Wearing a green bucket hat and holding a beer, Dave Jeter, 78, walked toward a patchwork of ash and debris. Smoke crested the horizon while the smell of a now-distant fire lingered around what was once his home.

“There’s my big front window,” he said, pointing down to the ground littered with pieces of broken glass and a pile of soot. “And there’s my 50-inch TV screen.”

The home he built in a canyon hugging the Snake River on the Oregon-Idaho border, where he’s lived for 13 years, was a smoldering pile.

His warped metal roof twisted on the ground over ash-covered belongings and an untouched toolbox. Jeter said he’s trying not to dwell on all the things he’s lost, pointing to scorched sheds or the charred barbecue where he once cooked hot dogs for his kids. Near the wreckage, he had a fresh bowl of water and cat food for a missing cat.

“You just got to keep going,” he said.

His place was one of three homes in rural Baker County that burned along the Snake River July 25.

From the small city of Huntington 30 miles away, Fire Chief Eric Bronson showed up and tried to protect Jeter’s home as the flames closed in, but then his truck rolled. He had to be airlifted out, suffering injuries to his head and back, but has since returned home to recover, said Huntington Mayor Chuck Guerri.

This fast-moving grass fire also led to three days of Level 3 “Go Now!” evacuation of Huntington itself, a town of roughly 500 residents. Evacuation levels were lowered to Level 2 “Be Set” Tuesday afternoon after the Fox Fire changed direction. Locals are now grappling with the aftermath in a tight-knit community.

Most people stayed

When the evacuation orders began, the Baker County Sheriff’s Office sent volunteers and fire rescue crews, who spent about four hours knocking on doors in Huntington to alert people. Deputies called those in outlying areas, or in some cases, showed up to warn them.

Many residents are elderly, do not have cell phones to get automated alerts or might need help leaving, Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash said. His crew created a map tracking which residents wanted to leave, and which were staying. Almost everyone stayed.

Jeter was one of them, at first.

Even as he watched the flames move closer to his home, he didn’t want to leave. Friends Amy and Terry Ross — whose home sits a few miles from his — called to warn him that he needed to go, but Jeter stayed until Deputy Warren Thompson showed up in person and ordered him to evacuate.

“He made me go first and he followed me to make sure I went down,” Jeter said. “I gave my word, so I didn’t come back up.”

A fire two years ago also threatened his home. Jeter packed up his belongings and evacuated but the flames never reached his house. He believed this time around would be the same.

As the flames encircled his home and the deputy made him go, he left behind six cats, family heirlooms and a home he spent years building.

“I forgot to get my dad’s pistol — plus there was a family tree thing on my mom’s side from around the early 1800s, late 1700s. Lost that,” Jeter said.

He found five of the cats, each uninjured, as he picked through the ruins of his home over the last week. One 3-year-old Siamese cat is still missing.

“In the daytime, I call her Blue,” Jeter said. “At night, I call her Red-Eye.”

‘We do the best we can’

The day Jeter’s house burned down, firefighter Mike Wiley was communicating with fire chief Bronson over the radio. The two were coordinating where to meet and how to protect Jeter’s home and others in the fire’s path, Wiley said.

He recalled seeing Bronson slowly turning his truck around and edging too close to the side of the road. The ground beneath Bronson gave way and the truck rolled over, Wiley said.

“His feet were caught in between the pedals on the floor and the console and the dashboard. It was pretty spooky because there was fire 15 feet across the road,” Wiley said.

Bronson, who is recovering from his injuries, could not be reached for comment. Assistant Fire Chief Travis Young has stepped in as the interim fire chief while the Fox Fire continues to burn.

Young also co-owns T&T Country Store with his wife Tracy Young. Now he’s splitting his time between making trips to the fire line while she keeps the store open and serving as a central gathering place for residents looking for evacuated friends and family, updates and supplies.

“We’ve had a lot of volunteers. We got a bunch of free water here for all the firefighters. They take what they want and go. We’ve had a lot of donations,” Travis Young said.

Outside the store, a bulletin board displayed updates on the fire’s movement, emergency contacts and resources for people looking to leave. Inside, the Youngs’ black dachshund, Sparky, waddled between customers, greeting people as they stopped in, many buying masks for the smoke or other necessities.

It’s a role the store has filled before whenever nearby wildfires have threatened the community.

“It seems like every two years this happens and everybody piles in here and we do the best we can to take care of everybody,” Travis Young said.

With each arrival on a recent day, a bell on the front door let them know they had more customers, ringing nearly continuously.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/01/eastern-oregon-community-faces-fox-fire-aftermath/