Eyewitness Account on the Ground at Mosier Creek Fire, Dinner With Family Goes From High Point to Pressure Point

This eyewitness account was submitted to Columbia Community Connection by Heidi Venture.

August 12th, 2020

Dinner with our family Covid pod hit a high point for excitement this week. We get together every other week, and the food was going to be epic this time because my son Aaron was cooking Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken in Mushroom Sherry sauce.

We were just wondering when my daughter-in-law, Ana, son Jason, and grandson, Oli, would arrive when we got a text message. "There's a giant fire by our house and we may not make it to dinner."

We looked the fire up on Facebook and saw Ana and Jason's address in Mosier listed as the location of the fire. If this was a comic strip, there would have been exclamation points above all our heads! We jumped in three cars to help them evacuate, wondering if we'd be in the way of the firefighters. But when we got there, no firefighters had arrived. 

Two little girls were watching Oli and using a garden hose to put out spot fires, while their parents and grandparents were all up on the steep hillside with shovels, trying to stop the relentless progress of the fire toward their home.

I didn't exactly spring into action. There was so much fire! The line of fire stretched for hundreds of yards, and it seemed to all be headed straight toward the house. It was hard to know what to do. My sons Aaron and John found shovels and headed up the hill. I grabbed my grandson. Ana was wetting down a blanket to smother the flames. The little girls started filling five-gallon buckets for the adults to haul to the spot closest to the house where the fire was threatening.

Then the red helicopters flew over, dumping their big loads of water, but not in the places nearest the house, where we needed it. Still, every dump was a little rainstorm that put out a patch of fire, at least for a while.

Wondering why the firefighters hadn't arrived, I tried to call 911. No service. There's never cell phone service in that deep valley. I managed to put a post on Facebook, a cry for help. What now? It was confusing, there were so many people and things to try to protect. And the line of fire was long, uphill, hot, and smoky. 

I got in my car and drove until I could get through to 911 and explain the situation. That's not exactly accurate. I kind of yelled that we needed help right away, that old people couldn't put out this fire, and that the helicopter needed to dump water closer to the house. The nice dispatcher said he'd send help.  I think I was in a bit of a panic.

Driving back down into the valley, I saw the fire was almost at the house. That's about when Jason took the video we put on Facebook, showing flames within a few feet of the back patio roof, and him holding his only weapon, a wet shirt for beating the flames.

It was still quite a while before we heard sirens. We all cheered, expecting a fire truck. It was disappointing to see a sheriff pull up. We started loading family photos into the cars. Another 20 minutes passed before wildland firefighters arrived. By then, the helicopters had changed their patterns and were dumping water right where we needed it. Thank you Mr. Dispatcher. Every time they dumped a little cloudburst, we all cheered with happy relief.

Everyone was exhausted. They'd been breathing smoke and working hard. It was a great relief to be told we must evacuate. We all headed to my home in Hood River to wash off the poison oak. 

We had forgotten that we had a pretty good family dinner ready to cook back at my house. Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken never tasted so good, even though it seemed a little smokier than I like.

You can view video of Heidi’s encounter with the Mosier Creek Fire Here on our Facebook Page.

Pictured: Heidi Venture

Heidi Venture and family.