PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When the wildfires exploded last week in Marion County, Corbyn Pomeroy’s action may have prevented damage to the Detroit Dam and the water quality downstream.
Pomeroy, who works at the dam, restored power there before he tried to flee. But the fires made the road impassable. So he went back to the dam, brought every truck inside to keep them from becoming fuel for the fires — and then hoped for the best.
He said he wanted “to get a message to my family” because he wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
But he rode out the night inside the dam without any communication to the outside world. The next morning he was finally able to reach the Lookout Point Dam more than 100 miles away. That’s where fire crews were able to get to him and evacuate him from the dam.
Once he got out and saw the devastation around, he said he felt “like the luckiest guy in the world.”
The Willamette Valley Project lauded Pomeroy’s actions.