When Dan Brenner and his wife, Mary Lipp, went to bed the night the Holiday Farm Fire started, the last thing they heard was that it was under control. Dan awoke the next morning to his wife telling him that the fire was upon them. It had ignited their flower bed and the trees around their house.
“We frantically went to three neighboring houses and pounded on their doors to warn them, but no one answered," Dan said. “They were gone."
It turns out, one neighbor went to warn them of the fires the night before but did not see their vehicles, so they thought they had already evacuated.
“That was the only chance we had to be warned that the fire was out of control and headed our way," Dan said.
They managed to get into their vehicle with their two dogs and make it to the Silver Creek boat landing, where there was a concrete outhouse that might be able to provide shelter. Just then, a truck was passing by and the driver picked them up and took them to safety. They didn't know if they would ever see their home again.
“We never knew what was happening; we didn't know what was left of our life," Dan said.
When the fires died down and access was restored, the couple were able to go back to their property, but there wasn't much to go back to.
“We lived in Springfield for two months commuting each day when the highway opened to start cleaning up the debris of our lives, sifting through the ashes for anything that survived. We found very little," he said. “Mary, my wife, had a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted in February of 2020 followed by the Covid-19 shutdown in March, and the last thing we needed was to lose our home and everything we had accumulated in 40 years."
Dan was planning to retire from his contracting job at the end of September 2020. Instead of working on other people's homes, he would have to rebuild his own.
After a lengthy process with their insurance company, Mary and Dan were able to start rebuilding. Due to various fits and starts, including what turned out to be a perforated ulcer for Dan due to stress and having to find a new contractor, they were not able to finish the work until August 2023, when they received an occupancy permit. All that was left was completing the two entryways to the house, which were finally framed but not finished in March 2024.
On May 29, 2024, they applied for the ReOregon
Homeowner Assistance and Reconstruction Program (HARP) through the McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group. After they were approved for funding, they were able to finish those entryways in September 2025.
In addition to getting assistance with paying for rebuilding, they were notified that they also would be getting reimbursement funds through HARP.
“When we were notified of our reimbursement award we were floored," Dan said. “The day the check arrived we celebrated. To receive this money when we paid for things necessary for rebuilding and never expecting to see the money again was extraordinary. We have a beautiful home and are now investing our reimbursement funds to create beautiful landscaping and getting a much-needed metal carport in time for winter."
He encourages anyone who has paid out-of-pocket expenses to rebuild to apply for HARP's Reimbursement pathway, even if they think their income is too high.
“We recently prompted friends who lost their house to apply for reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses," he said. “They applied for reimbursement and qualified for more than they expected."
Although their new home is newer, fire hardened, and comfortable, it doesn't replace their collected memories of their old one.
“Those memories were lost in the fire, gone in a flash," Dan said. “(But) we're better protected from any future fire, and the new house was built with the same love as the old house."
To learn more about HARP and other ReOregon programs, visit re.oregon.gov or call the ReOregon Call Center at 877-510-6800 or 541-250-0938.
OHCS wants to ensure that everyone has access to its information and programs. If you would like this information in a different language, please email Language.Access@hcs.oregon.gov.