Looking at fire evacuation centers, demolished neighborhoods, and the effects of fire on communities in California and Oregon during the historic 2020 fire year. While living out of my van I pitched, produced, and photographed this piece from the heart. Read it HERE
Kenzie (left) and her sister Katie (right) Christensen were working at the family cupcake business when their mom got the call about the fire. "Our mom had to run back home and blow through the cops to grab our little brother who was home alone. She decided to stay back with our dad and try and fight off the fire with some of our neighbors." Their parents saved most of their home, one of the only ones in their neighborhood, from the Alameda fire in Phoenix, Oregon.
Patrick Traecy has lived in his home for the last 17 years. "I'm 65, my life was finally mellowing out, I've been low income my whole life. This is bad," said Traecy with a tear rolling down his cheek. "We were on the roof watching the glow come closer and closer. While everyone was evaccuating at around 2:30 we stayed until 9:30, turning off our neighbors gas lines, trying to fight it off until we finally called it quits." Traecy's son Patrick, said that from 6-9 pm on September 9 it sounded like war, with gas lines and propane blowing up in the neighborhoods all around them.
Carey Christian and boyfriend Denny Edmonds lost their mobile home that Denny had been living in for the last 10 years in Phoenix, Oregon. "I'm an ex-firefighter of 10 years and I was in complete denial that the fire was going to hit us. By the time it hit me, I didn't have time to get anything out," said Edmonds who met Chrsitian when they were 15 and 13 years old and recently reconnected on Facebook.
Redcross beds are spread across the floor of the Jackson County expo in Phoenix, Oregon on September 17, 2020.
Carol Kidder had been living in an apartment complex with 40 others when she noticed some commotion outside. "I live right in Phoenix, I don't have a phone or a car. I seen the neighbors leaving so I asked a cop what was going on. He told me everyone was evacuating because a fire was coming our way. I borrowed his phone and called my daughter who dumped me here at the fairgrounds." Kidder has problems with her hips, along with a liver disease, and diabetes. She was dressed in a dress ripped from bottom to top and didn't want to ask for help getting her medications, new clothes, or her insulin, and her daughter had left her to fend for herself at the evacuation center.
Rick Cottle spent the last two years in his home in Phoenix, Oregon before the Alameda fire tore through and burned it to the ground on September 9, 2020. "I was born and raised here around the Ashland area. This is devastating to our community. We didn't have any warning, other than seeing tons of cars that had been diverted from the highway to our street. We had enough time to grab some photo albums but thats it." Cottle doesn't think they will rebuild but hasn't decided yet.
Hazel Martinez and Joel Guitierrez have been together for the last seven years. They are both orchard harvesters in Oregon and California. They arrived two weeks ago and were living in a friends mobile home which completely burnt down in the Alameda fire which hit Phoenix and Talent Oregon on September 9. "We didn't know what was going on at all. No cops came by or nothing. We had no warning otehr than the neighbors kids started running," said Guitirrez, who fled with Martinez to the orchards they both work at in Phoenix, Oregon.
The start of the Glass Fire in Sonoma County in September 2020
Madelyn Barber, 90 years old, a resident of Phoenix, was told to get up and get out by the sheriffs dept to escape the Alameda Fire which tore through her town on September 9. “All I had time to take was my purse, I left my screen door open for my cat, Noir, but I’m not sure where he is. I had to leave him.” Madelyn has lived alone for the last forty years, since her husband passed away. She has worked in the orchards around here, made mouse traps in a factory, and loves astrology magazines. She has alzheimers and dementia.
The Day the Bay turned orange from the historic wildfire season.
