Action Plan and Wildfire History
In November 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it awarded Oregon $422 million in Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for recovery efforts in response to the 2020 Labor Day Fires. Administered by Oregon Housing and Community Services, this money will pay for new programs to help individuals, households, and communities continue to recover. This effort, which is called ReOregon, will provide funds to rebuild and create new permanent housing in the areas most impacted by the fires.
Wildfire Event History
Beginning Sept. 7, 2020, multiple fires spread dramatically over multiple days of high winds and unusually dry conditions (averaging sustained winds of 20-30 mph with 50-60 mph gusts). The result was multiple large fires burning across the state and over 1 million acres burned, which is twice the 10-year average. More than 40,000 Oregonians had to evacuate their homes.
Two pre-existing fires in Oregon were aggravated by the high-wind event: Lionshead, which the wind pushed over the crest of the Cascades from Warm Springs, and Beachie Creek. Of the dozens of fires that started or expanded during the wind event, three grew into megafires (+100,000 acres): Archie Creek, Holiday Farm, and Riverside. The Beachie Creek and Holiday Farm fires burned along the Santiam and McKenzie rivers respectively.
Most of the fires were wildfires in rural areas. The Almeda Fire, which destroyed almost 2,500 homes, started as a grass fire in Ashland and devastated the cities of Talent and Phoenix and a large area of urban, unincorporated Jackson County.
Click to expand the wildfire impacts by county.
The Riverside fire began in the upper Clackamas River watershed and quickly spread through central Clackamas County toward Estacada. Several smaller fires west and downwind of the Riverside and Beachie Creek (which moved into Clackamas County from the south) fires grew quickly and within a few hours threatened the communities of Colton, Estacada, Molalla, and numerous outlying unincorporated cities. The local power company enacted a controlled power outage for the Highway 26 area in the Mount Hood corridor affecting about 5,000 customers and related businesses for around five days.
The entire county was under evacuation orders ranging from level 1-3 at some point during the event. Sixty-two homes and 215 outbuildings were lost throughout the county.
The Archie Creek Fire impacted about 100,000 residents due to evacuation orders, fire, or smoke damage. The entire City of Glide was evacuated. The Oregon Department of Transportation closed 66 miles of Highway 138 from Glide to where it merges with Oregon Highway 230.
The Archie Creek fire burned more than 131,000 acres and destroyed over 100 homes.
The Almeda Fire devastated the towns of Phoenix and Talent, destroying nearly 2,500 homes and burning much of their Main Street business districts. Numerous public facilities, including Jackson County Station 3, were destroyed or damaged. The South Obenchain Fire in north central Jackson County also destroyed dozens of homes.
The Two Four Two Fire threatened the town of Chiloquin as hundreds of residents evacuated, destroying 11 homes in the process.
The Holiday Farm Fire threatened or burned the communities of Blue River, Vida, Nimrod, and Leaburg, over a 20-mile stretch along the McKenzie River. Over 500 homes and many small businesses were destroyed. The fire also destroyed the communications tower on Mt. Hagen, eliminating emergency communications. This resulted in several Lane County residents not receiving life safety evacuation notices.
There were over 500 miles of impacted electrical line damage with nearly 40 miles requiring complete replacement (conductors, cross-arms, poles and transformers).
The Echo Mountain Fire and the nearby Kimberlin Fire were managed as a single incident: the Echo Mountain Complex. The fires destroyed 288 homes and placed 15,000, one-third of the county population, under evacuation notice.
The Beachie Creek Fire was started by lightning on Aug. 16 in Willamette National Forest. Firefighters were unable to safely go after the fire due to steep, hazardous terrain. Starting on Labor Day, wind gusts of up to 75 mph caused rapid fire growth. It spread through the Santiam Canyon, causing significant damage to the communities of Jawbone Flats, Elkhorn, Gates, Mill City, and Lyons/Mehama, including to homes, public infrastructure, and water systems. The entire city center of Detroit was largely destroyed. Over 600 homes were destroyed in Marion County, and the fire spread into Linn County destroying another 71 homes.
Local, Tribal, and State Response
Emergency declarations were made for the counties of Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, and Marion due to extreme fire danger and damage.
At the peak of firefighting efforts, there were more than 7,500 personnel from 39 states and five Canadian provinces assigned to fires in Oregon.
Mass Care Response
The American Red Cross and many other nongovernmental organizations provided thousands of volunteer hours and dollars to support the response efforts. Shelters were established throughout Oregon. Due to the rapid escalation and movement of wildfires, gaining situational awareness on where displaced survivors had fled was difficult.
At one point, the American Red Cross had 15 open shelters, with almost 2,000 survivors in congregate shelters, and was monitoring nine independent shelters. Additionally, the Red Cross housed 2,210 people in 1,170 hotel rooms.
The Cost of Damages
FEMA, Oregon state agencies, and local communities have identified considerable impacts on public facilities and infrastructure from the 2020 wildfires. While FEMA has determined more than $581 million in damages to be eligible under its Public Assistance Program, that number does not reflect the entirety of the 2020 wildfires’ impact. Not only was the damage considerable in scale, but the wildfires also impacted a wide range of facility types, including public buildings, roads and bridges, utilities, and parks.
Presidential Disaster Declaration
On Sept. 15, 2020, President Donald J. Trump declared that a major disaster existed in Oregon and ordered federal aid to supplement state, Tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by wildfires and straight-line winds beginning on Sept. 7, 2020.
The president’s action made federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, and Marion.
Federal funding was also available to state, Tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency protective measures in the counties of Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Coos, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Tillamook, Wasco, Washington, and Yamhill.
ReOregon Action Plan
In November 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it awarded Oregon $422 million in Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for recovery efforts in response to the 2020 Labor Day Fires. Administered by Oregon Housing and Community Services, this money will pay for new programs to help individuals, households, and communities continue to recover. This effort, which is called ReOregon, will provide funds to rebuild and create new permanent housing in the areas most impacted by the fires.
On Sept. 30, 2022, HUD approved OHCS’ ReOregon Action Plan, which describes how the state will spend the $422 million of federal funding to support recovery from the 2020 Labor Day Fires in Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, and Marion counties. The goal of the program is that all fire-impacted individuals and households have equitable access to the resources necessary to be housed safely, sustainably, permanently, affordably and in their housing of choice.