‘At least we can breathe here’: Oregon wildfire evacuees find safe haven in Boise area

The power went out, permanently this time, at 8 p.m.

As wildfires just miles from Evan Gosa’s home in Blue River, Oregon, painted the sky red and orange, his house was lit only by candlelight. Evan sat inside with his wife, Mackenzie, occupying a strange, momentary calm.

They’d finished packing after hearing that a community 6 miles away had gone straight to a Level 3 evacuation alert — leave immediately. They had gathered camping essentials, a jug of water, some clothes and a live chicken from their coop. Mackenzie packed a wooden bowl that her grandfather had made and some earrings from her grandmother. Larger family heirlooms, such as a set of chests, were too big to bring. They’d get left behind.

“We had some pretty soft and serene moments in our house, not panicking and rushing around trying to grab every single thing,” said Evan, who works as a schoolteacher in Oregon. “We just looked around and appreciated our home. At that moment, I just felt so sure we would be back, and even if we weren’t, we had everything in each other that we needed. It was a strange, kind of peaceful moment — to recognize you need people and love in your life. The rest is replaceable.”

Scenes similar to that, and ones with more panic, likely have played out all across the West this summer, as fires scorch nearly 4 million acres, mostly in Oregon, California and Washington. Thousands of structures and homes have been destroyed in Oregon alone, and evacuations have forced West Coast residents to flee to safety.

The Gosas, like many of their fellow Oregonians, have fled Oregon and found shelter in the Boise area. When police cars broke the silence of their home at midnight, barreling down the street and announcing a Level 3 evacuation, they hopped in the car and joined a throng of vehicles on Oregon Route 126.

“There were winds blowing tree branches down on 126 as we went west towards Eugene,” said Evan. “And across the McKenzie River, up in the hills, we saw the ridge line on fire. The fire whipped through Blue River not long after we left.”

They stayed with friends in Eugene until the heavy smoke followed them there. A hotel in Oak Ridge was their next stop, but too much smoke arrived there, too. Finally, they found a hotel in Boise with a kitchen-equipped room where they could stay long-term. The hotel even let them keep their live chicken in the room.

As the Treasure Valley fields evacuees, hotels are filling up more, RV park owners are developing “overflow sites” and community members are even offering their homes to those whose houses might no longer be standing. Those coming to Idaho have not completely escaped the smoke — it has drifted from fires and caused air-quality alerts in the Boise area the past three weeks — but they have found refuge.

‘The smoke is our biggest enemy’

The Gosas were fortunate. Video footage taken by Oregon firefighters has shown that their house is still standing, though many of their neighbors’ structures are gone.

Maria Lee, an evacuee from Canby, Oregon, thinks her house is still standing, too. But smoke is a major concern — she and her husband make accessories for people who spin wool by hand, and a lot of their equipment, as well as their house, could be damaged when they return. They tried to seal the windows with tape before they evacuated, but they won’t know whether that worked until they get back.

Lee and her husband both have compromised lungs, and her mother-in-law is particularly fragile. They can’t go home until the smoke clears completely. Until then, they’re staying with a longtime friend in Boise, Heather Jacobs.

“Idaho is definitely Oregon’s second home,” said Lee. “ No, the air’s not perfect, but you can breathe and you don’t smell the smoke. We can get in our car without being inundated ... at least we can breathe here.”

On Aug. 12, they felt the fire before it had officially reached them.

“We knew that if we wanted to avoid the smoke we needed to head east,” said Lee. “I never knew the sky could be so purple. The ash was falling like snow. You couldn’t breathe. And north was not an option, so we came here to be with our friends that have become our family. It’s surreal.”

When the police rolled down her street at 12:30 one morning, announcing a Level 3 evacuation, she grabbed a laundry basket of clothes, her photos and her dog. As soon as the sun was up, Lee, her husband and her mother-in-law set out to Boise, by way of the Columbia River Gorge.

“When we were driving over here, the gorge was so saturated with smoke that I was getting dizzy and lightheaded driving through,” Lee said.

The trio found a rest stop and slept in their RV for the night, before rising and making it to Idaho. Now that they’re temporarily settled, Lee said, it’s time to take inventory of the belongings she managed to pack.

