- Title: Bootleg Fire destroys multiple off-the-grid homes
- Date: 25th July 2021
- Summary: SYCAN ESTATES, OREGON, UNITED STATES (JULY 24, 2021) (REUTERS) DEBRIS DESTROYED CAR BROKEN DISHWARE SYCAN ESTATES RESIDENT RAUL FLORES (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAUL FLORES, SYCAN ESTATES RESIDENT, SAYING: "The Sheriff came and gave me a choice. He said if you want to evacuate, you can evacuate, but if you want to stay, you can stay. I said, 'okay. But this time the Sheriff came and said you have to get out of here, so we decided to get out." BACK OF DESTROYED CAR DEBRIS MORE OF RAUL FLORES (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAUL FLORES, SYCAN ESTATES RESIDENT, SAYING: "Sometimes you feel, you know, really confident, you know, you say I did it before, I can do it again. But, I don't know now, my back is acting more and sometimes I say you know, maybe I should take my RV and go some place. I don't know. It's just like, sometimes you feel up and then you feel down and depends, I guess, how the sun comes out." CLOSE UP OF DEBRIS, VARIOUS TENT AND RV WIDE OF GAGE CLARK (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAUL FLORES, SYCAN ESTATES RESIDENT , SAYING: "I thought I still had my saw mill shop and possibly this shop so I came back thinking that I still had something to come home to and when I got here I was actually kind of gut shot. It was knots in the stomach. There was nothing left." CHARRED BRANCHES ON THE GROUND TRACTOR, GREEN HOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND DAMAGED GREEN HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (English) GAGE CLARK, SYCAN ESTATES RESIDENT , SAYING: "I lost my father in 2015 and all the pictures, all the knives, all the stuff like that, you know, that was his, there's some stuff in there that you never get back." BURNT APPLIANCES ON THE GROUND DOG, SURROUNDED BY DEBRIS (SOUNDBITE) (English) GAGE CLARK, SYCAN ESTATES RESIDENT, SAYING: "We just got to try to band together as a community and rebuild and get people's lives back in order. It'll never be back to what it was, of course, but we got to try to do what we can. Because we all still own our property and a lot of people don't have anywhere else to go." WIDE OF DESTRUCTION
- Embargoed: 8th August 2021 16:16
- Keywords: Bootleg fire homes wildfires
- Location: SYCAN ESTATES, OREGON, UNITED STATES
- City: SYCAN ESTATES, OREGON, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,United States,Wildfires/Forest Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA001ENC99HJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The Bootleg Fire ravaged the southern Oregon community of Sycan Estates, leaving behind a trail of ash-covered debris. Residents who evacuated ahead of the wildfire returned to their community only to find their homes gone and their possessions destroyed.
Local news reports, citing the Klamath County Sheriff's Office, said the fire had decimated 112 homes and 169 outbuildings.
Resident Gage Clark, owner of a saw mill shop in the area, was shocked to learn that the fires had destroyed his business.
"I came back thinking that I still had something to come home to and when I got here I was actually kind of gut shot. It was knots in the stomach. There was nothing left," Clark said on Saturday (July 24).
The Bootleg fire is Oregon's third largest wildfire on records dating back to 1900. As of Friday, the fire, located about 250 miles south of Portland, had ripped through more than 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares) of drought-parched brush and timber and destroyed at least 67 homes near the California border. At its peak, an estimated 2,000 people were displaced by evacuations.
It is one of more than 80 large active wildfires in 13 states that have charred about 1.3 million acres (526,090 hectares) in recent weeks, an area larger than Delaware, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho.
The smoke has recently been carried by the jet stream and other air currents as far as the Northeastern cities of New York and Boston, where some residents have felt the air contamination in their eyes, noses and lungs.
(Production: Deborah Bloom, Pavithra George) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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