Hard Lessons and Hope Emerge from Oregon's Most Destructive Wildfires

Oregon Communities Still Rebuilding Five Years After Labor Day Fires

Two days after the Almeda Fire tore through Southern Oregon, pushed by high winds and fueled by tinder dry conditions, it was already clear this was the most destructive fire in Oregon’s recorded history. Dee Anne Everson’s friends called with a message for the CEO and Executive Director of United Way of Jackson County:

“You're going to be working on this for the next 10 years. You need to come see it.”

The Almeda Fire killed three people and destroyed more than 2,600 homes, 198 businesses and six public buildings in the towns of Ashland, Talent, Phoenix and Medford.

The 242 Fire on Sept. 8, 2020. Courtesy Chiloquin Fire and Rescue

Propane tanks in 18 burned mobile home parks were still exploding, so police escorted Everson through the damage.

The fire burned so hot it melted utilities buried under highways and foundations. Wells were tainted; land, contaminated by arsenic.

Even as the flames died down in eight Oregon counties scarred by the historic blazes known as the 2020 Labor Day Fires, the disaster was just beginning.

Fire recovery reveals gaps, and generosity helps bridge them

Disaster recovery starts locally, and it ends locally. It can be agonizingly slow and uneven, with wealthier communities and people rebuilding first and vulnerable folks rebuilding last — or never. It can forge tight relationships, reform systems and inspire volunteers to build service organizations that endure long after the disaster.

"We stopped doing all our other work. It just became about trying to raise funds to help people," said Everson, who is also an OCF Board Member. "We opened a special account to raise money, with the goal of raising $3 million by year end, and we did that very quickly. We got gifts from all 50 states and seven countries, along with beautiful little notes from really deeply caring people."

Disaster recovery breaks human hearts and tests a community’s heart

Five years later, while Labor Day Fire communities have yet to fully recover, many count themselves more resilient and better prepared for future disasters. Leaders who experienced the fires say philanthropic funders including Oregon Community Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust played a critical recovery role through the Community Rebuilding Fund, which raised $10.8 million from individuals, corporations and foundations.

“Inevitably, government funding moves slowly. Without the support of our philanthropic partners and donors, we would not be able to do the work that we’re doing,” said Devin Thompson, Executive Director of McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group and a third-generation resident of the valley.

Glide Revitalization

On the five-year anniversary of the Labor Day Fires, OCF sent $120,000 in new grants from the Disaster Readiness and Response Fund, a collective giving fund that brings together donations of $25 or more for emergency response and disaster preparedness. The new grants go to nonprofits still serving Almeda Fire survivors and to long-term recovery groups throughout Oregon. They sprung up after the fires to feed, house and guide fire survivors through the byzantine process of obtaining state and federal aid.

“Preparedness is generosity in action,” said Kim Koenig, Director of Statewide Community Programs and Disaster Resilience at OCF. “Research shows that for every $1 we invest in readiness we save $13 in response. What’s great about the Disaster Readiness and Response Fund is that it allows donors to give today and help communities tomorrow — before disaster strikes.”

Earlier this year, OCF issued grants from the Disaster Readiness and Response Fund to support recovery from flooding in Harney and Douglas Counties and wildfires in the Columbia River Gorge, along with disaster preparedness efforts in Douglas, Lake and Harney Counties.

‘Everyone is coming back at different speeds’

Even as they respond to their own community’s crisis, relief leaders have found ways to prevent or mitigate future disasters. A lesson learned by any town can become one shared with many.

Tucker Teutsch founded Firebrand Resiliency Collective a week after the Almeda Fire by asking, “What sort of community do we want to live in once we are recovered?”

The nonprofit used mapping and permit data to visualize recovery and understand the contours of a community re-shaped by disaster.

Firebrand’s recovery maps showed the extent of the economic impact, which neighborhoods have seen the most rebuilding, and which have seen the least. The data helped policymakers and funders close gaps.

“Everyone is coming back at different speeds,” Teutsch said.

Today, Firebrand also helps neighbors prepare for wildfire, connecting them with training and resources to build Fire Adapted Communities and retrofit at-risk homes with fire-resistant landscaping and materials.

One big lesson:

“Lower your expectations and expand your timeline,” Teutsch said. “I don’t think any of us thought five years ago that it would be such a long road. It's going to take us a decade or more to restore the housing and to rebuild the needed workforce capacity.”

