7 dead, 60 people unaccounted in Oregon wildfires as disaster’s toll begins to come into focus

Gov. Kate Brown issued a stark warning this week about casualties from historic wildfires that have scorched a million acres in Oregon. State police, she said, expect “dozens of missing persons” reports related to the fires, particularly in Jackson, Lane and Marion counties.

By late Friday, early signs of the disaster’s human toll started to come into view.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office late Friday reported two additional deaths from the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires and 10 people who are unaccounted for. Agency officials said the victims have not yet been identified.

That brings to seven the number of confirmed fatalities ties to Oregon’s wildfires. They include a 13-year-old boy and his grandmother in rural Lyons, two people in the Almeda fire and a person found Friday in Vida in a home within the Holiday Farm fire.

In Jackson County, 50 people remained unaccounted for in the aftermath of the Almeda and South Obenchain wildfires burning in southern Oregon.

In Lane County, Sheriff’s Sgt. Carrie Carver said deputies still are compiling a list of people unaccounted for by family and friends in the Holiday Farm fire east of the Eugene-Springfield area. The number on the list changes hourly as cases resolve, she said, and the Sheriff’s Office has no official tally.

“There are plans in place to start safely doing welfare checks,” she said. “But the fire has to allow us to do that.”

Sheriffs officials in Douglas and Jefferson counties, where large fires also continue to burn, said they have no reports of unaccounted for people. A spokesman for Lincoln County, where the Echo Mountain Complex Fire had burned 2,453 acres Friday, could not be reached for comment.

Rich Tyler, spokesman for the Oregon fire marshal, stressed the number tied to the two Jackson County fires is fluid and subject to change as officials work to track down displaced people.

“This is a snapshot in time,” Tyler told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday morning. “They are still working through the list. This is dynamic. This snapshot in time is going to change in the next hours and as they make phone calls and are in communication with people.”

Heavy smoke hung like an acrid fog over southern Oregon as the region continues to confront the wildfires. Tyler said the Almeda fire, which leveled neighborhoods in Phoenix and Talent, is now 50 percent contained.

The South Obenchain fire is burning unchecked near the rural communities of Butte Falls and Shady Cove, he said.

Wildfires affecting tens of thousands of Oregonians have burned more than 1 million acres, or nearly twice the yearly average over the last 10 years, in just the past week, state officials said.

A top state official acknowledged Friday that Oregon is preparing for a “mass fatality incident.” But Andrew Phelps, head of the state Department of Emergency Management, said he had no idea yet of the scope. Firefighters are still working to evacuate people and start to control the fires.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said he has been asking local officials across western Oregon about the number of missing, injured and dead, but has not heard any specifics yet. One of the first steps is identifying the people who simply stayed the night at somebody else’s house and are not actually in danger.

“People obviously are still in the pretty early stages of trying to locate people,” Wyden said at the Salem Fairgrounds, one of his stops on a tour of the state’s fire-stricken areas. “At every stop, we are inquiring about that.”

Tyler said efforts to winnow the list of missing people remains a priority.

“This is a tragedy,” he said. “We are going to continue to work through it. We really appreciate everybody’s patience as we work through the process and deal with the fires.”

Arthur Duszak, 80, lived in Royal Oaks Manor, a mobile home park in Phoenix. He was working in his garden when police issued orders to evacuate on Tuesday. His home was leveled. He got out and now wonders if all of his neighbors did the same.

“There were some who didn’t want to go,” he said. “I don’t know if they left later or they are no longer with us.”

Sandra Spelliscy, the Talent city administrator, said authorities are hearing from people who can’t track down their loved ones.

Fueled by strong winds, the ferocious Almeda wildfire torched a path from Ashland through Talent and Phoenix and into the edge of Medford.

Officials in Phoenix estimate the fire destroyed 1,000 residences, a mix of mobile or manufactured homes, apartments and homes. Several miles south on Oregon 99, the community of Talent lost an estimated 600 homes.

Staff writer Shane Dixon Kavanaugh contributed to this report.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

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