GILLIAN FLACCUS and ZACH URNESS Associated Press and Statesman Journal View Comments OTIS — Wildfire smoke was thick when Tye and Melynda Small went to bed on Labor Day, but they weren't too concerned. After all, they live in a part of Oregon where ferns grow from tree trunks and rainfall averages more than 6 feet a year. But just after midnight, a neighbor awakened them as towering flames, pushed by gusting winds, bore down. The Smalls and their four children fled, leaving behind 26 pet chickens, two goldfish and a duck named Gerard as the wind whipped the blaze into a fiery tornado and trees exploded around them.