After Echo Mountain Complex Fire, Otis leads renewal with small hands and huge hearts Matthew Denis, Register-Guard
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OTIS Ignore the piles of twisted metal and hulking orange-red skeletons of former RVs, and a new visitor to this coastal Lincoln County community may think it s the site of a new suburban neighborhood. Three months ago, this town on the incline up Echo Mountain bore a striking resemblance to fire-bombed European cities at the end of WWII.
In mid-September, a spark ignited at the top of Echo Mountain and Otis was set ablaze. Residents fled, grabbing what personal items they could, as 50 mph coastal gales quickly spread flames. In the end, the Echo Mountain Complex fire was a small, 2,500-acre blip in a massive fire season that saw 1.1 million Oregon acres burn. Even so, it destroyed about half of Otis s 1,241 structures, with 288 homes and 339 structures lost, according to Oregon Emergency Management.