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A fire chief who battled fires in Oregon with her volunteer fire crew has lost her two homes due to the growing wildfires in the state.
According to Oregon Live, Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District Chief Christiana Rainbow Plews, known locally as Chief Rainbow, has been battling the Holiday Farm Fire in Lane County with her crew. But while she saved buildings and lives in the area, her own family home and the local fire station were being destroyed by the inferno in Vida.
As the local hero plowed on through the night with her volunteer crew, she managed to get through to her son to alert her family to get out of the area, knowing the fire was spreading. As they escaped in time, alerting their neighbors, Chief Plews' sons and her husband Eric Plews did not hear from her for 24 hours.
Speaking to Oregon Live, Chief Plews' husband said: "We were just running and gunning and doing everything we could, but it was against all odds.
"We couldn't get anywhere. The trees were down. The fire was everywhere."
It wasn't until 10:00 p.m last Tuesday that Chief Rainbow learned the fate of her home. She told the local newspaper: "My first thought was, "How do I tell my family?" I didn't know where my family was."
Fortunately, her husband and sons were settled in a hotel in Cottage Grove when Chief Plews contacted them. When she was finally able to speak to her husband, the couple shared a tearful exchange. But while both were heartbroken from "losing everything" Eric Plews told his wife: "We're all safe. You've got to stay safe. We'll rebuild."
However, losing everything hasn't stopped Chief Plews from performing her duties. According to Oregon Live, even though she and four of her district volunteers had lost their homes, as well as the station in Upper McKenzie Rural Fire District, Chief Plews refuses to give up.
"If I can keep one other person from feeling the loss that we have felt, it's worth it," she told the local newspaper. But she admitted: "It's tough to fight a fire with a broken heart."
She and her crew of volunteers continued to fight the inferno at Holiday Farm through to Thursday. "Just to be able to compartmentalize that devastation and continue to do your job I'm in complete awe of," her son Kiger Plews told local ABC affiliate KEZI 9.
But according to Laura Cherry, an EMT with McKenzie Fire District who is a good friend of Chief Plews, the fire chief did more than fight through heartbreak.
"Rainbow made the call to raise the evacuation level early so that the citizens in her jurisdiction had time to get out safely," she told Oregon Live. "Rainbow is a full blown, grassroots, salt-of-the-earth hero."
The Holiday Farm Fire has scorched over 161,000 acres of land in the McKenzie area and is five percent contained. Chief Rainbow confirmed to Oregon Live that there is one known fatality.
About the writer
Sophia Waterfield is a reporter for Newsweek based at its London bureau. She has written for publications such as Metro UK, ... Read more