On Sept. 7, 2020, hurricane-force winds fanned two preexisting wildfires in Oregon’s Santiam Canyon into a megafire. The Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center was situated smack in the middle. “We had 30-mile-an-hour winds, propane tanks blowing up every five minutes, trees coming down every five or 10,” said Breitenbush Fire Chief Jordan Pollack. “It was a little bit of Armageddon.” Pollack and his small firefighting crew would be the last line of defense against a megafire that