Country Club Evacuated; Friends lose homes; Restaurateur vows to persevere

By Tom Peterson

The Dalles, Ore., June 12, 2025 — Police evacuated patrons and employees from The Dalles Country Club on Wednesday at around 2 p.m., just hours before fire came within inches of the propane tanks at the clubhouse, according to Austin Woolsey.

The Clubhouse at The Dalles Country Club, above, came within inches of burning. Photo courtesy The Dalles Country Club

Woolsey is the head chef and proprietor of The Grill Steak and Seafood at the golf course.

“It’s rough,” Woolsey said on Thursday, June 12. “A guy at the pro shop lost his house, and he can’t find his dog.”

Woolsey also said he was aware of some other friends who lost their homes to the flames nearby. You could hear the grief in his voice.

Golf club members were initially reluctant to leave on Wednesday, he said. “They wanted to finish their cocktails,” Woolsey said.

On a more somber note, he added, “It looks like a war zone out there. There are trees still burning.”

Woolsey had placed large food orders in anticipation of Father’s Day on Sunday.

“We lost power at around 3 p.m. yesterday,” he said, noting they had received notice of the outage but had no way of getting to the clubhouse and moving the food to another cold storage. “I’m losing a lot of product out there. I was loaded with steaks.”

So far, the fire has spared the restaurant.

“It didn’t get the building,” he said. “We’re blessed.”