Alison Oszman was sleeping, the air conditioner’s rumble trying to tame the heat that persisted long after the sun went down, when the fire started moving her way.

Several hours later it was there.

Oszman and her boyfriend, Jim McKinney, spent much of the next day, Friday, July 19, saving their home in a remote Baker County valley from the Durkee Fire, sparked by lightning two days earlier, and seven miles to the north.

They had a lot of help in thwarting the wind-driven flames that chewed rapidly through sagebrush and grass turned to tinder during the most severe heat wave on record in Baker County.

Oszman said firefighters from multiple agencies, including the volunteer Huntington, North Powder and Vale departments, as well as the BLM, were stationed on the couple’s 20-acre property until the fire had passed by, leaving blackened hillsides that, though ugly, are at least devoid of combustible vegetation.

“I’m just so thankful to everybody who was out there,” Oszman said on Monday, July 22, as she recounted the ordeal.

She and McKinney have lived in Rye Valley, about 9 miles west of Interstate 84, for almost 20 years.

Oszman works at the Safeway store in Baker City, and McKinney works at Ash Grove Cement near Durkee.

Both saw the fire on the morning of July 17, not long after the lightning bolt ignited the blaze.

Oszman said she was driving home from Baker City. She said the smoke was already billowing from the hillside south of Durkee as she drove through the valley toward the Rye Valley exit.

The fire didn’t threaten the couple’s home until late on Thursday, July 18.

Oszman said they were sleeping when their dogs started barking about 10:30 p.m.

When they looked outside they saw neighbors, who work for the Three Valleys Ranch. They reported that the fire was about 4 miles away and moving toward them.

Oszman said she and McKinney turned on sprinklers and waited. A BLM fire crew arrived, along with other firefighters.

About 3 a.m. on Friday, July 19, the fire crossed the hill above their property and started burning into the field that makes up most of their property.

With an effort that included people wielding shovels to air tankers dropping retardant, they saved the house.

“Everybody worked together,” Oszman said. “It was pretty amazing.”

The fire was persistent.

After burning through parts of the couple’s property, the flames spread west along the Mormon Basin Road. At one point, Oszman said, there were two separate fires threatening their home.

Fire trucks stayed near their home until Saturday, July 20, when the immediate threat had passed.

The gusty, erratic thunderstorm winds that inflamed parts of the fire on Sunday evening, July 21, pushed smoke from the Pedro Mountain area, west of their home, into Rye Valley, Oszman said.

At one point the smoke was so thick she could barely discern her horses grazing near her home.

“It was horrible,” she said. “The hills are black all around us. The only green is around our house.”

Oszman said she and McKinney doused a small spot fire east of their home, along Rye Valley Lane, early on Monday, July 22.

Although a Level 3 evacuation notice — leave now — remains in effect for Rye Valley, Oszman said she feels more confident now that the fire has consumed most of the dry vegetation around her home.

She said they lost power late last week, but Idaho Power Company crews restored it quickly. Oszman said Idaho Power workers needed to replace about 30 poles that burned in the area.

No homes have burned, said Jessica Reed, public information officer for the team managing firefighting efforts, and Ashley McClay, public information officer for the Baker County Sheriff’s Office.

Oszman said there are four homes, including hers and McKinneys, along Rye Valley Lane between the freeway and the Mormon Basin Road.

The Three Valleys Ranch owns a couple homes, and a large equipment shop, west of Rye Valley along Mormon Basin Road. Oszman said she heard that an empty hay shed belonging to the ranch burned, but that the homes and shop were saved.

“I just hope they get (the fire) under control soon,” she said.