People left and right have stepped up to help evacuees and also those who didn't have time to rescue their animals.
The fires rage on.
And in the midst of the wildfires burning across the state -- oregon state police announced that the oregon state fire marshal ---jim walker----has resigned.
The osp super- intendent has now appointed 'mariana ruiz-temple' as the oregon state fire marshal.
Super-intendent travis hampton said she's assuming this position -- as oregon is in a crisis which demands an urgent response.
He went on to say --- this required making a leadership change.
He says he has absolute confidence in mariana to lead the operations through this critical time.
Its important to note -- earlier in the day osp said walker was placed on administrative leave -- without giving a reason why.
Among all the chaos and destruction -- community members are*proving they'll do whatever it takes to help those in need -- regardless of their own situation.
Kezi 9 news reporter kennedy dendy found out how one family is helping several others -- all while losing everything.
Nicholas: "i lost my home but i'm alive."
Nicholas hammond and his family live up the mckenzie river, just a mile west of vy-da.
Nicholas: "at 12:33 in the morning we got the emergency alert on my phone and it said level 3 evacuate now."
He stepped outside and saw ash everywhere.
In just a few minutes, they were all in the car ...with just the clothes on their back.
But there's a life lesson he wanted to teach his kids about in that moment.
Nicholas: "there's all this craziness going on in the world but there's people right now driving into this and we were driving away."
Their home is a total loss.
But that hasn't stopped hammond from helping*others during this difficult time.
Nicholas: "we've been so taken care of by this community.
It's beyond my wildest imaginations, the blessings we've received in the last 60 hours have been unreal from this community i'm a part of.
Bridge: but the support doesn't stop there.
With the help of friends, family and even strangers, trevor lammers and his team have brought over 200 animals to safety- traveling not just throughout the state but all vancouver, washington.
Trevor: "we're just glad we can get them out of there.
Some people's horses are like their babies so it's been great."
What started as a*facebook post -- led to his team driving over 1,500 miles in just four days.
Trevor: "for the first two days, it was non stop.
I think we slept maybe six hours in three days."
They headed towards blue river rescueing animals that owners struggled to get to in time.
Trevor: "who knows how long these animals are going to be here.
It's a lot of animals to take care of."
Many of the horses are being housed at whispering meadows in junction city, but volunteers have been pitching in to make sure*all animals are*safe and*fed.
Reporting in lane county
Jackson County officials addressed concerns about the use of emergency alerts during the Almeda Fire and talked about the next..
