Jackson County sheriff's Deputy Don Hall's body camera captures an exploding propane tank in Dun Rovin' RV Park in Phoenix as he runs toward the flames to save trapped occupants during the Almeda Fire.

Three years ago today, Talent, Phoenix and parts of Ashland were smoking ruins from the Almeda Fire that raged for 13 miles through the Rogue Valley the day before. Three people were dead. Thousands were homeless, sleeping in cars, on cots at The Expo, or doubled up with friends and family. 

Out near Eagle Point, Butte Falls and Shady Cove, the South Obenchain Fire was raging and would continue to burn for weeks, destroying more homes during its 33,000-acre rampage. Same with the Slater and Devil fires eating forests in Siskiyou and Josephine counties, which scorched 166,000 acres, killed two people, injured 12, and wouldn’t be contained until rains arrived in mid-November.

This week we relived those horrifying days, putting together a dozen stories as part of the third anniversary of the Labor Day fires.

One thing we learned is that three years is a very short time. People are still in the midst of dealing with the events of Sept. 8, 2020. While we found some stories of people who have recovered and rebuilt, many others are still living in shelters, rental units or other temporary quarters.

The pace of recovery is uneven, and often unfair.

Sharon Schmidt said she feels like three years of her life have been lost as she dealt with setback after setback in the quest to replace the home that burned at Creekside Estates in Phoenix.

Those who have been able to rebuild say they feel fortunate as they hear stories of neighbors still dealing with insurance companies, government agencies or contractors that have left them in limbo.

Talent City Council member Eleanor Ponomareff, who lost her home in the Almeda Fire, counts herself lucky to have “had a clear path back.” Ponomareff just moved into her rebuilt home last Friday.

“Because I was somebody who was insured, and somebody with financial resources, there was always a clear path back for me and my family. We all have to bear in mind that a lot of people didn’t have that pathway, and some of them still don’t.”

Phoenix resident Wayne Morgan, who recently rebuilt the house he watched burn, is among the fortunate, but some neighbors in the neighborhood where he lived for nearly 25 years chose to move away. 

“It’s still very surreal to realize how much was lost. … but it’s all slowly coming back,” he said this week.

“It’s been an intense experience since that moment, from having everything I ever owned that gives me a sense of identity taken away,” said Meri Walker, whose home was among the 55 destroyed in Talent’s Mountain View Estates.

Walker felt so hollowed out by the tragedy that she needed to leave for a while. She bought an RV and traveled around the country, visiting people from her past and trying to find pieces of herself that were gone.

She moved back in June 2022, realizing this area was home, but in many ways she is still a nomad. It’s been tough readjusting to life here, she said, especially with the continued trauma and financial challenges she’s encountered while living in a fifth wheel.

“I’m just poorer than a church mouse while I wait for funding support to come from HUD and the state of Oregon. I don’t know if it’s ever going to come,” she said.

Among the stories we told this week were the heroic tales of first responders who entered burning neighborhoods to evacuate people who were trapped. Everyone who lived here during the fire realizes it’s an absolute miracle that only three people died. It could have been so much worse.

Many of those tales of heroism occurred near the point of origin, in the Quiet Village neighborhood of Ashland, where firefighters somehow evacuated all of the residents in the face of an 80-foot-high wall of flames. If even one house would have caught, it could have meant all of the houses would have burned, so fierce were the winds driving the flames.

“The officers that day, they saved a lot of lives by putting themselves in front of flames,” said Kelly Burns, now Ashland’s emergency manager but then a battalion chief for Ashland Fire and Rescue.

“They’re leaping into the flames,” Burns said, recalling how small the firefighters looked compared to the flames, as they used smaller hoses and relatively small streams of water against what Burns called “a wind-driven mega-fire. A beast.”

I urge you to watch the bodycam video attached to a story by Buffy Pollock about some of the first-responders who put themselves in danger saving lives that day.

It shows Jackson County sheriff’s deputies Justin Hall and Cody Ponder running toward the flames as propane tanks are exploding, using their bare hands to smash and tear out a window in Dun Rovin’ RV Park in Phoenix to save trapped occupants. The entire park was destroyed, but all of the occupants were evacuated.

The video starts with a disclaimer: “Viewer discretion advised. Some viewers may find the images disturbing.”

I concur. I’ve watched it five times, and I’ve teared up every time. Thank you, deputies Hall and Ponder, and all the rest of the heroes that day, most of whom we will likely never hear about.

— David Smigelski, Rogue Valley Times editor