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

When the evacuation notices began on Sept. 6, 2020, Breitenbush Fire Chief Jordan Pollack was some 300 miles away in Port Townsend, Washington, coordinating efforts as the off-land manager of his fire department.

By the next day, he and his small firefighting crew would be the last line of defense against a megafire that was threatening to wipe the historic Breitenbush resort off the map.

But first they had to get there.

It was Labor Day weekend in 2020. The Santiam Fire would ultimately engulf whole towns and over 400,000 acres of forest along the Santiam River, fanned by hurricane force winds.

As thousands of Oregonians evacuated from its path and those of other major fires that burned across the state, Pollack and his crew went toward the danger to save one of the oldest recreational sites in Oregon.

Bushwhacking to the hot springs

Breitenbush, located 20 minutes northeast of Detroit in Marion County, has more than 30 geothermal springs dotting the banks of the Breitenbush River and hosts a complex of over 100 buildings — many built in the 1920s.

In its current iteration as the Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center, the property is run as a workers co-op. Staff live in a community village across the river from guest accommodations and the main historic lodge, all of which was under threat in the fire.

From the north, Pollack led a convoy of cars, followed by Neil Clasen and Erik Wennstrom — two other professional firefighting members of the Breitenbush Fire Department, or BFD.

A veteran wildland firefighter who also does emergency services consulting, Pollack helped create the BFD in 2006, providing formal training in fire suppression to volunteer staff members.

State police roadblocks slowed down their journey. As they got closer to Breitenbush, fire and wind-felled trees blocked the way.

“We tried to get up the guest road to get there initially [but] couldn’t get there because there were so many trees down,” Pollack recounted. “So we went around the other way to the north side of the river that we were able to get through.”

What they discovered, after bushwhacking their way to the property, were 40 or 50 structures already actively burning.

They also found Daniel Dundon and Tim McDevitt, Breitenbush Fire Department members who had opted to stay while guests and staff were being evacuated and directed east over the Santiam Pass. Dundon and McDevitt were determined to protect the resort’s buildings using any available water source.

Wind gusts carried the fire up and around this team of fire firefighters, and flames landed in unpredictable spots — creating mosaic burn patterns throughout the property.

“We’d been told by the federal and state managers of the fire, ‘The fire’s going to remain up in the wilderness area.’ And we don’t fight fire in the wilderness,” said Peter Moore, Breitenbush’s business director and deputy chief of the Breitenbush Fire Department. Moore was himself evacuated at about 4 a.m. on Sept. 8, 2020, as the firewall came through.

But now the fire had moved beyond the wilderness.

A hose down in a fire storm

With no potential human casualties but their own, “our complete focus was about the buildings,” Pollack said. “We’re not going to be able to put out the fire that’s in the forest around there. That’s just not happening, unfortunately. I wish we could have.”

“We still had 30-mile-an-hour winds, propane tanks blowing up every five minutes, trees coming down every five or 10,” Pollack said. “It was a little bit of Armageddon.”

To save the remaining buildings, the crew opted to forego cutting fire lines and shifted to a heavy moisturizing strategy.

“What they did is set up sprinklers and hoses, and just hose down the vertical walls of the buildings that hadn’t started to burn,” Moore said.

The five-man team worked relentlessly for 48 hours.

We had this 30-mile-an-hour sustained fire for two days. I remember looking at the sky at one point like, ‘You are not supposed to be windy still. Slow down.’

Jordan Pollack, Breitenbush Fire Chief

By Sept. 9, 2020, the wildfire had burned down nearly half of the resort, including nearly all of the guest structures and 25% of the staff housing.

Before the rest could burn, the wind blew the bulk of the fire right over the top of the resort a mile farther downstream of the Breitenbush River, leaving manageable spot fires to mop up.

“The fire was stopped by those guys and they were able to save the buildings that they saved,” Moore said. “It was an amazing venture.”

‘Every year is a fire year’

Five years on, the Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center is still rebuilding.

Builders worked through the summer to reconstruct the Sanctuary building — the spiritual heart of the resort — where community gatherings and meditations were held.

The Breitenbush Fire Department also applied the lessons from 2020 to every fire season, bracing for the reality of a warming planet and perennial wildfires.

“Every year is a fire year. That’s the repeating theme,” Peter Moore said. “And so at the beginning of every summer, we are prepared for fire the way we were not prepared because September of 2020.”

Sprinklers are now set up around every building in Breitenbush from June to October, connected to a system of river-fed pumps and hoses. More defensible structures have been built using fire-resistant materials and techniques such as thicker windows. Firewood is no longer stored near historic buildings.

Meanwhile, Jordan Pollack has added another job on top of his fire chief duties at Breitenbush, as the San Juan Island Fire and Rescue division chief, based in Friday Harbor, Washington.

“I work up here in the San Juan Islands building brigades that are similar to Breitenbush in six or seven remote islands currently,” Pollack said.

“And there’s definitely a movement right now in the West of people doing more of that. The bottom line is: If people are going to stay and defend in place, they have to be able to do it safely.”

In July, Pollack received a startling reminder of what could have been at Breitenbush.

While he led an interagency wildland fire exercise in the San Juan Islands, one of the firefighters mentioned a piece of breaking news during the debrief session.

A fast-moving wildfire was confirmed to have destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge, a beloved historic building on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

Pollack paused his debrief. “Oh God,” he said. “Let’s take a moment for that.”

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.

This story was written and reported by Arya Surowidjojo, edited by Courtney Sherwood and digitally produced by Bradley W. Parks, in partnership with "Oregon Field Guide."

Learn more about the history of Oregon wildfires:

• The 20 yearslong Tillamook Burn
• On the age of megafires in Oregon — an Oregon Historical Quarterly essay

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/02/breitenbush-hot-springs-fire-recovery/