‘They stayed and fought’: Volunteer firefighters battled to save Mill City from the Labor Day fires

Randy Holman had a terrible feeling as he drove to his Mill City home last Labor Day night.

Highway 22 was shrouded in smoke and the volunteer firefighter already had heard reports of small fires breaking out as a bone-dry wind whistled down the Santiam Canyon.

“You could feel the smoke and wind picking up,” Holman, a volunteer firefighter since 1995, said. “I just had a gut feeling that something very bad was going to happen.”

He was right.

For 30 straight hours — with barely time for a catnap — Holman and a crew of 13 mostly volunteer firefighters battled the Labor Day fires, zooming around Mill City to extinguish burning homes, yards and forests during an all-out effort to stop the flames from spreading into the town’s populated neighborhoods on its eastern edge. 

Mill City mayor Tim Kirch said only 20 structures were lost inside city limits, leaving the majority of the town of 2,000 intact. 

“When everybody else left, they stayed and fought,” Kirch said. “Without them, this town would look a lot different.” 

“They saved us from catastrophic destruction,” said Lynda Harrington, who lives in Mill City and is helping plan an event celebrating the firefighters Sept. 5

Mill City fire chief Leland Ohrt and Holman stressed they had help from many people that night, including a number of residents driving around with water tanks and pumps, along with local timber mills, which provided equipment, water and fuel at critical moments. 

“This was a group effort by all who stayed,” Ohrt said.  


Randy Holman with Mill City Volunteer Fire Department poses for a portrait on Aug. 3 in Mill City, Oregon.

© ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL Randy Holman with Mill City Volunteer Fire Department poses for a portrait on Aug. 3 in Mill City, Oregon.

Lead-up to Labor Day

Holman said he loves being a volunteer firefighter because it’s a way to give back to the community. That sentiment is shared among most volunteers.  

“It’s not a job everybody wants to do or can do,” Holman said. “It takes a lot of time with training, drills and getting calls during dinners or in the middle of the night. But our attitude is: ‘If we don’t do it, who will?'”  

Heading into Labor Day, Holman and Ohrt said they weren’t expecting much action. The Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires were expected to grow significantly given extreme winds and critical fire conditions, but they were deep in the Opal Creek and Mount Jefferson wilderness areas.

“The Beachie Creek Fire was approximately 20 miles away. I don’t think anyone thought it would get to us,” Ohrt said. “We did not know what to expect that evening.”

And then the winds came — a blast-furnace of dry air that reached 60-80 mph by some gauges, acting like a blow-torch on any flames it touched.

“That’s when all hell broke loose,” Ohrt said.


On the night of Sept. 7, 2020, downed power lines ignited a fire at the old Gates elementary school and former Beachie Creek Fire incident command team post.

© Photos courtesy of U.S. Forest Service On the night of Sept. 7, 2020, downed power lines ignited a fire at the old Gates elementary school and former Beachie Creek Fire incident command team post.

‘Volleyball-size fireballs’

At about 8:30 p.m., Mill City firefighters were called to old Gates elementary school to help with a major fire that had broken out when power lines fell and arced on top of the command post of 50 to 100 wildland firefighters who’d been managing the Beachie Creek Fire. 

On the drive up Highway 22, Holman could see that Potato Hill, which rises directly aboveGates, was on fire.

“At that point we all kind of looked at each other and said something along the lines of, ‘This is going to be a long night,’” Holman said. “We knew we were in for it.”

When the crew arrived at the school, they worked alongside Gates firefighters and federal crews to knock down the flames, including dousing flames behind the school. 

Their attention soon turned toward their hometown.  

“When we were at Gates school, there were softball- to volleyball-size fireballs blowing over our heads,” Ohrt said. “With the wind throwing these fireballs toward Mill City, we decided we needed to get back to our district before the fire got there.”

A leader in a trying time

Leland Ohrt, the fire chief of Mill City, is described as a no-nonsense leader who bends over backward for his team. 

“He’s a workaholic — the first guy there and the last to leave every day. He’s the driving force behind the department,” Holman said. “But he’s also a guy where if you bring in your kids, he’ll joke with them and roll around in the dirt and have fun. But when it’s time to go, he pushes you forward. We really needed that push Labor Day night.” 

On the drive from Gates back toward Mill City, on the south side of the North Santiam River, the crew of 13 stopped to put out fires at Fairview Cemetery that were threatening homes, Ohrt said.

VIDEO: Volunteer firefighter reflects on Labor Day wildfires in Mill City

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Between 10:30 and 11 p.m., while putting out a grass fire in an elevated field, Holman saw another ominous sign. 

“We looked across the valley, to the north side of the canyon, and could see the fire just coming across the mountain and pouring down just like a waterfall,” Holman said. “We could see Kelly’s Lumber on fire and a lot of fire on the north side of town. The fire was pretty much there. There was nothing we could do.”

