Lane County Explores Venues For Housing Wildfire Evacuees

KLCC | By Brian Bull

Published November 17, 2020 at 10:36 PM PST

A Eugene hotel -among other sites - could become a shelter for people displaced by the Holiday Farm Fire.

Lane County officials could purchase the 55-room Red Lion Hotel on East Broadway for $5.5 million, through the state’s Project Turnkey initiative. Its goal is to house communities affected by wildfires and the pandemic.

Earlier this month, Oregon's Legislative Emergency Board approved $35 million toward the project. That’s in addition to $30 million approved last month.

A Lane County spokesperson says they’ve received the request for application, and officials will keep looking at other funding sources and properties. They declined to comment on any one specific property.

The Holiday Farm Fire consumed more than 173,000 acres, and razed over 400 homes.

Disasters & Accidents

Brian Bull

Brian Bull is a contributing freelance reporter with the KLCC News department, who first began working with the station in 2016. He's a senior reporter with the Native American media organization Buffalo's Fire, and was recently a journalism professor at the University of Oregon.

In his nearly 30 years working as a public media journalist, Bull has worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional), the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.

See stories by Brian Bull