MILL CITY, Ore. — A Mill City man is in the hospital after inhaling intense smoke from the Beachie Creek Fire.
Don Crichton barely got away from the flames before they burned his house to the ground.
Crichton's girlfriend, Alison Griffith, took him to Salem Health last week. He was supposed to get discharged Wednesday but his health slid backwards so doctors are keeping him longer; they don't want to risk it with all the smoke outside.
Plus, the couple doesn't have a home to go back to.
Crichton and Griffith lived about six miles outside Mill City. They knew high winds were coming but they didn’t think those winds would push the Beachie Creek Fire to their front door.
“We didn't think there was a chance that it would come to Mill City, especially in the town,” Griffith said. “Just like ‘that’ the wind showed up.”
Minutes later the power went out, smoke thickened and the sky darkened.
She was on the phone with her sons' father who told her the fire was getting closer to where she lived. She and Don had no idea. She hung up and told Don they needed to leave immediately.
“I said, ‘yeah, the fire is right down there! We got to go now. Nobody is coming to tell us. We got to go. The fire is here!’ And the winds were really going and I started seeing embers,” Griffith said through tears, “I was starting to really panic because when I was little my house burned.”
Her car didn't run so she called 911. The operator told her they’d send someone up. Don began packing Alison's stuff.
“He said, ‘honey, we got to get you down but I want to save some of our stuff, this is our life. And we don't have insurance’.
As she got in the ambulance, she recalls Crichton handing her a bag, giving her a kiss and saying, ‘I'll be right behind you’.
“I said, ‘you better come, you better not go back up there and stay. You better be behind me’.”
Griffith says it wasn’t until that moment that their phones went off with an evacuation order, infuriating her.
"No level 1 ‘be ready’, no level 2 ‘get your stuff, be ready to go’. We just got level 3 ‘get out’. And at that point it was almost too late,” said Griffith.
After she got a ride to her parents' house in Lyons - as they, too, packed up their belongings - she didn't hear from Don again. No one could reach him for hours.
So around 4 a.m. Griffith and Crichton’s nephew took back roads and meandered around barricades to get back to Mill City in order to find him.
“It sounded like battle or war,” Griffith described. “The sky was red and smoky, you couldn't see with wind blowing stuff in your eyes and then you hear explosions in the background.”
Crichton finally called to say he was coming down in his truck on the other side of the foot bridge from where Griffith was. His nephew decided to go up the road to meet him.
He hopped in Crichton’s truck and headed to Lyons, where Griffith drove back and met them.
Griffith recalls Crichton coughing relentlessly and being covered head to toe in soot.
“He was upset and he said, ‘honey, I'm sorry. I tried to save your stuff, I'm so sorry’. And I said, ‘I told you I could care less about any of this stuff, you were supposed to be behind me. I just need you,” Griffith said through tears, “I said, ‘I'd never forgive myself if that is why you didn't make it out.’”
She rushed him to Salem Health where he's recovering from smoke inhalation. He has asthma and his lungs were suffering for about a week before this so it’s taking a while for him to heal.
Flames ravaged the home they were renting and the shed on the property, consuming everything they own.
“He said it was the scariest thing. The fire was just taunting him,” Griffith said, “There’s so many people where it was such a close call. And I feel like we should have known, there should have been much more warning.”
The couple feels fortunate they can stay with family when Don gets released from the hospital.
Unfortunately, they had been saving up and collecting things to set up a homestead and now all of that is gone. They set up a GoFundMe if people feel inclined to donate.
She also says she has been blown away by the strength of the Santiam Canyon where communities are tight-knit; everyone is taking care of one another during this time.
Griffith feels humbled by those who have offered to help, both long-time friends and strangers.
“It's horrible that a horrible tragedy has to happen but there are good things that come out of it. And I’m a firm believer that God works in very messed up, mysterious ways,” Griffith said. “I do know that there is a reason. And you just have to wait for that reason.”