Painful process mired in red tape

Wildfire recovery leaders say that working one-on-one with fire survivors — getting them shoes, homes and furnishings — is rewarding but tangled in frustrating red tape.

“The further away from the event you get, the less funding is available and the shorter people's memories are,” said Jeana Beam, who leads recovery from the Archie Creek Fire, which destroyed more than 131,000 acres and 111 homes in the Douglas County community of Glide.

The Executive Director of Glide Revitalization, Beam said many in her community lacked insurance or resources to move quickly.

“If I can do it within six months, the land hasn’t moved (from landslides), I’m not dealing with brush, I don’t have to deal with increased regulations, and the cost hasn’t increased,” she said.

 Beam is still working to resettle 25 to 30 people.

“The people who are still holding out are amazing. I don't know that five years past the event, I would still have it in me,” she said.

Local case managers make all the difference

McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group

“Rural communities are built on local trust, and sometime individuals are reluctant to engage in government programs. Community Rebuilding Fund support was critical for us to be able to hire local disaster case managers who could truly support their neighbors,” said Thompson of the McKenzie Valley group. He’s leading the recovery from the Holiday Farm Fire, which destroyed 517 homes — less than half rebuilt.

“We understand that the most vulnerable fire survivors may have lost all of their documents, may not have internet access and may not be able to come to us. So, we go to them. We walk hand-in-hand with them through a long, complex federal application process – including reestablishing all sorts of documentation,” Thompson said. “Our mission is to work ourselves out of a job.”

Preparedness starts with strong ties

Leaders of long-term recovery say it’s vital for rural leaders to build relationships and collaborate with trusted local nonprofits, funders and state agencies before disaster strikes.

That’s what happened years before the Lionshead and Beachie Creek fires burned 475 homes in Marion and Linn counties.

The collaboration began because Santiam Hospital & Clinics and school districts set up service integration teams to respond to needs in their communities, said Melissa Baurer, Executive Director of Community Development for Santiam Hospitals and Clinics.

“It’s one stop for help,” she said.

As a result, residents of the Santiam Canyon are close to meeting their goals for recovery. Some families moved away or rebuilt on their own, leaving 361 that are supported by disaster case management and working toward their goals for permanent, stable housing. Twenty households still need permanent housing, and the Santiam Disaster Case Management Team is on the verge of getting everyone home.

Beauty then. Beauty now.

Oregonians from burned areas still remember their communities as they were before the fires. Rows of homes and business. Lush, green forests.

“You couldn’t see the river in places, the trees were so thick,” Thompson said.

Now they see something else.

 “The fires were devastating to the McKenzie Valley and other Oregon communities,” he acknowledges. “Now, we get to see how resilient nature can be, and how resilient rural communities can be. They've been through a lot, but they really do band together. It's a beautiful thing to support.”

In Southern Oregon, Meals Become a Movement

Rogue Food Unites

Along the spectrum from hardship to hope, Rogue Food Unites shows the goodness that can emerge from tragedy. Volunteers launched the nonprofit within two days of the Almeda and Obenchain fires to feed hot restaurant meals to people in burned areas. Today, 14 employees and more than 150 volunteers run three, free all-organic weekly farmers markets in Jackson County supported by donors and supply hot meals and food boxes to all 36 Oregon counties during disasters through a state contract.

Innovators at Rogue Food Unites are now partnering with Oregon chefs to make thousands of healthy freeze-dried meals that will be stored at sites throughout the state and last up to 25 years.

Recipes will come from food luminaries including Portland’s James Beard Award-winning chefs Earl Ninsom of Portland’s Langbaan and Peter Cho of Han Oak and James Beard Award-nominated chef Bonnie Morales of Kachka. Rogue Food Unites will prepare the meals in their commercial kitchen, and Oregon State’s Food Innovation Center will conduct a nutritional analysis and simulate what the meals will taste like over two decades.

“We’ve yet to say no,” said Heather Brazille, Director of Operations. “We’re going to show up when we’re asked.”

Helping Oregon Communities Weather Disasters: What You Can Do 

• Make a difference by providing funds to meet urgent community needs after fires, floods and other disasters with a gift to OCF’s Disaster Readiness and Response Fund.
• Connect with your OCF donor relations officer to explore how you can support solutions.
• Learn more about the Community Rebuilding Fund in its final impact report.