Wildfire near Mapleton 'a big shock to the community'
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In tonight's fire watch... more lane county residents are under evacuation orders near mapleton.
As you can see from this map... the fire is burning south of town, and east of the river.
There's a level 3 evacuation for hadsall creek road -- that means "go."
Sweet creek road is under level 2... that means "be set."
And now there's a level one evacuation for bernhardt creek and duncan island roads -- which means be ready.
We have team coverage tonight on how neighbors in the area are coping with evacuations.
But we begin with kezi reporter emma jerome... who is live in mapleton with the latest here off highway126 just south if mapleton and behind me you see the smoke from fires but here us heli camp heres what we know 500 acres zero containment working on creating fire line odf says 100 people 16 crews stationed at mapleton highschool kauffman says they came into today with goals marcus kauffman "we have a combination of hand crews and equipment crews.
We have half a dozen dozers.
And excavators a processor.
They're working together to build that dozer line.
Hand line.
Currently debriefing switching crews evacs reporting live in mapleton of course... residents in the tight knit mapleton community feel like they're under attack tonight... and some of them are in a state of shock.
Kezi 9 news reporter kennedy dendy spoke to residents about what they lost --- and what they saved.
Chloe: "it was sad to see people have to go to another state or something because their house is going to burn down."
Acre by acre... this beautiful stretch of coast range is being swallowed by a monster.
And for residents who live in its path... there's only one thing to do.
Flee.
Noah: "with the fires starting and everything, it was a big shock to the community and everyone that lives around here was pretty panicked."
Bridge: the heavy smoke and flames have forced evacuations on multiple different levels.
Level three meaning to get out immediately.
And level 2 to just be ready.
One family says they're grateful that they're safe... and so far their home is still standing.
Misty: it went from small areas to huge.
We thought the house behind us was going to be burnt when we came back today."
Some people are staying with family or friends.
For others... an emergency shelter has been set up at the siuslaw middle school in florence.
No matter where they're sleeping tonight... they all hope that tomorrow will see a return to their homes --- and their lives.
Reporting in