BLACK BUTTE RANCH – Three days after fleeing the flames of the Cache Mountain Fire, residents and guests at this resort community west of Sisters went home Wednesday.

”It’s really a relief,” said Diane Crabtree, driving into the ranch just after 3 p.m.

Ranch employees lined the street at the ranch entrance, applauding Crabtree and her neighbors as they streamed by.

Banners at the entrance shouted ”Welcome Home! We Missed You!” and ”Thank You Firefighters and Police Services.”

Only hours before at Sisters Elementary School, Crabtree and more than 300 others cheered the announcement by fire officials that they could return to their houses.

Winding her way to the Bracken Lane residence that she shares with her husband, Jack, Crabtree pointed to the sprinklers that several homeowners had placed on their roofs.

The Crabtrees found their house just as they left it – a towel wrapped around the doorknob that let firefighters know the structure was empty, a document taped to the window that provided information about where the Crabtrees could be contacted, cushions placed on the floor and away from windows so they wouldn’t catch fire and a now-thawed turkey put in the refrigerator on Friday.

Knowing the fire could force an evacuation, the Crabtrees before Friday began packing two cars with possessions they couldn’t replace, such as family photographs.

But they also took care to bring with them items that helped define who they are.

Diane Crabtree, 66, took along a set of dining glassware and a 19th-century doll given to her by her grandmother.

Jack Crabtree made sure to bring his trophies. The 66-year-old former University of Oregon quarterback was the most valuable player of the 1958 Rose Bowl – a game lost by Crabtree’s Ducks to Ohio State University, 10-7.

Placing his trophy on the garage floor beside other trophies, Crabtree rearranged his Oregon memorabilia – the yearbooks, the photographs, the letter jacket – but did not return them to the house.

”Oh, we’re not gonna unload the car,” both Crabtrees said. ”There’s still a fire out there.”

That fact was hard to forget. The drone of overhead helicopters never ceased.

Every inhale included the smell of charred wood.

And firefighters, police officers and American Red Cross officials patrolled the streets throughout the afternoon and early evening.

”We’re talking to people, making sure they’re all right and handing out information about how to cope with trauma,” said Bobbie Bourne, emergency services director for the American Red Cross in Central Oregon.

Bourne spoke with residents of Fiddleneck Lane, just a few hundred feet from the remnants of the two houses consumed by the fire.

But the fire had, indeed, diminished. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, the fire was 95 percent contained and had burned 4,200 acres, said Gordon Gay, a Cache Mountain Fire information officer.

”Firefighters will be working through the night on the south side of the blaze,” he said.

Fire officials estimated the fire would be fully contained by 8 p.m. today.

The blaze that obliterated Fiddleneck Lane homes had also crossed the street and blackened the bark of the ponderosa pines that surround Scott Wilson’s house.

Those trees’ trunks resembled spent fireplace logs thrust into the dirt. Everything on the ground had turned to black – the pine needles, the pine cones, the pine twigs and branches.

As though protected by a force field, however, Wilson’s white-painted wood house remained unblemished.

The fire didn’t touch it.

”We really dodged a bullet,” said Wilson, 23, a summer greenskeeper at the ranch’s Glaze Meadow golf course. ”I talked to the chief of police on Monday. He said it was because we had a tile roof and our yard was relatively free of debris.”

Two houses up the street, the Miller family was also counting its blessings.

”Every damn homeowner here should get down on their knees and say thank you to these firefighters,” said Brent Miller, 59, of Littleton, Colo.

He, his wife, Pene, and their two children have visited their Black Butte house every summer for the past 18 years.

”They came in here and decided the fire was not going to get any more houses,” he said. ”And it didn’t. They’re amazing.”

Pene Miller, 50, said the firefighters even put her bike and patio cushions inside the house so they wouldn’t burn.

The abruptness with which the Millers had to evacuate also contributed to their appreciation. Like many ranch residents, they understood from firefighting officials that they would have 24 hours to leave.

But that’s not what happened.

Brent Miller said that on Sunday one minute they were playing the card game of hearts and the next wind-whipped ashes were everywhere while firefighters at the door ordered them to leave, ”Now!”

”It was pretty scary,” he said of the scene that greeted them when they walked outside. ”There was a wall of fire.”

And then, ”as soon as we got out of the house, they dumped retardant on us,” said Tyler Miller, 17, pointing to his yard, still stained with the chemicals.

Until they saw that the house survived, the Millers feared the worst, said Pene Miller.

”We were sick,” she said. ”We had a pit of worry in our stomachs. Now, it feels so great.”

Standing next to the Millers, Loy Helmly, manager of Black Butte Ranch, said he felt tremendous relief.

”This has been the most emotional roller coaster ride I’ve ever been on – and the ride had all kinds of emotions,” he said. ”Now I feel joy.”

Brent Miller nodded.

”This is one of God’s special places,” he said. ”We didn’t want it to be hurt.”

Mike Cronin can be reached at 541-617-7836 or mcronin@bendbulletin.com.