The Biscuit Fire began ten years ago this month.
It was started by lightening and burned from July to September of 2002. In total it burned almost a half-million acres of land, making it the biggest fire in Oregon’s history.
Jerry Sorenson is a Josephine County Resident whose house was right in the middle of the burn. He and his wife managed to save their home, but as he told OPB’s Think Out Loud, it wasn’t an easy task.
“We had all of our water going too, we was watering all the building. We did that tell about 2 o’clock at night and finally the water lines burned in half. At that time we pretty much put the fire out as it came down to the building.”
The Biscuit fire was also the most expensive in Oregon’s history. By the end of the cleanup it had cost the state almost $155 million.
