Courtesy Photo | The aftermath of the McKinney Fire on Aug. 26, 2022: Destructive wildfires drove...... read more read more
Large, destructive wildfires are often the big story. Firefighters and firefighting aircraft come from across the country. The images, the action, the fast-moving flames threatening Small Town USA, appear on your screens.
Estimates point to more than 70,000 communities across the country are at high wildfire risk each year. It’s not a surprising statistic for those living in these wildland urban areas, as they’ve watched wildfires approach places, and people they love year after year.
Janet Jones has lived in the canyons of northern California’s Siskiyou County for 27 years in Horse Creek, 19 miles west of Yreka. Even though her community has faced the persistent threat of damage and loss, she remains an optimist.
“We love living here,” said Jones. “It’s been a real gift, one of God’s true wonders. We’re very fortunate.”
Jones is your typical, exceptional community member. She is involved with the school, the church, and the Klamath River Fire Department as a volunteer fire chief. She sees how wildfire has a way of affecting entire communities.
The 2022 McKinney Fire is just one recent example.
“It’s the first time we’ve had fatalities with our wildland fire, and we lost so many homes — 118 in total,” said Jones. “We’re still in the recovery process from that.”
As she talks about the losses of her community, even though they are not solely hers, you can hear the pain and the empathy in her voice. Going through a wildfire is very much a communal experience.
A Common Loss
Beyond the loss of life, burned homes, and local post office, there was a more subtle but common loss during the McKinney Fire — the Klamath River Community Hall. Since 1948, the one-story building stood at the center of this wildland community, serving as a hub, a kind of social institution.
The community hall was loved maybe as much as it was used, said Jones. And it was used a lot. Weddings, birthdays, pageants, turkey shoots, the Blackberry festivals, 4th of July events, Thanksgivings and celebrations of life. Even Taco Tuesday brought people together there over the years.
For Jones and her community, rebuilding the community hall is just a place to start, to heal, and to honor those who died in the fire.
“Having the community center rebuilt will bring people back together again. It would be a rebirth, that first step for people to really recover from this.”
Though the damage caused by the McKinney fire was widespread, it’s not to say they haven’t experienced loss like that before.
“You know, we’ve seen the Boles fire, the Lava Fire, the Antelope Fire, the Gap Fire, and the Happy Camp complex a few years back,” said Jones. “We know people who have lost their house in a wildfire more than once. A woman around the corner from us who lost her house in the Camp Fire, bought a house here, and a couple of years later, loses it to the McKinney Fire.
“There are a few people that have moved and won’t come back because they are afraid of the threat. I just can’t imagine what those people are going through.”
Rebuilding is only part of the way forward. Without an increased emphasis on prevention and wildfire risk reduction, history may be on track to repeat itself.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes over the last 20 years. We’ve seen a lot of devastation. It’s just been a lot for homeowners, and it’s time to work together.”
Rebuilding the Klamath River Community Hall
All this work — rebuilding after a wildfire and reducing risk of future wildfires — can’t be done alone.
So the Republican Women hosted fundraisers and dinners to raise money for the community hall. Scott Bar held a bingo event with a chili cook off and raffled a golden nugget. The Forest Service donated burnt logs from the McKinney Fire, and a small mobile mill donated their time and equipment to process the logs.
“And that same cooperation is how we’ll prepare for the next fire,” said Jones. “We need to make sure that people are doing what they can to harden their properties — whether it’s their house, the church, or the school.
“It’s great to see the Forest Service invest in Siskiyou County, to support our Fire Safe Councils, to help us keep our county and our community as it is. I’m still an optimist.”
| Date Taken: | 02.27.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.08.2025 14:38 |
| Story ID: | 547559 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Reducing Wildfire Risk in the Klamath River Basin, by Andrew Avitt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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