Dennis Schlies worked the Sept. 7 night shift for METCOM 911, the dispatch center that handles emergency calls for the Santiam Canyon in Oregon. So he knew.
He knew before his boss delivered the news by phone, and before a colleague's husband snapped nothing-but-rubble photographs.
He knew when he took one of the first calls about a fast-spreading fire sparked by downed power lines near an elementary school, the site of an incident command post for the Beachie Creek Fire.
The house he and his wife Denise have shared for nearly 20 years stood less than two miles from the school.
He could live without it, but not without her. Dennis didn't know her whereabouts. But he still managed to calmly direct resources to multiple new fires and advise his neighbors in the canyon how to get out alive.
He could only hope his wife had time to evacuate.
Fellow dispatchers couldn't imagine being in his position while maintaining focus during a 12-hour shift, especially one so grueling.