firefighters and fire suppression crews who worked long hours to save all they could.

“It was an eye-opening combination of community and amazing people who literally saved our home,” she said. “The smoke, the fire and the noise, I felt like I was in Groundhog Day, constantly reliving it day after day. I am fortunate because we made it through it, but several people I know lost their homes.

“We were supposed to go to a funeral and a wedding on Aug. 17, and we didn’t go to the funeral because the smoke was coming. By the time the wedding started at 6 p.m. in Monument, the whole town was full of firefighters.”

Heroes to the rescue

Smith and her husband, Brad, found themselves sandwiched in nearly every direction by fires near their home. They are fortunate to have a country road and highway by them to provide exit routes and bit of a barrier. They also used irrigation to wet the land in the event the fires reached them.

“That made it easy for the water trucks to put down water and keep the fire from crossing gravel,” she said.

The fire would get as close as the boundary line of their property before fire suppression crews arrived with helicopters ready to drop water and bulldozers clearing a path of vegetation. An ordeal that began Aug. 17 for the Smiths was beginning to come to an end as the choppers took water out of the river and doused the flames, extinguishing the immediate threat.

“I felt like I was in a movie, those guys were amazing,” she said. “We watched them grab the water, zoom right over our heads and across the road, and dumped it on the fire before it could cross the road.”

The Smiths gathered with neighbors from miles around to watch the crews work with effortless efficiency to end the threat. Fear was replaced with gratitude. The winds would continue to fuel the fire in different directions, but neighbor after neighbor moved with it to help put trails around each property to lessen the impact.

“The more we protected them, the more we protected us,” Julie said.

Protect your property

Julie said many neighbors and others she knows lost all or significant parts of their property to the fires. While nothing can 100% keep structures safe from a fire, there are measures owners can take to increase the odds:

• Use fire resistant building material.

• Clean roof surfaces and gutters regularly.

• Remove portions of any tree extending within 10 feet of the flue opening of any stove or chimney.

• Landscape vegetation such as shrubs should be spaced at least 15 feet apart.

• Remove low hanging branches from trees.

• Maintain a fuel break around all structures.

“The fire crews did an excellent job – just thinking about it puts a lump in my throat – but we still lost homes,” Smith said. “That is devastating.”

For more information on how to protect structures during a fire, visit the National Interagency Fire Center.

Loss and growth

Julie previously sold some of the impacted properties. Some were fortunate with the fires moving so quickly it took the grass but left trees and structures while others were not as lucky as the intense heat of the flames took nearly everything.

“In my line of work, we know the fires are going to come, they do every year, but this is the first time they hit so close to home,” she said. “It is going to take me some time to wrap my head around the range of emotions we have had to deal with.”

Brad, a veteran of fighting fires, jumped into action to help others.

“When this started, there wasn’t a lot of resources here, so I took my Caterpiller and started making fire lines around people’s houses,” he said. “The worst problem we had was the wind because it just would not quit. You would get one fire but the wind would blow ambers a few hundred yards and start another fire over there.”

The efforts of many helped save land and structures because “if you can help someone, you help,” Brad said.

The Smiths implore everyone to think before they throw a cigarette out the window or light a firework. A spark can lead to so much damage and destruction.

“Use common sense,” Brad said.

Julie said the fires led to a lot of hardship for many, but also served some purpose of ridding nature of the dead and overgrown foliage which will promote new growth and nutrients in the soil.

“You can replace material things, but you can’t put a price tag on your family and friends,” she said. “To see so many people and neighbors working together and helping each other, good things can come out of a bad situation.”