CANBY, Ore. (KATU) — The evacuation level for about 40 homes in the Canby-Oregon City area was downgraded from Level 3 to Level 1 after several fire departments and a helicopter spent all Friday morning dropping water to keep a wildfire from reaching a residential area.
According to Canby Fire Chief Jim Davis, the first emergency responders arrived around 2 a.m. to a fire that broke out at the foot of a cliffabout 50 feet off Highway 99 near Canby.
He said the fire moved quickly up the slope and came dangerously close to four homes.
“The original crew were extremely concerned that the fire could spread to the decks, even to the decks,” he said.
“The fire literally came within three feet of their back fence, and that back fence is only about ten feet from their back wall,” said Izak Hamilton, spokesman for Clackamas Fire.
Firefighters from Canby, Clackamas, Molalla, Aurora, Hubbard, Woodburn and Tualatin Valley battled the fire for hours.
A helicopter pilot arrived and dropped 1,000 gallons of water per load, helping to bring the fire under control within two hours, by 1 p.m.
“The helicopter was incredible,” Davis said. “It probably saved us four days of work that we would have spent getting to these hot spots.”
“Every single one of those drops knocked down a huge portion of the fire,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know how to describe it. You just feel a sense of relief when you see it coming over the hill.”
Karylnn Riedlinger lives in one of the homes in the Level 3 zone. She and her family watched the flames all night, hoping they wouldn’t come anywhere near their home.
“We saw the flames back there at our neighbor’s stables,” she said. “If there were flames there, we would leave.”
Riedlinger said those neighbors rounded up their horses in the middle of the night and left. She and her family packed up their trailer and were ready to leave as well.
“You’re never prepared until it happens,” she said.
Riedlinger said that after the helicopter arrived, they felt that everything was OK. The pilot was able to make short flights to the nearby Willamette River and back.
“We counted the helicopters and how quickly they filled up,” she said. “We counted the minutes. Each round trip took a minute and a half before they left to get water and came back.”
The area remains a Level 1 evacuation zone.
The fire department will monitor the area for fire sources over the next 24 hours.