By the time the crew crossed Rock Creek Bridge back into Mill City, the fire had arrived in town.

After talking about what needed to be done, Ohert said the plan was “don’t let the fire cross Southeast Kingwood, try to push it towards the river and keep it out of town.”

Fighting for our neighborhood

As the firefighters returned to the city at about 11:30 p.m., Holman stopped briefly at his home to evacuate his children. 

The sky was black and smoky. Fires were spreading.

“I made sure to get my wife and kids out,” he said. “At that point, I just felt like we were fighting for the safety of that street. There were fires about three to four blocks away. We knew what was at stake.” 

Ohrt said the fire calls were coming from all over the city — particularly for fields on fire. Calls came about flames at Southeast 4th Street, Southeast Kingwood, Southwest Kingwood and Dogwood Road. 


Damage from the Labor Day fires in Mill City on Oct. 7, 2020.

© DAVID DAVIS and ZACH URNESS / Statesman Journal Damage from the Labor Day fires in Mill City on Oct. 7, 2020.

The fires were clustered on the east side of Mill City, burning in a mix of forest, grassland and property right on the edge of more densely populated residences near Kimmel Park. 

Stopping those meant stopping fire from sweeping onto homes and potentially igniting a catastrophic “chain reaction” where houses become the fuel that spread destructive fire, as occurred in places such as Paradise, Calif. 

“We left crews at Southeast Kingwood and Dogwood to try and contain the fire there and other trucks went around to knock down the field fires,” Ohrt said.

As the firefighters doused field fires, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office worked evacuations on the south side of the city as the Marion County Sheriff’s Office worked the north side. 

Holman said they came across a few residents who had horses to load into trailers. 

“We just said, ‘Get what you can get and get out!'” Holman said. 


A cross in front of the home Joe and Kim Davidson remains unburned as fire moved around it Mill City after the Beachie Creek fire.

© KELLY JORDAN / STATESMAN JOURNAL A cross in front of the home Joe and Kim Davidson remains unburned as fire moved around it Mill City after the Beachie Creek fire.

‘They just left us on our own’

The Mill City team had two fire engines, a tender and a brush rig for most of the night, with the firefighters split among them. 

“All of a sudden we noticed 50 to 100 U.S. Forest Service (firefighters) and vehicles heading west, away from the fire,” Ohrt said. “We stopped them to see where they were going and they told us it was too dangerous and they were evacuating. We asked them to stop and help us but they said ‘no,’ it was too dangerous.”

Frustration over the lack of help spread across the department and canyon, Mill City mayor Kirch said.

Forest Service officials said they ordered their team to fall back for safety and to coordinate a response.


A downed power line is seen in the Mill City area that was burned during the wildfires that impacted the Santiam Canyon over Labor Day 2020.

© Zach Urness / Statesman Journal A downed power line is seen in the Mill City area that was burned during the wildfires that impacted the Santiam Canyon over Labor Day 2020.

“Firefighters were ordered to evacuate to a safer location to protect the safety of personnel at the incident command post and of those firefighters who were reliant on the ICP to provide command and control of the overall fire response,” Forest Service spokeswoman Catherine Caruso said in an email.

“The losses experienced in Mill City and Detroit are widespread, and deeply felt; several Forest Service employees also lost their homes,” Caruso said. “Wildland firefighters are not trained or equipped to fight structure fires, nor can we assign wildland fire resources to fight fires under circumstances where they’ll face an unacceptable level of risk or a limited chance of success.

“Firefighter safety is — and must always remain — our highest priority.”

Holman remains baffled by the response.

“I’ve been a volunteer for many years. And if you come across a car wreck, even in a different town, you stop and help. It’s just what we do. You help. And these were paid firefighters,” he said. “Why they didn’t just hop in the truck and help out has really bothered me. It’s pretty simple: Just put the wet stuff on the hot stuff.”


Destroyed items near a home burned by the Beachie Creek Fire in Mill City, Oregon.

© ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL Destroyed items near a home burned by the Beachie Creek Fire in Mill City, Oregon.

‘Fire everywhere you looked’

Perhaps the best way to describe the experience firefighters faced that night, as midnight turned to morning, was the game “Whack-a-mole.”

As soon as they put out one fire, another sprang up. They doused ignition sources across the town’s east side, including putting out brush fires, trees, cars, outbuildings and homes

“We’d stop to put a fire out and move on to the next one, just getting to as many as we could,” Holman said. “The chief would tell us to go over here, then move to a different part of town. And so we just went. It was a complete blur.”  

The focus stayed on the southeast side of town, just beyond Kimmel Park, where the fire was pulsing toward the residential homes.


