OT Heartbreaking fire story

Watch the video, I can't image the pain of the family right now.

https://www.koin.com/news/wildfires/flames-were-all-around-boy-grandma-dog-perish-in-family-car/

 

‘Flames were all around’: Boy, grandma, dog perish in family car
Jennifer Dowling
Wyatt Tofte's family describe his dad's desperate attempt to reach him as the Beachie Creek Fire closed in

by: , KOIN 6 News Staff

Posted: Sep 11, 2020 / 10:00 PM PDT / Updated: Sep 12, 2020 / 10:25 AM PDT

MARION COUNTY, Ore. (KOIN) — Relatives are trying to piece together the events that led to the deaths of a boy and his grandmother as a wildfire consumed their home in Marion County earlier this week.

Deputies said they found the remains of 13-year-old Wyatt Tofte and 71-year-old Peggy Mosso inside of a vehicle on North Fork Road in the Santiam Canyon near Lyons.

Search and rescuers had been looking for Wyatt since he ran from his home as the Beachie Creek Fire approached on Tuesday afternoon, according to a family member.


Clockwise from left: Angie Mosso, Peggy Mosso, Wyatt Tofte. (Courtesy of Susan Vaslev)
Family members told KOIN 6 News the power had gone out earlier at the house and Wyatt’s dad had left to try and find a generator so he wasn’t home when the fire reached their home. Wyatt’s mom Angie Mosso woke up to fire surrounding their home with no way out.

Wyatt’s mom, Angie Mosso, helped her elderly mother — who was ailing from a broken leg — into the car. But the tires were burning.

“The flames were all around it and around the car,” said Wyatt’s great aunt, Mary Tofte.

“If I was in that situation and I thought it was life or death, I would tell my child to run,” said another great aunt named Susan Vaslev.

At about the same time, Wyatt’s dad Chris Tofte was desperately trying to reach his family. He blew past road blocks as he traveled toward his home.

Chris came upon a woman crawling along the road, but didn’t recognize her. He stopped for her but was frantic to continue on and rescue his family.

“It just breaks my heart, the outcome. It was just horrible.”

Mary Tofte
“He helps her into the car and then he’s saying, ‘I’m really sorry but I’ve got to keep going because my family is up there,'” said Susan. “He said, ‘I got to get up to my son and my wife.'”

That’s when the woman, who was badly burned, whispered that she was his wife.


Wyatt Tofte’s dog Duke. (Courtesy of Susan Vaslev)
Chris drove Angie back to a checkpoint and handed her off to paramedics. Then he drove back into the inferno to look for his son. But his efforts were in vain.

Deputies with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office found Wyatt’s remains, along with the remains of his grandmother and dog, after clearing a path through a charred hellscape the next morning. They were found inside the family car.

“He got in there and tried to drive the car and started coming down the hill and then went off to the side for some reason,” Susan said. “I guess all the tires were just burned up and everything, the pavement was so hot.”

Susan said Wyatt was found with his dog Duke in his lap — a fact that has brought some small amount of comfort to those who loved him.


Wyatt Tofte. (Courtesy of Susan Vaslev)
But it’s not enough to combat the profound grief that comes with such a tragic loss.

“It just breaks my heart, the outcome,” Mary said. “It was just horrible.”

A GoFundMe page has been created to help Angie recover from critical burns and assist the family.

“Angie is a saint. She was always there to help everybody and loved her mom so much,” said Susan.

Two other people have died in the Beachie Creek Fire, officials said Friday evening, bringing the death toll from that fire to four. Ten people are still missing.

 

Shedded some tears. That's fucking devastating. I can't begin to fathom their pain. What a tragic loss.

 

CNN reported the mom's feet were burned to the bone and her clothes burned off. I doubt she is going to make it.

 

oregonlive.com

The desperate fight to save his family ends in tragedy


SALEM — Chris Tofte blew past the blockade, his green Jeep Cherokee aimed for the bowels of the raging Beachie Creek fire.

It was around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, and he was desperately searching for his wife, son and mother-in-law. The family lived 4½ miles up North Fork Road SE, about 10 minutes from Lyons and 30 minutes from Salem.

Halfway there, the road flanked by walls of fire and fallen trees, he stopped for a man whose arm was badly burned. The man wanted a ride but didn’t get in when he found out Chris was headed deeper into the wildfire.

Chris agreed to pick him up on the way down, but the man wondered out loud whether he’d make it.

Back in the Jeep, struggling to navigate a road once so familiar but now shrouded by smoke-filled darkness, Chris almost ran over what looked like a bikini-clad woman on the road. Once he was closer, he realized she was wearing underwear. Her hair was singed, her mouth looked almost black, and her bare feet were severely burned.

