3 years later, Labor Day fire investigations haven’t been released

Oregon Public Broadcasting | By Rolando Hernandez

Published October 9, 2023 at 1:57 PM PDT

Wildfire smoke chokes Molalla, Ore., in this file photo from Sept. 9, 2020. It's been three years since the 2020 Labor Day fires and only one of the nine major fires have an official answer.

It’s been three years since the Labor Day fires burned more than 4,000 homes and about a million acres of land across Oregon. Since then, fire investigators have only publicly released the cause of one of the nine major fires. Zach Urness is the outdoor editor for the Statesman Journal and the host of the “Explore Oregon” podcast. He joins us to share why we still don’t have official answers and what this means for survivors of the catastrophic event.

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