Hundreds of homes still threatened by fire near the Columbia River Gorge

MOSIER, Ore. (KOIN/CNN) – Officials are saying humans are responsible for a wildfire that is raging in the Columbia River Gorge. So far, hundreds of acres of land have been destroyed and hundreds of people evacuated.

The Mosier Creek Fire is burning over 900 acres through grass, pine and oak trees.

The Pierce family lives about two miles from where it’s burning. Lucinda Pierce said, “It’s worrying us because it’s been getting a lot closer than what we thought it originally was.”
“We saw a lot of smoke,” Ashley Pierce explained. “When the winds started picking that’s when we got really concerned and with the planes and everything it’s kind of unpredictable at this moment.”

About 900 other people were already evacuated from the area and the Red Cross set up a shelter for evacuees.

Rich Tyler with the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office said, “The big concern for us, and the watch for us, is what happens this afternoon with the weather.”

Structural fire crews from around the state are coming in to help protect homes.

Tyler said, “Sides they are gonna primarily be affected that we’re concerned about today is the south and east side of the fire, keeping a good eye on that this afternoon.”

Another concern is COVID-19. Tyler explained, “This is not a normal summer with a normal wildfire. We’ve been here before, we’ve done this before. We haven’t done this with COVID. So one of the components we brought with us is what we call the COVID module. That is a health representative to assist us with all things health-related questions.”

While hundreds have already evacuated, the Pierce family waits as fire crews continue to battle the fire.

Lucinda said, “We haven’t been evacuated. We are at a Level 2 so, that’s ‘get ready to go.’ We got our place set up somewhere else.”

Officials say they’re optimistic moving forward but know things can change with a turn of the winds.