Additional resources are on the way to the Sugar Pine Fire where flames are threatening homes and many have evacuated the area.
Last night, a structure burned due to a wildfire in Southern Oregon, and people living nearby say… they’re not taking any chances.
“I’m not afraid of it, but we are ready to go…”
Richard Fernow’s been living in his home in Prospect for 5 years. It’s only a few miles from the Miles Fire… burning at more than 10,000 acres.
“Everything we own is here, and to see it go away would be heartbreaking,” said Fernow.
He moved up here from Ojai, California and remembers fire season there.
“We actually had the mountains on fire completely around us down there…” But he says, it’s nothing like this. “Here, we have trees right up to the house…and if the forest went there’d be no stopping it.”
Thursday evening, the Miles Fire merged with the Sugar Pine and Goodview Fires burning nearby, but not before burning a home in Southern Oregon… only a few miles from Fernow.
Right now he’s on a level 2 ‘be set’ evacuation notice, but Fernow says he and his wife are preparing to go.
“We’ve spent today packing up really anything that was important to us…which was more than i had imagined,” he said.
They’re gathering things like Fernow’s collection of rare books.
“I started collecting them in 1988, so i took the early ones…”
Though he says he’ll have to leave many behind.
“I love them all, but you can’t take them all.”
In the meantime, Fernow says they’re ready to leave and appreciating every moment in their home.
“I love this place. It’s been perfect moving here…moving here has been perfect,” he said. “It would hurt to lose this place. It means a lot to us.”
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