How to Help With the Oregon Wildfires, and What Every Homeowner Should Actually Know

I drove out to Bend the last weekend of July for a friend's wedding, and as we came down into Madras I saw it. Not haze on the horizon. An actual column of smoke, standing up over the high desert like its own weather system. I have lived in Oregon my whole life and I still was not ready for how big it looked from the car.

Since then it has mostly been my phone. Friends posting from Bend, family headed up toward Mount Hood, everyone taking a picture of the same thing from a slightly different angle, and the news running numbers that keep getting bigger.

Here in Washington County we have had a couple of hazy days and that is about it. Which is exactly why I wanted to write this. Most of us are close enough to see it and far enough away to feel a little useless about it, and "I should probably do something" is a hard feeling to act on when you do not know what actually helps.

So I went and found out. Some of what I found is useful and some of it corrects things I have seen shared around this week that are not quite right. I want to give you a real answer rather than a comforting one.

Fair warning: the second half of this post is the real estate part. I thought hard about whether to include it, because there is a version of this post that is opportunistic and I did not want to write that one. But I spent this week reading the actual emergency orders, and there is real, specific, boring information in there that helps people, and almost nobody is explaining it in plain English. That is the part of this I am actually qualified to do. So I am doing it, and you can stop reading at the halfway mark with a clear conscience.

First, where are the fires actually?

Not here. This matters, so I want to be precise about it.

As of August 2, Oregon had burned close to 2 million acres across about 60 large fires, which passes the previous modern record of 1.93 million acres set in 2024. The Oregon Department of Forestry's deputy director described it as "probably the worst that we've had it, at least in modern times" for eastern Oregon.

The fires themselves are east, central and south. Wasco County, Jefferson County, Crook County, Union and Umatilla, the Warm Springs area, down toward Medford and Grants Pass. At least 20 homes have been confirmed lost and the reporting notes the real number is likely higher, because confirming a total takes weeks and the fires are still going.

I put the map at the top of this post together myself because I could not find a simple one, and I want to be clear about what it is: a county-level picture from the last two weeks of news reporting, not an official incident map. Fires move and evacuation levels change daily. For live perimeters and current evacuation levels, the Oregon State Fire Marshal is the source to use, and it is the one I would send to anyone actually making a decision about travel or property.

What most of us have had is a hazy afternoon and a view from the freeway. That is not nothing, and if you are headed east or up toward the mountain it is worth checking conditions before you go. It is also not remotely the same thing as losing your house, and I think being honest about that distance is the only way a post like this is worth writing.

Practically speaking, that distance changes what helps. We are not close enough to drive supplies over. We are close enough to send money, and money is what actually works.

What do people actually need right now?

This is the part where most well-meaning help goes sideways, and the state has said so out loud.

Oregon's Department of Emergency Management put out guidance on July 20 that includes two requests people do not expect:

Do not send unsolicited goods. In their words, donated items "can create storage challenges, generate waste, and slow down response operations." The clothes-drive instinct is a good instinct, and in this specific situation it makes more work for people who do not have any spare capacity.

Do not self-deploy. Showing up at an evacuation site to help, without being affiliated with a responding organization, disrupts operations.

Cash is the ask. It is less satisfying than filling a truck. It is also the only form of help that lets someone in Prineville buy the specific thing they actually lost.

Where to send it

These are the organizations the state itself pointed to, plus one Oregon-specific option I like a lot.

• Oregon Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster is the coordinating body for the nonprofits doing long-term recovery. Unglamorous and effective.

• Oregon Community Foundation, Disaster Readiness and Response Fund funds both preparedness and rapid recovery, and it keeps working after the news cycle moves on.

• American Red Cross, Cascades Region is shelters and emergency supplies, right now.

• Wildland Firefighter Foundation supports injured firefighters and their households.

• United Way Pacific Northwest Disaster Recovery Fund

• 211info, or just dialing 211, is the front door if you or someone you know needs help rather than wants to give it.

And the easy one, which is my favorite because it costs you nothing you were not already throwing away. BottleDrop is running an Oregon wildfire relief campaign. You can direct your can and bottle refund to it online through your BottleDrop account, or tell the staff at a full-service redemption center. The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative's emergency fund is matching up to $25,000 in total donations through September 30, and the money splits between the Red Cross Cascades Region, the Oregon Community Foundation and the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.

If you have a garage full of bags you have been meaning to deal with since the Fourth of July, this is your sign. That is a real contribution and it is also finally getting your garage back.

The Washington County part that nobody mentioned

Here is something I did not know until I went looking, and it changed how I felt about the whole thing.

Our fire crews are already down there. On July 16, Washington County agencies deployed to the East Evans Creek Fire near Medford as part of a state mobilization. Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue and Banks Fire District all sent personnel, alongside crews from Gresham, the Port of Portland and Cannon Beach. Hillsboro sent a Type 1 engine with a four-person crew plus a captain to the state incident management team. Banks sent Engine 15. At the time they arrived, the fire was over 11,500 acres at 5 percent containment with more than 1,500 people assigned to it.

So the connection between here and there is not abstract. Some of the people fighting those fires drove down from our neighborhoods, and their households are here, doing the ordinary August things, while they are gone. I wrote a while back about why Beaverton is having a moment, and I stand by all of it. This is part of it too, just the part nobody puts in a neighborhood guide.

I do not have a call to action attached to that. I just think it is worth knowing.

Now the part that is actually my job

Here is the headline you have probably seen: "FEMA authorizes funds for Oregon wildfires." Here is what it actually means.

