Search and rescue efforts continue while Beachie Creek Fire rages on

Click here for updates on this story

    MARION COUNTY, OR (KPTV) — The Beachie Creek Fire in the Santiam Canyon one of many burning in the Western U.S. as the region is now being called “hell on earth.”

“Hope that my sister comes out of this okay,” Lenny Bertalotto said. “She’s very bad and heavily sedated.”

Bertalotto’s sister is fighting for her life in the Oregon Burn Center after she was rescued by her husband who went around roadblocks near Mehama in a race to try to save his family

“He found Angie on the road a mile from the house. He could not get any further, so he got her down to the paramedics,” Bertalotto said.

Tragically, Bertalotto’s sister is one of the luckier ones. He says both his mother, Peggy Mosso and his nephew, Wyatt Tofte died in the fire. Investigators were able to recover Tofte’s body.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says 18 people have been reported missing in the fires but it’s not clear whether they died or are somewhere safe and unable to access phones or roadways.

Then there’s all the homes and businesses destroyed, the number, so far, countless.

As evacuees pack into area hotels and anxiously await news of whether they’ll ever be able to go home, Jaime Baker and her family of five slept in their car for two days with a one-year-old baby.

“It was horrible. She was just having the hardest time with it, just screaming,” Baker said.

The family is trying to come to terms with reality as all of Oregon prays for mercy.

“We just hope that everyone would stay out of the area and let the firefighters do their job up there right now,” she said.

Fire officials tell FOX 12 they absolutely don’t have enough resources as the state is stretched thin with all the fires burning.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.