Orofino fire: It only took minutes

OROFINO — The Hospital Fire that destroyed six homes and burned roughly 53 acres created devastation at a level the town of Orofino is not used to seeing, city administrator Ryan Smathers said.

Smathers was sitting in his office in City Hall on Tuesday afternoon when the power went out, he said, which was followed shortly by fire sirens. In the few minutes it took the firefighters next door to reach the source of the fire behind State Hospital North, the blaze had spread rapidly.

“We had almost a 30-mile-an-hour wind going at the same time,” he said. “By the time they got to the state hospital, it was already well up the hill.”

As the fire raged through the Wixson Heights area Tuesday evening, neighbors gathered on the streets downtown to watch the flames.

“The smoke was coming up behind the state hospital and within four minutes, it had already gone all the way up to Wixson Heights and burned down the first big giant house up there,” said Mike Trout, who watched from his pickup truck.

Mary Shores watched Tuesday evening as black smoke plumes billowed from the hillside.

“Somebody’s house is burning right there,” said Shores, who closed her business early for the day.

As the fire spread, residents near the fire busied themselves packing essentials like medicine and dog food. Before the rain helped firefighters quell the flames, Shores and other Orofino residents had also worried the fire would spread to the town proper.

Though shelters were established at the old junior high school and National Guard Armory, most displaced residents stayed at local motels or with family, residents said. Krystal Beck, who lives in Wixson Heights, said she slept in her car in the Orofino City Park with her dog.

The next morning, she started the drive back up to her home past the charred Dent Bridge Road hillside, still smoldering from the fire.

“It’s gonna be sick to see the neighbor’s houses,” Beck said. “I seen two go.”

On Wednesday morning, some of the residents who returned worked in gardens or stood on porches just yards from a blackened fire line where their neighbors’ houses were reduced to rubble.

“Half of the people last night that were evacuated did not know if they were coming home to a home, this morning, or an empty lot,” Smathers said. “So I can’t imagine they got a lot of sleep.”

The town quickly pulled together to take care of residents affected by the fire, said Traci Garrett, the manager at the White Pine Motel, where two evacuees stayed Tuesday night.

“We had a gal that used to stay with us when her house burned and she stopped by and just wanted to make sure that everybody was OK,” Garrett said. “The whole community pulled together for her and she couldn’t just sit at home and sit on her hands and do nothing. So she was out volunteering. And there was a lot of that.”

Local restaurants and community members provided food for evacuees, fire crews and other first responders, Smathers said.

“We didn’t ask for anything. It just appeared,” he said. “There was people showing up with blankets and stuffed animals for kids. It was pretty emotional, how this community just jumps in and takes care of each other.”

A fundraiser for families displaced by the fire was started Wednesday morning through the police department’s charity account at the Lewis Clark Credit Union. People who wish to donate can stop at any branch and say they want to donate to the Orofino fire victims, Smathers said.

“As donations come in, they just plan on converting those to Visa gift cards and giving them to the families that lost their homes,” he said.

The fire was 80% contained as of Wednesday evening. Forty-five personnel are assigned to the incident and continuing suppression efforts, according to a news release from the Idaho Department of Lands.

Officials are asking community members to limit their use of Dent Bridge Road as active fire suppression continues in the area, and firefighting equipment and slow-moving or parked vehicles are present on the road.

No one was injured in the fast-moving fire. Besides the six homes that were destroyed, one home was partially burned and “lots of outbuildings” were lost, said Don Gardner, Clearwater County emergency management officer.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The Tribune’s Kathy Hedberg contributed to this report. Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @Rachel_M_Sun. Paterson may be contacted at lauren.paterson@wsu.edu. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.