Mill City volunteer firefighter Randy Holman captured these images while fighting the Labor Day Fires in and around Mill City last Labor Day night.

© Randy Holman / Special to the Statesman Journal Mill City volunteer firefighter Randy Holman captured these images while fighting the Labor Day Fires in and around Mill City last Labor Day night.

One moment that sticks out to Holman was fighting fire in a huge field, just east of Kimmel Park, where grass, scrap metal, a motorhome, and lots of other equipment was ablaze. 

“We worked for about an hour and a half to stop it from spreading into town,” he said. “It came right down to the homes on Fairview. If we didn’t stop it there, I think it could have been really bad.” 

But the fire never spread into the more densely populated homes around Kimmel Park.

Bridge shut down at the worst time

While the fire crew fought blazes all night on the south side of town, they weren’t able to make it over to the north side. 

The main bridge across the North Santiam River was under construction and impassable. The bridge was supposed to be finished by Labor Day for the start of school, but wasn’t by the time the fires hit.

That meant there was no easy way for fire crews to get to fires springing up on the north side of town. 


Mill City volunteer firefighter Randy Holman captured these images while fighting the Labor Day Fires in and around Mill City last Labor Day night.

© Randy Holman / Special to the Statesman Journal Mill City volunteer firefighter Randy Holman captured these images while fighting the Labor Day Fires in and around Mill City last Labor Day night.

Earlier in the night, Ohrt said, other fire departments had come to the north side of town to fight fires. 

“Those departments that came did an excellent job while they were here but were told to evacuate due to it being too dangerous,” Ohrt said. “We tried once to drive back to the bridge in Gates to access the Marion County side of (Mill City), but the smoke was so bad we could not see the road and had to turn back and stay on the (south side).”

Another major challenge was that early that morning, the power went out, cutting off pumps that pull in water until a generator could be hooked up.

During that time, firefighters drew water from a city tank that held a million gallons and supplemented it with water from Freres Lumber Co. By the time power was restored, the tank was down to about four feet. 

“We were scraping the bottom of the barrel,” Ohrt said. 

They also got diesel gas from Frank Lumber and equipment from Fencl Logging and Construction. 


Mill City volunteer firefighter Randy Holman captured these images while fighting the Labor Day Fires in and around Mill City last Labor Day night.

© Randy Holman / Special to the Statesman Journal Mill City volunteer firefighter Randy Holman captured these images while fighting the Labor Day Fires in and around Mill City last Labor Day night.

‘It was all a blur’

In the darkness of smoke layered across the Santiam Canyon, Holman lost track of time. 

“My phone rang and I was thinking to myself, ‘Why in the world is somebody calling me at 3 a.m.?’ But then I looked down at my phone and it was already 9:30 a.m. I had no idea, because it was so pitch black that it felt like it was still midnight.”  

“It was a very long night, but actually went pretty fast.”

Firefighters continued working all day Tuesday and into Wednesday, when additional crews arrived to help out. At one point, Ohrt sent his team home to get some sleep, but more calls about fires popping up around homes continued Tuesday afternoon and night. 

The Mill City crew worked from 8 p.m. Sept. 7 to 2 a.m. Sept. 9, nearly 30 hours of stressful, exhausting, smoke-filled work.   

“All that the volunteers were trying to do was save the town and their homes,” Ohrt said. “When others came to help and were told to evacuate due to high winds, blinding smoke and intense heat, these volunteers stayed to protect their community.

“The reason these towns burn down is that because everyone leaves, there is no one there to protect them. This did not happen here.” 

Holman said many people contributed to keeping Mill City mostly intact. 

“I don’t want to say that we saved the town, because there were a lot of loggers, ranchers and people out that night with water trucks that played a big role,” he said. “I think we helped stop it, knocked it down and saved some houses.

“But we were just doing what we’re supposed to do — working our hearts out to stop any property loss that we could. That’s our job.

“When the horn goes, we go.” 

Event to commemorate firefighters

Mill City and Marion County are planning an event at noon Sept. 5 at Kimmel Park, one of several planned to commemorate the Labor Day fires in the Santiam Canyon. The public is invited. 

“It is important that we say their names and remember them to our children and grandchildren when we tell the story of the Labor Day fires of 2020,” said Lynda Harrington, one of the organizers.

The Mill City crew that worked Labor Day night was: Leland Ohrt, Mike Ohrt, Nathan Ohrt, Randy Holman, Rob Hobson, Trent Foltz, Leslie Jackson, Darrell Plotts, Jon Smith, Eli Breen and Jake Merrill. Jeremy Tinney and Mark Hanson were Salem firefighters who joined the team and stayed all night. 

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 13 years. Urness can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: ‘They stayed and fought’: Volunteer firefighters battled to save Mill City from the Labor Day fires

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