Oregon Road Fire survivor celebrates new home thanks to church volunteers

ELK, Wash. - Volunteers with a church in Elk have been working since last fall to convert Conex boxes into homes for Oregon Road wildfire survivors.

After nearly a year of hard work, five boxes are finally ready to be delivered.

Michael Martin lost his log home he built by hand on August 18, 2023 - the day of the Oregon Road Fire.

"Everything I've been working for for 23 years is just gone," Martin said.

Almost a year later, Martin was given something he's excited to call home.

The Conex Box is about eight feet tall and 40 feet long. It now sits on his property where his home once stood.

Now that the box has been delivered, the county will come out to inspect it and it will be connected to Martin's utilities.

"This will be so much more convenient to be able to stay here sometimes and actually get up early and make progress," Martin said.

Martin said his old home was uninsured, making it even more of a struggle to rebuild.

Volunteers with Country Church of the Open Bible will then deliver and set up the fridge, shower, toilet, washer, dryer, and other amenities needed to make it a home.

The Conex Box will also have heat, to keep people warm during the winter.

"It will help out a lot because I'm staying all the way in town now and we're on the far east side of Elk," Martin said. "It's a commute out here and so I'm not able to make as much progress as I'd like."

The volunteers are happy they were able to make a difference.

"We kind of had to rewrite the book to make it possible," said Country Church of the Open Bible's Pastor Jose Ng.

The process had its own obstacles along the way.

"To get engineer plans of a snow load and to get engineer plans of how much insulation we had to put in one of these," Ng said. "And what we had to do to meet energy codes. Those are some of the little things but the county has been great."

Martin said the volunteers and donors have been a blessing, allowing him to be the proud owner of a new home.

Two other homes have already been delivered, and two more will soon be delivered.

The church hopes to convert more Conex Boxes into homes, but that will time and more donations.

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