Evacuation during the Holiday Farm fire on the McKenzie River has been a frightening ordeal for many residents. This is the experience of one Blue River man who lost his home but saved his family.
Early Monday afternoon, 28-year old Colton Morris was listening to his police scanner. He said he heard there were lines down and a grass fire burning near Holiday Farm RV resort. There was gusty wind and smoke.
“Then I noticed flames, like liquid fire pouring over the top of the mountain range near our house, maybe a half mile away.”
Morris and his pregnant fiancé fled.
“Hauled butt down the driveway and out on the highway, down to my parent’s house,” he said. “They were asleep. So we woke ‘em up and got them goin’.”
Morris said, he and his family had only minutes to drive out of the fire line to safety in Eugene. His house, like the McKenzie River Clinic next door, burned to the ground. His parents' homes and business facility were also destroyed by the fire.
