'It was like God's hand protected it': Oregon couple's home survives wildfire

Record ID: 1626594

  • Title: 'It was like God's hand protected it': Oregon couple's home survives wildfire
  • Date: 14th July 2021
  • Summary: KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON, UNITED STATES (JULY 14, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TIM MCCARLEY AND DEE MCCARLEY, HIGH COUNTRY RANCH RESIDENTS, SAYING: TIM: “We were hoping for the best and expecting the worst. So I'm just going (shrugs). If it's the worst, we didn't know what to do.” DEE: “Yeah. Like we said, nowhere to go.” TIM: “Nowhere to go, clueless, you know?” DEE: “You know, it broke my heart to see all my things gone, but to look at the house it's like, (gasps) oh! “(laughs)
  • Embargoed: 28th July 2021 22:10
  • Keywords: Bootleg Fire Oregon evacuees wildfire
  • Location: HIGH COUNTRY RANCH + KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON, UNITED STATES
  • City: HIGH COUNTRY RANCH + KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Fires,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA002ELTE2BR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: After an agonizing wait, Tim and Dee McCarley's prayers have been answered. Their home survived the flames.
    As the Bootleg Fire spread quickly across southern Oregon, the couple evacuated from their homes on Monday (July 12) and spent a sleepless night in the Klamath Falls evacuation center.
    On Tuesday (July 13), they were able to return to their neighborhood of High Country Ranch, a subdivision east of Sprague River, west of Bly.
    Several homes were burned to the ground but miraculously, the McCarley's house was untouched.
    "His sister, two days before we left, she prayed to the Lord about putting a protective bubble around our home. Well, that prayer came true," Dee told Reuters.
    The growing wildfire in a bone-dry Oregon forest had forced hundreds of people from their homes by Wednesday (July 14), as it charred more than 200,000 acres (80,940 hectares) and showed no signs of slowing, officials said.
    The Bootleg Fire, which has spread through the Fremont-Winema National Forest about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland since July 6, has destroyed 21 homes and threatened 1,926 more, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland. It's the biggest of several wildfires scorching parts of Western states, where drought and a recent record-setting heatwave have left brush and timber highly flammable.
    So far, it has burned more than 212,000 acres (330 square miles), including about 50,000 acres (20,230 hectares) on Monday alone, and crews have managed to put containment lines around only 5% of it.
    In all, 60 large fires have consumed more than 1 million acres (404,680 hectares) across 12 states this season, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, a firefighting group combining eight federal agencies.
    (Production: Deborah Bloom, Cath Turner)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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