In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast , host Zach Urness talks with an Oregon ranger who saved hundreds of people from the path of the deadly 2020 Labor Day Fires.

Nikki Swanson, Sweet Home district ranger for Willamette National Forest, spurred a major evacuation and closure of the Mount Jefferson Wilderness just days before the Lionshead Fire burned the area and nearly 200,000 acres on Sept. 7-8, 2020. She is credited with saving a number of lives five years ago.

“She is a hero, not properly thanked,” Linn County Commissioner Will Tucker said.

In the podcast, Swanson talks about the difficult decision to evacuate the wilderness, how search and rescue teams got more than 200 people out of the forest and how wildfires have changed in Oregon since 2020.

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