Oregon Woman Breaks Down in Tears as She Films Return to Small Town Destroyed by Fire

An intense wildfire season has already burned 4.6 million acres across California, Washington and Oregon. One woman in the tiny town of Detroit, Oregon, captured video of herself as she returned to her devastated neighborhood.

“Gone! Gone! All these houses in here are gone!” Sandi Sue Elwood said in the video. She returned home to find it had been absolutely destroyed by the inferno.

“The entire marina’s gone. The motel is gone,” Elwood said.

She posted the video online to inform her neighbors, several of whom she addressed directly by name, of the heartbreaking news.

“There's looking over Detroit Avenue. The entire house at the end of the street with the swimming pool? Gone! Jim Hobbs? Your place is gone.”

When she reached her own family’s home, she became emotional. 

“Mom, the church is gone,” Elwood said. “Phyllis, your house is gone.”

Only 59 families live in the town, and everyone knows each other.

“Everyday that goes by, it’s another day that you just start thought processing and realizing it’s just really true. It’s not a dream. It’s not a nightmare. It’s happening,” Elwood told Inside Edition. “And the concern, the question is, are we going to rebuild? And what does the city look like in the future?”

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