Thousands of people who fled a massive wildfire east of Salem are still waiting to hear if their homes are still standing.
Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast said Wednesday that conditions are still too dangerous to search for survivors, much less evaluate damage to property.
“We are going to continue to work with fire and try to figure out when we can get back up in there and then provide some search and rescue operations when we can," he said. "We’re just in the process now in trying to assess those things to figure out those things to figure out when we can get up there and figure out what and where we can get to.”
Kast said he hopes that can happen soon. But he gave no estimate for when homeowners can safely return to check on their properties.
Videos taken by people fleeing the flames appear to show widespread damage in towns along Highway 22 in the Santiam Canyon.
