Bend couple helps save Eagle Crest home from fire

Redmond fire officials said Wednesday that barbecue ashes dumped in a plastic garbage can started the fire that ripped through an Eagle Crest home Tuesday.

A few good Samaritans, followed by fire crews, stopped the flames from spreading to a nearby home. But the damage was still costly — a total of $465,000 to the two homes and their contents, according to Redmond Fire Marshal Traci Cooper.

A Bend couple, Dwayne and Lisa Klein, own a landscape company, and they were doing work nearby late Tuesday afternoon when they saw the flames shooting out of the home.

“Just about the time were were getting ready to park the car, I guess the propane tank exploded, and it actually shook our entire car,” Dwayne said Wednesday.

The explosion blasted flames and debris into the air, catching trees on fire and threatening a family’s vacation home, 50 feet away.

“There were people screaming, ‘Get out of there, get out of there!'” said Lisa. “I was like, ‘We can save this house, you know, if we just hose it down.'”

The Klines said they couldn’t stand by and watch the house burn to the ground, without trying their hardest to put out the blaze.

“You know, I was just hoping that if this was my house, that somebody would do it for me,” Lisa said. “I don’t know, I wasn’t scared at all. I wanted to help save that house, because I knew that we could.”

The couple used a hose to douse the side of the home that went up in flames and nearby trees.

Fire officials say good defensible space by the homeowner also played a major role to stop the fire in its tracks.

“There was only one point I was kind of scared, and it was when I was trying to stomp out the fire on the ground,” said Dwayne. “I was actually completely surrounded by low flames on the grass.”

Their efforts paid off, as the house is still standing, with just a few burned edges and mangled trees left behind. And just a few feet away, a family’s home is nearly destroyed.

“I feel sadness for the people who live here and their loss,” said Lisa. “I’m also just grateful that they got out alive and that they’re safe. You can always replace your stuff.”

Cooper said the fire serves as a reminder to anyone disposing of ashes, to place them in a metal container, away from anything that can burn. The ashes also need to be soaked with water before they’re thrown out.