Lone firefighter saves family-owned ranch from advancing wildfire flames

Marni Hughes

Updated: Jul 14, 2021 / 04:21 AM CDT

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KLAMATH COUNTY, Ore. (NewsNation Now) — The Bootleg Fire that is burning in Oregon is the largest fire in the U.S., scorching more than 300 square miles and threatening nearly 2,000 homes.

Some people have lost everything they own, only getting out with the clothes on their backs. Others are calling themselves lucky including Elizabeth Meadows, a ranch owner whose family’s cabin was spared from the flames thanks to one very brave firefighter.

Meadows says she was very close to losing everything.

“It was just right behind our cabin,” she said. “This firefighter decided to back burn [controlled burn] behind it. And sprinklers that water was being pumped out of the river that we’re near and that actually saved our ranch.”

That firefighter, Jason Pettigrew, was out there by himself.

“He was just out there on his own. He was getting ready to pull all the gear out of there and decided to back burn and then the conditions got too dangerous,” Meadows told NewsNationNow.com. “So they pulled everyone out. But he was the last one that was on our ranch.”

Meadows said the cabin has been in the family for six generations and her grandfather bought it back in the 1950s.