‘It’s just ash’: British man and his family lose home to Oregon megafires

‘I never really thought that it would happen to someone that I know’, step-sister of wildfire victim tells Gino Spocchia

As the United States’ west coast burned last week, a British man awaited the moment he would evacuate as wildfires raced over Oregon’s Cascade foothills, destroying communities and livelihoods in its path.

Sam Lockton, aged 29, who hails from Newcastle, with his wife Cheyenne, 26, and baby daughter, Ivy, have since lost everything in a blaze last week, his step-sister told The Independent.  

“They had a little plot in Vida, Oregon, obviously until the other day,” said Shannen Bott, also from Newcastle. “I’ve got some photographs of what was left, but it’s just ash”.  

The young family are among hundreds whose lives have been upturned across Washington, California, and Oregon, where so-called "megafires" last week burned more than all blazes this century, authorities say.

“The fire started a few miles away, well quite a few miles away from their home, but I believe there were strong winds and because of the lack of rain, they were put on level 2 warning,” explained Sam’s step-sister. “[It] basically said prepare to evacuate, not yet, but get prepared”.

That warning came just a few hours after fires took hold near Oregon’s McKenzie River, an otherwise idyllic watercourse that typically hosts hikers, wildlife and the 82-year-old Goodpasture Bridge, whose timbered frame miraculously survived last week’s blaze.

“Our power went out”, said Sam, speaking to The Independent, as he described the fire’s approach. “[I] saw some smoke coming down on the river so we started looking around on our local community Facebook page.”

That was the moment on Monday evening when they discovered a fire had been ignited 20 miles away, with debris being already being carried in the wind.

“I think there were 40 mile an hour winds and I think it spread 20 miles in 10 hours, so it completely just took over,” Shannen said of the blaze known as the Holiday Farm fire.

Local reports suggest some 37,000 acres were eventually scorched along the state 126 highway, that Sam and Cheyenne would use to escape their home, with hours to spare. 

“On the Monday, they made the decision [to evacuate] because their daughter, Ivy, is not quite two [years old],” explained Sam’s step-sister. “They wanted to make sure she was safe”, driving 40 miles to Cheyenne’s parents home, also in Oregon.

Ivy’s parents, not wanting to evacuate with their daughter in the middle of night, had suspected that an evacuation order was imminent, with "ash coming down from the sky”, said Sam.

“I went back outside and you couldn’t see two foot in front of you with all the ash,” he explained. “We knew we couldn’t wait for the final evacuation notice so we woke up our child and jumped in the car and left”. 

“I think they left at about 11pm local time in the evening on Monday night, they went to Cheyenne’s parents who are also in Oregon, but a bit further away from the fires then they were,” his step-sister, Shannen, said.  

Less than five hours later, the blaze that swept through Vida would be categorised as a conflagration, with Lane County authorities asking for statewide assistance to control it.

The only problem was that wildfires were also raging in other parts of Oregon, too.

“At around 3am we got told that the fire which started 20 miles away was on the verge of breaching our town,” said Sam, who was eventually put-up in a hotel by the Red Cross. “We didn’t know it was spreading so quickly.”

“[Cheyenne’s parents] were evacuated, that's when they were put up in the hotel”, said Shannen, describing how her brother, sister-in-law, and niece were provided with a hotel room for safety, alongside Cheyenne’s parents.

“It was sort of up in the air about whether [Sam’s] house was gone or not, because some of their neighbours, their houses are still there,” Shannen explained. “But unfortunately they had confirmation the other day that their house has completely gone.”

Photographs taken by a friend of Sam’s show a barren landscape, with only rubble and ash remaining of the family home in Vida.

“I think he thinks he has [had time to process it], but he hasn't”, said his step-sister. “Everything they’ve got is gone, they’re just possessions and things like a pet snake, things they can’t replace like all of Ivy’s first everything - baby photographs, irreplaceable things - but fortunately they’re okay themselves“.

Sam had tried to return to Vida to pick-up precious items on the Tuesday morning, including their pet snake Loba, but was stopped by police, who had already ordered an evacuation.

The couple are yet to find out whether their insurance will cover the cost of the damage, with no idea of when life will return to any resemblance of normal.  

Sam told The Independent: “Now we know [about the home] and we aren’t stuck in limbo - we can start looking towards our future and rebuilding our lives. It’s going to be a hard long process but we are hopeful.”

His step-sister added: “We don’t get anything like that here [in the UK], and when you hear about it happening in other countries, you know in Australia or California, it's terrible - I always feel for people going through that.

“I never really thought that it would happen to someone that I know, and now that it has, it's kind of - we feel a bit helpless,” she admitted. “There’s not much we can do.”

Expecting the worst, Shannen set up a donation page for her brother and sister-in-law on Saturday, when news broke that the family home had been lost.

“With the current situation as well, it's unlikely we’d be able to fly out there and help them in any way if we could”, Shannen says of the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s difficult knowing there’s not much I can do to help, which is why I set up the Gofundme page, because if I can do anything from over here, I can try.”

Shannen said the family were amazed at the support they’ve received from friends and strangers, who broke an original donation target of £1,000.

“People that dont know them, people that barely know us, some people have donated and we don’t actually know them at all, and it’s crazy to think they can be that generous.”

Sam and Cheyenne were able to return to her parents on Monday, said Shannen, almost a week after they fled their own home.

It comes as Ivy turns two years old later this month, having lost birthday presents in the fire.  

“Fortunately Ivy doesn’t know what's going on,” said Shannen. “So I guess in a way because she’s too young to really understand what’s happening”.