DETROIT, Ore. — As the Beachie Creek fire spreads north and northwest in Marion County, the team handling it said a lot of their efforts are shifting from rescue and evacuations toward protecting structures.
The goal is to try and prevent others from going through the sudden, treacherous departure others in Oregon had to make, like those fleeing Detroit earlier this week.
“It feels like Armageddon,” said Kelley Faiman. “I know I’ve seen some pictures but I know when I actually get there, it’s going to really hit me.”
Faiman, like many others, isn’t sure when she'll be able to return to her home. Detroit, the community she loves, made foreign by flames.
“I was just paralyzed,” she said. “I didn’t realize what was happening.”
The memory is clear. Faiman said she and her husband fled their cabin early Tuesday, tearing through a tunnel of fire as rocks and trees fell.
“I kept thinking ‘Can I drive over this tree? I don’t know if I can but if I have to, I’m going to try.’ Because it was the scariest feeling I ever had. I felt so trapped.”
Faiman's neighbor, Elizabeth Smith, left Monday because she had a bad feeling fire could come creeping in. By mid-week, Smith was able to get some videos of her community from a friend.
“It looks like a bomb went off,” Smith said. Her primary home is in Keizer, where she’s now working with other community members to help those displaced from Detroit.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do going forward when there’s no water, there’s no electricity, there’s no cell phone service,” she said. “City hall was burned.”
As for when people can return to their affected neighborhoods in Marion County, the timeline is still unclear. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office set up a roadblock heading west from Salem on Highway 22 toward the Detroit Lake Area.
Access is also restricted in the Stayton area. The wait to pick up the pieces weighs heavy on those who can’t go home like Faiman, especially because this disaster defies history.
“We had fires before and I guess I just didn’t want to believe it was really going to happen.”