When an inferno roared through the Santiam Canyon in early September, no structure was guaranteed to survive — not even the Oregon Department of Forestry’s office in Lyons.
The building burned to the ground.
“Speechless. It’s something that I definitely thought I’d never see in my life,” Levi Hopkins said, describing how he felt when he saw the building on fire. “It’s extremely hard to see… one of the most defeating moments of my life.” Hopkins, who works as a wildland supervisor at ODF’s Lyons office, said it felt “defeating” because he and his crew are trained to fight wildfires and there they were, watching their own building go up in flames.
He and his crew had started fighting fires the day before Labor Day. They continued to work through the wind storm and were finally taking a short break overnight when they were told to evacuate the office.