Seven horses and a pair of goats slept in barns at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center Sunday night, just a few hours after they were rushed away from the flames of a newly sparked wildfire west of Redmond.
At first, it appeared the animals might soon be forced to find a different place to stay. Setup was beginning for the fairgrounds’ signature event — the Deschutes County Fair — would fill barns with award-winning livestock and 4H hopefuls while thousands of people would flood the grounds for rides, games music and treats.
The fair is slated to run from July 29 through Aug. 2.
Due to the fire, fair officials granted a few extra days, allowing the refugees to stay until three days before the fair, if needed.
“They’re working very well with us and that’s very encouraging,” said Mary Barron, a volunteer with Pet Evacuation Team, a nonprofit called to help animals during emergencies like wildfires.
A flurry of wildfires across Central Oregon have threatened property and forced people to flee their homes. That’s renewed a perennial tension between the duty of the Deschutes County Fairgrounds as an evacuation center for large animals and the need to fulfill contractual obligations to host facility-wide events that make money to keep it running.
The fairgrounds is “a great place for the animals to go. But we also understand the fairgrounds runs a business, and the fair is a pretty big thing in the county,” Barron said.
Central Oregon’s wildfire season ramped up earlier this month when recent storms delivered lightning strikes that sparked dozens of fires across the region, ranging in size from a few acres to tens of thousands. As of the Source’s press time on Tuesday, 32 properties in Deschutes County were under immediate evacuation orders, according to Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jason Carr.
The fire that forced animals to the fairgrounds was quickly controlled to fewer than 10 acres on Sunday, and the sheriff’s office removed evacuation orders. Meanwhile, the Akawa Butte Fire north of Sisters remained active, burning at 13,600 as of Tuesday, according to Watch Duty, a nonprofit fire tracking service.
While animal evacuees were relatively few, space was limited, Barron said. The Sisters Rodeo Grounds was being used as a firefighter camp, while the Jefferson County Fairgrounds was hosting a fair of its own. With fires picking up and Deschutes County’s fair fast approaching, Barron began calling farms, ranches and veterinarians to make a backup plan.
“We were really lucky to be allowed to come in here this time,” Barron said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Twice last year animal evacuation needs clashed with the fairgrounds’ busy schedule. In June 2025, Crooked River Ranch evacuees were forced to move their animals to make way for a horse show. Later in the summer, Flat Fire evacuees were turned away with their large animals because of a lack of space. A dog show and horse show were underway, and site construction had begun for a reggae music festival.
“I don’t want that happening ever, ever, ever again,” Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair told The Bulletin a few days later. In a May endorsement interview with the Source’s editorial board, Deschutes County Commissioner candidate Jamie Collins called lack of access at the fairgrounds “unacceptable.”
“That is where these people were supposed to take their animals,” Collins said.
Ultimately, the decision as to whether the fairgrounds has room for animal evacuees falls with fairgrounds director Jeff Curtis. For Curtis, who took over in February, this will be the first summer managing those challenges. He told the Source it’s part of the fairgrounds’ mission to host evacuated animals. The fairgrounds hosts more than 250 events per year, and more likely than not, it will be able to accommodate.
“When we can, we will absolutely do so,” he said.
But it’s not always possible — particularly when there is a fairgrounds-wide rental. Those events occur only a few times per summer, Curtis said. But they’ve grown increasingly common since the COVID-19 pandemic, including an overland vehicle expo and several music festivals.
“That’s where it gets complicated,” Curtis said. “There’s legal contracts with renters to say they can use it.”
The fairgrounds relies on event revenue — not tax dollars — to keep running. The fairgrounds expects to generate $4.6 million in events revenue in the coming fiscal year, according to County spokesperson Kim Katchur. That’s allowed the fairgrounds to set aside $80,000 this year toward future construction projects needed to maintain and enhance the 25-year-old facility. Walking paths and water systems at the fairgrounds are “reaching the end of their useful life,” according to County documents.
With the fair coming up, Barron and the Pet Evacuation Team will likely have to look elsewhere should fires force more animal evacuations. And weather forecasts signal more fires could be on the doorstep. The National Weather Service issued a “Red Flag” warning for Central and Eastern Oregon beginning 11 am Wednesday, predicting “abundant” lightning and gusty winds that could spark new fires and fuel existing ones.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