“When you’re in that situation, you can’t think,” Lee said.

“I thought the laundry basket I brought was full of clothes, but it turned out to be a basket full of socks. So now we might be sewing socks together,” she said, with a laugh. “No cold feet!”

Jacobs, who grew up in Canby and moved to Boise just six years ago, is ready to host the Lees for as long as they need. Watching from afar as her hometown burns, Jacob said she feels the pain of evacuees.

“I have literally watched all of my childhood memories, through the Santiam Corridor, gone ... Knowing the resort town is completely gone and where I camped every year, every weekend as an adult in a campground is gone … it’s heartbreaking,” Jacobs said.

‘It’s what neighbors do’: Idaho helps Oregon

Riverside RV Park in Garden city is packed. RVs fill all of the available space in the park, and then some. Vehicles are parked in front of basketball hoops and the park store. Some camp out in a new “overflow” lot that the park developed to accommodate the evacuees from Oregon over the past 10 days.

Boise hotels are also seeing evacuees. About 20% of the rooms at the Red Lion Downtowner are occupied by people fleeing wildfires, according to Alan Turpin, the general manager. At Boise’s Cottonwood Suites, it’s 25% of rooms.

At The Riverside Hotel, General Manager Kathy Pidgeon said she was called down to the front desk two weekends ago to help answer phones that were “ringing off the hook.” She estimated that 250 evacuees had come to stay at the hotel, filling up 100 rooms for mainly one- or two-night stays.

Ron Lundquist, the manager of the Riverside RV park, as well as the KOA Meridian, estimated that roughly 120 evacuees have sought space at Riverside, mostly from the Medford and Portland areas. Some have just wanted a short stay before heading farther east.

“We have people at all stages of escaping the fire,” said Lundquist, who noted the park hosted many evacuees during the California Paradise Fire. “ We have people that have lost homes, people with respiratory problems that have had to leave, people that haven’t lost their home but have been evacuated.”

With evacuees streaming in, Lundquist said the parks have had to turn some families away. He’s communicating with park managers from around the area to find space for all the evacuees, and developed the overflow site on Expo Idaho grounds in Garden City, with help from the Ada County Commissioners and Expo Idaho.

While the overflow grounds are not set up to accommodate RVs, Lundquist said the site provides a “safe environment where families can stay and regroup.”

Evacuated Oregonians in Idaho also can seek assistance from the Red Cross. The organization is sheltering evacuees in hotels, according to Matt Ochsner, communications director for the Red Cross of Montana and Idaho.

Evacuees seeking free shelter should call 1-800-REDCROSS to get assistance, he said.

Travelers heading west turn back to Idaho

In addition to Oregonians fleeing the fires, RV parks have also been getting travelers who planned to vacation on the Oregon and California coasts, but found campgrounds were shut down and not accessible. They’re stopping in for a night or two before heading to Glacier National Park or Yellowstone, Lundquist said.

“A lot of these people are ready to get away from the forest and come to somewhere safe, and Boise Valley seems to be their first stop,” said Lundquist.

Courtni Armstrong and her mother run the Flipping Nomad, a business in Emmett that guts traditional RVs and redesigns their interiors. With many friends in Oregon escaping the wildfires, Armstrong went on Instagram and offered space in their backyard to Oregon RVers.

“My post accidentally went viral,” Armstrong said.

As of Sept. 16, Armstrong had 25 people staying on her land. Most were planning on heading from Idaho to Utah, and then spending the winter in Arizona if the fires continue, she said.

RV parks are preparing for even more travelers, and Lundquist said at the end of last week that he could see up to 100 new people.

“We’re going to have a large number of people coming in,” Lundquist said. “... I wish I had a crystal ball. Whatever happens, we’re prepared to take care of these people … It’s what neighbors do.”

The Gosas are returning to Blue River no matter what — eventually.

“We definitely want to be there for our community because we feel very fortunate to still have a space to live,” Evan Gosa said. “ We want to offer our extra bedroom and little guest house to people as they go through their own damage. We fully expect to invest in our community and help rebuild it.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 7:00 AM.