Rainbow Plews, the fire chief for the Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District, in front of the destroyed fire station. Plews also lost her home and property to the Holiday Farm Fire that burned 174,400 acres, including 431 residences and 337 other structures.

With the wind blowing 70 mph in the McKenzie River drainage, Chief Rainbow Plews was quick to make the decision to go to Level 3.

“It was a life-or-death situation,” said Plews, who is the fire chief for the Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District east of Eugene, Ore.

Level 3 means “evacuate now.”

“I knew with that wind, we would not be able to stop the fire with the resources we had,” said Plews who has been the fire chief for the past two years and has been a firefighter for 29 years. “We had to get people out of the way immediately.”

The Holiday Farm Fire that started on Sept. 7 eventually burned 174,400 acres, including 431 residences and 337 other structures. Despite the destruction, including the Blue River and Vida communities, only one fatality was reported.

“I’m really, really glad I made that early call,” said Plews, noting that there could have easily been more loss of life if people hadn’t been notified through the emergency system to leave immediately. “People walked out and could see the fire, ash was coming down or they could see the glow so they took it seriously. There are so many stories of people leaving with flames all the way around them.”

Plews made the Level 3 call as the incident commander, but she said she had input and support from U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry officials.

While monitoring the fire and helping others evacuate, Plews and a couple other fire district volunteers lost their homes to the fire.

“I was pretty confident my property was fine because we had open fields and green grass, all the things you should have, but I was wrong,” said Plews, who has been living in a donated trailer that is parked in a McKenzie Bridge church parking lot. “This is always the worst case scenario that you hear about in fire training classes.”

Plews knows her district and the McKenzie River valley is going to look different. But on her fire district’s Facebook page, the chief expressed optimism.

“I do not know what the future holds or how to navigate this but I am taking one tiny, shaking, uncertain step at a time and I ask only that you all do the same,” she wrote. “Be patient. Be kind. Hold the ones you love. We have to do this together.

“We will come out the other side stronger and more resilient. We have all that matters. We have each other.”