VIDEO/PHOTOS: 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.