Those announcements are Fire Management Assistance Grants, and Oregon has received five of them this season. An FMAG reimburses the state for the cost of fighting the fire. It is a firefighting budget. It is not money for households, and receiving one does not open up FEMA assistance for individual homeowners.

As of today, there is no 2026 Oregon wildfire major disaster declaration with Individual Assistance. Oregon's Department of Emergency Management currently lists active federal declarations for 2024 wildfires and for storms and flooding, and nothing for the 2026 fire season.

That means no FEMA checks and no SBA disaster loans for these fires, right now. That could change. It has not yet. I would rather you hear that from me than find it out on hold.

So here is what does exist today.

Your homeowners insurance cannot be cancelled out from under you

On July 31, Oregon issued an emergency order under ORS 731.870 that protects policyholders in the ZIP codes under wildfire evacuation notices. It runs through August 30, and can be extended.

While it is in effect, insurers must:

• Suspend all cancellations and nonrenewals in the covered areas

• Provide a grace period for premium payments, running at least until the order lifts

• Extend all deadlines for reporting claims and for claim-related communications

• Not cancel or nonrenew a policy solely because of a claim arising from the wildfire disaster, except in cases of fraud

• Not cancel for nonpayment of the extended premium amount while the order stands

  
  

If an insurer is not honoring this, Oregon has consumer advocates whose entire job is that phone call. The Division of Financial Regulation's line is 888-877-4894, and it is free. Their wildfire page is here.

Your mortgage is more flexible than you think, but only if you call first

This is the one I most want people to hear, because the instinct when money gets scary is to go quiet, and going quiet is the single most expensive thing you can do.

Forbearance is a real, standard, boring product. It pauses or reduces your mortgage payment for a set period. It is not a favor and it is not a red flag.

• Fannie Mae offers disaster forbearance of up to 12 months, with no late fees and no foreclosure proceedings during it. Servicers may even offer an initial 90 days proactively if they believe a home was affected. Their disaster recovery counseling line is 855-437-3243, free. Details here.

• Freddie Mac offers forbearance in initial terms of one to six months, extendable, capped at 12 months total, with no late charges accruing. Their eligibility requires either a home or workplace in a FEMA-declared disaster area or an insured loss. Since there is no 2026 wildfire declaration yet, the insured-loss path is the one that is open, which is another reason to file the insurance claim promptly. Details here.

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The first step for both is identical: call the servicer listed on your mortgage statement. Not your original lender. Not your agent. The servicer.

Oregon will prorate your property taxes on a destroyed home

Almost nobody knows this one and it is written into state law.

Under ORS 308.425, if your property is destroyed or damaged by fire, you can apply to your county tax collector to have that year's property taxes prorated. You are then charged one twelfth of the annual tax for each month before the destruction, and for the months after, a reduced percentage based on the property's remaining value as determined by the county assessor.

You file it with the county tax collector where the property sits, within 60 days of the damage or by June 30 of the tax year it happened in, whichever is later. The form is Form OR-AOG, Application for Proration of Property Taxes Due to Damage by Fire or Act of God, and if you check the fire box you attach the fire department report.

It will not be top of anyone's list in the first week. It is worth a lot in month three.

And if you are here in Washington County, watching the sky

You almost certainly do not need any of the above. But there is a twenty minute job worth doing this weekend while it is boring, and boring is exactly when you want to do it.

Walk your house with your phone and take video. Every room, open the closets, open the cabinets, narrate what things are. Then walk the garage and the shed. Email it to yourself so it lives somewhere that is not in the house.

Then find out two numbers on your policy: your dwelling coverage limit, and whether you carry Additional Living Expenses, which is what pays for somewhere to sleep if you cannot be in your house. Oregon's insurance division notes that ALE varies by policy and is worth confirming directly with your insurer rather than assuming.

That is it. That is the whole assignment. The people who have the easiest time with a claim are not the ones with the best policy, they are the ones who can prove what was in the house.

What I usually tell my clients

Give money, not stuff. I know it feels less real. It is more useful, the state has explicitly asked for it that way, and it is the only version of help that does not create work for someone who has none to spare.

If you know someone down there: call the servicer before missing a payment, not after. Forbearance requested in advance is routine. A missed payment explained afterward is a repair job.

And be careful about what you forward. There is a lot circulating this week about federal aid that is describing firefighting grants rather than help for households, and someone reading it while their house is gone does not need a false hope with a two-week fuse.

One more thing, and I mean this. Your situation is not your neighbor's situation. Somebody in Prineville and somebody in Beaverton have completely different problems right now, and the advice that fits one of them is useless to the other. If you are not sure which pile you are in, that is a fine question to just ask somebody.

If you want to talk it through

If you own a home in Oregon and something in the second half of this post applies to you, or you are not sure whether it does, reach out. That is the kind of conversation worth having before you need it, not after.

And I have a real ask. If you know of a Washington County fundraiser, a local business collecting, or an Oregon relief effort I did not list here, hit reply and tell me. I will add it to this post and keep it current for as long as this season lasts. I would much rather this be a list people trust than a list I wrote once.

While you are here: if the smoke has you thinking about the state of your house generally, my Fall Home Maintenance Checklist for PNW Homeowners covers the seasonal version of the same twenty minute job, and it is about to be that time of year again.

Thanks for reading this one all the way through.

Warmly,

Tiffanie

Tiffanie Danley

Licensed Realtor in Oregon | Real Broker

Oregon License 201206631

P: 503-453-6580

E: tiffanie@tdrealtygroup.com

W: tdrealtygroup.com

IG: @tiffaniedanley