He impatiently tried to help her into his car, explaining how he needed to find his wife and son, feeling like she was resisting.

Finally, she spoke. “I am your wife.”

Son and mother-in-law now were missing
He felt like he was going to pass out. He thought he would start crying. Instead, he said something turned off in him. He didn’t feel anything.

Once they were in the car and he got turned around, which was tricky with the borrowed trailer in tow, he sped down the road. As he approached the blockade, he honked the horn to get the attention of nearby paramedics.

While Angela was being tended to, he tried to ask about Wyatt.

Their 13-year-old son was missing.

Angela Mosso, Angie to most, is a devoted wife and mother.

They went to bed, only to wake up to the house on fire.

When her son’s baseball team needed a coach, she volunteered. It didn’t matter that she barely knew how to throw a ball.

She’s also been a dedicated caretaker for her mom, Peggy Mosso, for nearly 10 years.

She had watched the wildfires come out of nowhere and spread swiftly. When evacuation orders seemed imminent, she began packing some of their belongings and putting items on the porch. Her husband could load them when he returned with the trailer he was borrowing from a friend.

He still wasn’t home when they went to bed — only to wake up to their house on fire.

The three of them were able to get out, with their dog and three cats, and were set to leave in one of the family’s vehicles when something went wrong. Chris figures the car must have caught fire.

It was clear to Angela they would not be able to drive out. She needed to save Wyatt. She told him and Duke, the family’s 200-pound bullmastiff mix, to run for it.

Escaping on foot wouldn’t be possible for her mother. Peggy, 71, had recently fallen and broken her leg. She was scheduled to have surgery in a few days. Ultimately, Angela knew if she wanted to survive, she had no choice.

She had to leave her mom behind.

Peggy Mosso died in the fire.

‘Don’t come back until you find him'
Angela got out by walking nearly 3 miles on the blazing hot asphalt. If she had shoes when she started, they melted away.

Chris, the grandson of the creators of Enchanted Forest in Salem, still doesn’t know all the details. He never will. Even when Angela has been able to provide some, they’ve been difficult to absorb. He hadn’t slept since Sunday night and barely knows what day it is.

Angela was transported first to Salem Hospital, then to the Legacy Emanuel Hospital Burn Center in Portland, where she remains in critical condition. In addition to her feet, she has burns on her arms and back.

She’s been heavily sedated but knows her son, who’s athletic and loves video games, is still missing.

Her instructions to her husband of 24 years, after he visited her on Tuesday: “Don’t come back until you find him.”

His throat was hoarse from yelling his son’s name.

What she didn’t know was that Chris drove back up North Fork Road that first night, while she was on her way to Oregon’s only burn center, looking for Wyatt.

By then, though, the fire had spread.

He couldn’t make it half as far as he did the first time before turning around and even then, had some close calls negotiating fallen trees. He saw flames rising over the ridge and wasn’t sure he could beat the fire down the hill.

Chris continued to search the next day and night, his throat hoarse from yelling his son’s name. Friends and family spread the word by posting photos of Wyatt on Facebook. Thousands of people shared the posts.

Some responded by joining the search. Others could only offer prayers.

False hope surfaced when someone posted that the boy had been found safe at a friend’s house. If only it had been true.

Friends and family still clung to hope that Wyatt, who turned 13 in February, had made it out safely. But they had seen his mom, her injuries, her bare feet. How long would Wyatt’s shoes last?

Chris grew frustrated with the response from law enforcement — limited to what it could do because of extremely dangerous conditions in the evacuation area — and organized his own search efforts.

He gathered a group Wednesday afternoon at the Stayton Park and Ride to coordinate plans, and they caravanned to the base of North Fork Road, the same place where Chris blew past the blockade that still stands.

Then he spoke with Marion County Sheriff’s deputies. He listened, obviously distraught over what they told him. He hugged someone, spurned attempts from friends trying to console him, then got in his Jeep and sped away.

No one knows why his son returned.

Wyatt had been found.

Leann Moore, a friend of Angela’s for more than 20 years since they were co-workers at Willamette Humane Society, said he was found in the driver’s side of a vehicle on the family’s property, with Duke draped over him.

No one knows how or why Wyatt returned.

Earlier in the day, his dad rehashed his worst nightmare. What if he had been allowed past the blockade or blown through it earlier? Could he have saved them?

The grandmother’s remains were later found in the same car with Wyatt.

(Editor’s note: During the search for his 13-year-old son Wyatt in the Beachie Creek Fire in Oregon, Chris Tofte and a family friend acting as a spokesperson shared their experiences during multiple interviews with The Statesman Journal of the USA TODAY Network. This reporting is the culmination of those interviews, including Tofte’s first-hand accounts and other details shared with him by his wife, Angela Mosso.)