Recent University of Oregon graduate Sophia Santana and her aunt were cruising through Phoenix, Oregon, on a motorcycle, oblivious that this would be the last time they’d see the town as they’d always known it. The next day, as the Alameda Fire consumed the southern Oregon town, her aunt decided to evacuate early, leaving behind her home that would soon be consumed by the fire.

“The next thing we knew, the whole town was on fire,” Santana said. “I can’t even imagine it, and I saw it.” 

Over 30 fires have burned in Oregon since Monday, Sept. 7, a number that’s fallen to 11 active fires as of press time. The fires displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed approximately one million acres of land, according to a report from the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. Some of the largest fires include the Holiday Farm Fire in Lane County, the Riverside and Beachie Creek fires in Salem, the Archie Creek Fire in Roseburg and the Alameda and South Obenchain fires in Medford.

While some of the fires are under control, the Holiday Farm Fire is still only 14% contained, about two weeks after it ignited. A fire is contained once a control line has been completed around a fire, dividing the black that is burning and the green that could potentially burn. 

Wildfires are not uncommon in Oregon, but this is the first time in several generations that the state has seen so many rip through with such devastating effects, said Alan Dickman, an associate biology professor at UO who studies forest ecology. He attributes the fires to low humidity, a hot, dry summer and extreme east winds — the perfect conditions for wildfires of this magnitude to spread. 

“It just blew up Monday night,” Dickman said of the Holiday Farm Fire. “It just blew up.” 

Santana believes fires in the Ashland area have become increasingly common and more extreme in the last few years due to rising temperatures, but she and her family still did not expect the fire to consume her aunt’s home until it had already happened. 

“We were hearing all these rumors about what was burning, but we really just had no idea,” Santana said. “There was so much misinformation going on.” 

Luckily, her aunt was able to save her trailer home, so the family is living there while taking care of Santana’s 86-year-old great uncle, who is blind and nearly deaf. It’s a difficult situation for all of them, Santana said, but her family is in a much better position than some of the other victims. 

Over half of the families in the Phoenix-Talent school district have been displaced or lost their homes, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting, and many of them are Spanish-speaking and lack a strong grip on English. In effect, they are having a hard time getting connected with resources, so Santana has been volunteering to help translate for those disproportionately affected by the fires. 

“It’s a very conservative area, so even under the circumstances, there’s a lot of people who are like, ‘Well, you should’ve learned English before you came here,’” Santana said. “Even under the weight of such an unbelievable disaster, it’s still such a toxic, angry environment in a lot of ways, and it’s very frustrating.”

Lucy Brossard, the bilingual executive assistant of academics in the Phoenix-Talent school district, said that it has been an all-out effort to make Latinx families feel safe enough to seek help if they need it. 

“We’ve just been out there dispelling rumors and making people feel comfortable that if they access one of our donation centers from our school district, it’s an absolutely, completely safe environment,” Brossard said. “I would rather them be at the Expo than living in their cars in the south Walmart parking lot right now.”

Brossard said that when she first visited the Expo, an evacuation center for those fleeing the Alameda Fire, she noticed that there were few, if any, Spanish speakers. After putting the word out that the Expo needed a bilingual, bicultural staff, she saw a drastic increase in the number of Latinx families that stayed there. 

“We now have bilingual staff in every shift at the Expo so they at least can see someone who can speak their language and not have that barrier anymore,” Brossard said. “We’ve made leaps and bounds as a Latino community to step in and fill the gaps that are needed for services.”

On Sept. 16, Lane County Fairgrounds became a resource center for those fleeing the Holiday Farm Fire. The center offered services such as property information, trauma-informed counseling, medical supplies, relief from smoke and overnight shelter for both people and livestock. 

“It’s kind of a one-stop shop for all those things,” District 5 Commissioner Heather Buch said. 

She also said most people coming in for help were evacuees from the McKenzie Farm and Blue River areas. 

“They need their immediate needs met, which is housing,” Buch said. “And then a lot of them just want to know if their place is still there. So we’re trying to provide that information as fast as possible.” 

What sets these wildfires apart from others is the effect they have had on people, Dickman, the forest ecologist, said. Because there are more people living and doing things out in the forest, they are not only causing more fires but are also present to suffer the consequences. 

“We did have warnings for high winds and fire, so it wasn’t like we didn’t know it could happen. It’s hard to point fingers and blame,” Dickman said. “In hindsight, maybe if we had shut down power lines in those areas it might’ve helped. But when the conditions are like that, the fire just gets wild.”

Many people, including U.S. President Donald Trump, blame these out-of-control fires on poor forest management and fire suppression. But Dickman said that while fire suppression may have been a factor on the east side of the Cascades, it probably did not play a big role in the Holiday Farm Fire in Lane County. 

Fire suppression is when fires are snuffed out immediately, causing forests and grasslands to become overgrown. As a result, when fires escape fire suppression, they burn up all that overgrown vegetation and become more destructive. 

“The question always is: Is it climate change? And of course it could well be,” Dickman said. “It’s consistent with what climatologists say about more extreme weather. The forest on the west side typically burns infrequently, but not like this.”

Oregon firefighters have been working each day, fighting the fires that have burned down their own homes and the homes of their friends and families, according to Clementine Johnson, a firefighter who grew up in the McKenzie Bridge area. Her first fire season has been more personal than she ever expected it to be. 

“I haven’t fought fires in Oregon yet, and since it’s a little bit closer to home, it might be harder to do,” Johnson said. “It’s hard keeping an objective with it and not getting too caught up in emotions.” 

Johnson fought her first fire in California earlier this summer and just returned from a month-long firefighting project in Colorado. Now, she is in Salem helping contain the Riverside Fire by digging lines and mopping up, which means digging through ash and putting out flames in hot roots. 

Dickman said there could be new ignitions, as conditions are still very dry and lightning is expected to strike. This fire will likely burn and smolder into the winter, he said, but when the rainy season starts up again, things will die down. 

“We’re hoping that west winds make it a little better, but it’s probably going to be slow,” Dickman said. “We’re not out of the woods yet, so to speak.”