Firefighters From Nearly Every Agency In Linn County Responded To Fight A House Fire Outside Of Sweet Home Sunday Night (Photo) - 06/15/26

Occupants of a single-family residence discovered a fire in their home Sunday evening just outside of Sweet Home. The residents were able to evacuate the home with their pets and called 911 at 7:11 pm. The call for help came in just 14 minutes after a separate residential flue fire was reported in the Cascadia area. Fire units from Sweet Home were already responding to Cascadia for that fire when one of the engines was diverted to respond to the second fire. An off duty Division Chief responded with the engine, arriving first and establishing Incident Command. He found the attached garage fully involved with fire spreading into the home, 2 vehicles fully involved and fire spreading into the wildland surrounding the home. Command immediately requested a second alarm for personnel, engines, and water tenders, as well as a response from the Oregon Department of Forestry for the wildland exposure.  The fire was in a rural area on Wiley Creek Drive, which was unhydranted. Firefighters battled the blaze for over an hour before the Incident Commander requested a third alarm. The 93 degree temperatures and low humidity coupled with high winds, a lack of immediate water supply, and void spaces in the structure were all factors in making this an exceptionally challenging fire to fight. The three alarms brought firefighters and apparatus from nearly every agency in Linn County, and one agency from Lane County. A total of 54 firefighters, 7 engines, 8 water tenders, 2 ambulances, 2 brush trucks, and 4 Chief Officers responded to the scene. Those units responded from Sweet Home, Lebanon, Brownsville, Halsey, Harrisburg, Tangent, Albany, and Mohawk Valley Fire Departments, and ODF. An additional ambulance from Lebanon also provided coverage to the district and transported once during the incident. Firefighters remained on scene throughout the night working to achieve complete extinguishment. We were also assisted by the Linn County Sherriff's Office who provided traffic control, and Pacific Power who removed the utility hazards. One firefighter was transported from the scene to a local hospital by ambulance for a medical event but was in stable condition. No other injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Oregon State Fire Marshal's Office.

Barn Fire Adds To Busy Day For Sweet Home Fire (Photo) - 05/23/26

The Friday on May 22nd was extra busy for Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District as they ran 15 calls for emergency service in a 14 hour period on one shift. The afternoon was interupted by a structure fire on Airport Road at 4:33 PM. Crews arrived to find a barn in a field with the roof on fire and residents attempting to spray water onto the roof with a hose. The primary residence was approximately 100 feet away and in the path of a stiff downwind of the burning barn. The first arriving unit was a command brush rig and used its onboard water to keep the flames at bay as an engine took the last water hydrant on Airport Road and layed in with a full crew to knock down the fire. Working both interior and exterior operations simultaneously, the engine company was able to extinguish the fire quickly and save as much of the contents of the barn as possible while preventing fire spread to the surrounding area. The 100 year old barn was in good condition and the majority of the damage was contained to the roof with minor damage to the interior as the roof had begun to fall in. The fire most likely started from a cast ember from a burn pile upwind approximately 75 feet away. The afternoon winds had picked up and the roof construction was cedar shake with years of moss growth that had dried with the past week of warm weather and steady winds. The Sweet Home Police Department assisted with traffic control during the operation, as the hydrant supply line was across Airport Road at the bottom of 50th Ave. In anticipation of the Memorial Day Weekend, Sweet Home Fire had upstaffed by adding a brush engine crew to the daily roster. This asset, as well as the luck of having no other calls at the time, added to the success of a quick response and extinguishment for crews. Only hours later Sweet Home had all ambulances on calls for service, a brush engine enroute to a fire in Cascadia, and an Albany medic unit responding to another call in our district as Lebanon Fire was also out of units running multiple calls. As this weekend gets in to full swing, we would like to ask the community to please be extra careful and pay close attention to any burning materials as crews may be stretched thin and are doing all that we can to be available to respond to all emergencies. Sweet Home Fire would like to thank the Sweet Home Police Department and Albany Fire for their response and assistance during this eventful shift.