On August 10, 2026, the Grasshopper Fire tore through our property and home in Friend, Oregon. We all see stories in the news about wildfires affecting people, but it’s one of the most helpless feelings a person can experience when it actually happens to you and instantly turns life upside down.

Thanks to neighbors, local friends, and the Dufur and Sheridan Rural Fire Protection District, our house is still standing. Unfortunately, it is filled with so much smoke damage we cannot live in it until all our personal belongings are taken out and replaced, and the interior professionally cleaned and sanitized. The barn, multiple outbuildings, and the majority of the 80-acre property were burned to a crisp. We have no water in our home due to the wellhouse building being burnt down, totally destroying the water pump mechanism. The property, which once was a Christmas tree farm and beautiful mixed species forest, now looks like a hollow wasteland of standing dead snags.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help us offset the cost of getting the property and home livable again, and restoring the land from a charred moonscape back to a healthy ecosystem.

Yes, we have home owners fire insurance, but it doesn’t do quite what you think it would. They place a value on lost structures, but it’s a depreciated value. In our case, they cap the amount of reimbursement for the barn, pumphouse and all outbuildings at a small fraction of what it will actually cost us to replace and rebuild. The damage to the 80 acres of land from this lightning-started wildfire is not covered at all by insurance.

Here is how we arrived at the $50,000 figure of assistance needed, and what it would be used for:

- Restore water to the house. This means the burned pumphouse must be cleaned up and disposed of, new wiring and electronics from the power pole to the pumphouse, a new pump house will be built, and some repair to the well. This step is crucial to making the house habitable again.

- Weed spraying. After a fire wipes out the native species, invasive weeds will try to take hold in the spring. If we’re going to restore it back to the healthy ecosystem, we’ve got to prevent this from happening.

- Logging. The fire left the property as 80 acres of dead snags. In an attempt to minimize the property value that will be lost, and give the land a chance to start recovering faster, we need to hire professional crews with machines to cut trees down, pile, and burn slash.

- Replanting. To help the land regenerate with the preferred species, we will have to purchase thousands of tree seedlings and hire crews to plant them.

- Rebuild the barn. If we’re able to do this, the cost will be totally out of pocket.

17 years ago, Jake had a horrible accident and became a quadriplegic. Brad lives far away in Montana. Last year, I (Margaret French) had a stroke followed by a severe seizure, that combined with half a dozen additional serious medical issues, has made it so I can't work like I used to. One of the reasons this fire recovery project is going to be so expensive is that because of the rural property location and our limited physical ability, we are unable to do any of the work ourselves. We will have to hire a crew for all repairs and rebuilding. Any financial help will make a much appreciated and significant difference.

The French family moved onto this beautiful property in 1999. Jake and Brad spent most of their childhood in the Dufur community, starting in middle school and graduating high school. I spent some of the best years of my teaching career at Dufur School. Bill enjoyed retirement puttering around the property and in the barn until his death in 2023. Me and my two sons have made lifelong friends here and want to continue being a part of the awesome Dufur community for years to come.

As bad as it is for us, we are among the lucky ones, as several of our neighbors on Shellrock Road were not able to save their homes. Some even came to assist us as the fire approached our house before reaching theirs. We are incredibly grateful to the community members of Dufur and all the firefighters that showed up to help. Restoring our home and this property back to the beauty we knew and loved will be a giant mountain to climb, and we are grateful any help you can give towards making that dream happen.