Passer-by helps stop Brothers shed fire’s spread

Brad and Amber Herrera of La Pine were on their way home from Burns Sunday evening when they saw smoke coming from behind the Brothers Stage Stop, about 40 miles east of Bend.

They arrived in the area along Highway 20 around 5:30 p.m. and quickly saw a fire that apparently began in a large shed was spreading to the back of the adjacent building. Around the same time, the area’s ODOT crew, then Oregon State Police showed up.

“The back shed was engulfed,” he said. After a few minutes, he said, the flames jumped over to the back of the main building, which he said were stopped and only caused “minimal to moderate” damage.

“OSP and ODOT did wonderful on helping with this,” Herrera told NewsChannel 21 by email.

Herrera said two ODOT workers went to the owner’s nearby trailer and shouted that the shed was on fire, which brought the woman out.

Herrera said he helped put out the fire, despite the water faucets and other resources being frozen. Instead, they used snow, mud and five large and small fire extinguishers to put out the flames.

The former corrections officer said he grew up on a ranch the did prescribed burns, so he had some knowledge of what to do.