Find all stories in the OPB series “Labor Day fires: Five years later” here.

This day five years ago, a handful of megafires ripped across Oregon’s landscape, destroying more than 4,000 homes and killing at least 11 people.

Emergency leaders frequently stress that, when disaster strikes, people should be prepared to rely on themselves. But the 2020 Labor Day fires prompted state leaders to change how they handle emergency response. They created new agencies and took a fresh look at supporting vulnerable people in a crisis.

As emergencies like wildfires and ice storms pummel Oregon more frequently, the heads of state agencies have been forced to play larger roles. With the fifth anniversary of the 2020 wildfires here, some state leaders reflected on what’s changed and what still worries them.

Identifying the most vulnerable

When the Flat Fire started tearing through Central Oregon last month, a county emergency manager in Jefferson County worried he might not have the resources to notify some of the state’s more vulnerable residents living in Crooked River Ranch.

“He wanted to know from us if we could help him understand the people that may need the most assistance,” said Ed Flick, who oversees the state Office of Resilience and Emergency Management.

Flick’s agency deals with populations that receive aid assistance, through programs like aging and disabilities, and has a recently purchased software system that is meant to help the state with evacuations. So Flick said they quickly identified residents who might need someone to knock on their doors.

“Are they aware of the hazard? Are they home? Do they have plans to evacuate? And if they had to evacuate, would they need assistance? We were able to take a list of about 200 people and narrow it down to a handful that really would need assistance,” Flick said. “Frankly, it’s happening with every wildfire and those are roles that we weren’t able to play in the past.”

Flick said he’s also able to connect easier with those who might need help because of the relationships the state is trying to actively build.

5 years ago the Labor Day fires scorched Oregon. What has the state learned?

That’s at the center of an idea that came out of the 2023 legislative session creating a grant program to create “community resiliency hubs.” The aim is to fund community-based or faith-based organizations working with government entities to serve as a warming or cooling shelter or a place to help people in the midst of a disaster.

In part because of those, Flick said, the state had already been in close contact with the local food bank and emergency managers in Jefferson County.

Alerting people

Earlier this summer, a massive Russian earthquake threatened to send large waves across the Pacific. But tsunami warnings on the Oregon Coast — and in some places, a lack of notifications — raised concerns about who will be notified when the next disaster threatens.

6 ways to visualize the 2020 Labor Day fires

Patence Winningham, the deputy director at Oregon Department of Emergency Management, said it’s up to officials in each county to decide when to issue alerts and warnings. It’s a patchwork of notifications she’s hoping to help streamline.

“Those seven coastal counties, they are trying to figure out, well, do I use the sirens? Do I use the reverse 911?” Winningham said. “And everybody’s trying to decide how to do that, so I’ve asked our staff — how do we help them?”

Winningham said the state has been working to build relationships with local emergency managers to help develop guidance and best practices around alerts.

“It’s the local authority that gets to decide and I want those seven counties to be in uniform,” she said. “I want them to work together and not have to wrestle with this every time we have a tsunami.”

One state lawmaker, Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, is planning to push for a $300 million proposal to upgrade the state’s disaster preparedness efforts, to both strengthen infrastructure and improve communication systems.

Budget uncertainties

When the 2020 wildfires hit, the state was in the midst of a good budget year. That is no longer the case.

“We had a lot of money,” said Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, whose district was hit hard during the 2020 fires. “So we put $150 million into housing. We put another, maybe it was $400 million into other kinds of support for communities. You know, we set up programs to help you with your septic system. We set up incentives to help you build back more resilient homes. We set up energy resist energy efficiency incentives. And still recovery is this hard over a period of time.”

Along with state budget unknowns, President Donald Trump’s moves to shrink the Federal Emergency Management Agency also concerns some lawmakers.

“We have a consensus that these disasters are beyond the state’s capacity to handle,” said Oregon state Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland.

Editor’s note: OPB is exploring the lessons learned and journeys taken since Labor Day 2020, when fires swept across the state. Find all stories in the OPB series “Labor Day fires: Five years later”here. Find additional wildfire resources here.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/07/labor-day-fires-oregon-leaders-learned/