Deaf-owned Camp Taloali threatened by wildfires

Camp Taloali in Stayon, Oregon is now threatened from wildfires that are several miles away. 

The camp is deaf owned and run and is best known for being the site of the Youth Leadership Camp (YLC). 

The campground host, Randall Smith had to be evacuated on Tuesday early morning. 

RANDALL SMITH: 

Hello I’m Randall Smith. I work as the campground host for Camp Taloali. This is the sign for it. 

[Images of Camp Taloali]

Camp Taloali provides many different actives such as annual youth camps, the YLC, and many events throughout the year. People have weddings or host festivals. The World Deaf Timberfest takes place here every two years. So that’s why I’m here as the host to maintain the grounds to make sure it’s in good shape. All the events this year is cancelled because of the coronavirus. Now, with my experience with evacuating — it was unexpected. The day before I evacuated, I was cleaning the pool. The wind gradually became stronger. There were gusts of about 30 to 50 mph. Trees were swaying and I stayed out of their way. Later on, the protective covering above the pool was completely ripped off. 

[Image of pool covering ripped off]

Felled tree branches were everywhere and large trees started to fall down. I stopped working then. 

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I was monitoring a wildfire called the Beachie Creek Fire. It is about 30 miles away from where I’m located. 

[Image of Beachie Creek Fire map]

It was only 500 acres in size, which is relatively small. I’ve seen the smoke from afar. I went to bed about 10:00 p.m. I did wake up occasionally through the night and at 2:30 a.m., I woke up and there was an emergency alert on my phone for three towns: Lyons, which was only a few miles east of me, Mill City, and Gates. It was a Level 3 alert, which meant an immediate evacuation. We didn’t even have a Level 1 or 2. We had to leave right now. We only had 10 minutes to pack our most important essentials. When we were ready to leave, law enforcement showed up to our campsite. It was about 3:30 a.m.  

[Images of emergency vehicles]

Remember when I said the fire was 500 acres and 30 miles away? Overnight the 500 acres expanded to 80,000 acres and it moved 25 miles closer. This was overnight. 

[Image of map of fire]

That was a very scary part. Right now I can’t go back to Camp Taloali until it is cleared by the authorities. The highway is closed as well. I can’t even drive back there. We are safe, all of us who evacuated are safe from Camp Taloali. Our neighbors also evacuated. I’m waiting for the all-clear for me to go back. For now you can monitor our Camp Taloali’s Facebook page as it will provide updates and also on a clean-up day in which the local community can come and support us. 

THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX): 

Thank you for your time, Randall. He is now in safety in Salem. 

Right now the Beachie Creek Fire (also named the Santiam Fire) has impacted 182,000 acres. Local news said some of the fires started from downed power lines from strong winds. There are some reports of injured people. 

We hope that the Camp Taloali site can be spared from the fires. 

https://katu.com/news/local/santiam-fire-now-called-beachie-creek-fire-grows-to-182000-acres