GATES, Oregon — It was September 2020, the height of the pandemic, when Oregon faced a historic crisis. Wildfires erupted across 11 counties, forcing evacuations. More than 40,000 people had to leave their homes.

A state report later called it “the most destructive sequence of simultaneous wildfires in Oregon’s history.” According to that report, in total, the fires burned more than 1.2 million acres, killed nine people and destroyed over 5,000 homes and businesses. Five megafires burned: the Archie Creek (131,542 acres); Beachie Creek (193,573 acres); Holiday Farm (173,393 acres); Lionshead (204,469 acres); and Riverside (138,054 acres).

Now, five years later, we revisited one family in the Santiam Canyon who lost everything in the Beachie Creek Fire.

Cindy and Bryan Chauran remember

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