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KEN DEVOL, ANCHOR:
It's been about a year since the Dixie Fire devastated Plumas County's Indian Valley. As NSPR's Jamie Jiang reports, some fire survivors there are already working on supporting the next fire survivor community.
JAMIE JIANG, REPORTER:
I met local resident Mary Shero at a gathering of Indian Valley fire survivors to commemorate a year since they lost the town of Greenville.
Shero said she had just opened a restaurant out of her trailer when the Dixie Fire arrived in Greenville. While others evacuated, she and her son kept the trailer parked in town to cook for the people on the fireline.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY SHERO) “We did a lot of cooking for about 10 days, just like right down here. And we left on the second when this ridge was catching on fire and it was just getting a little too flamey.”
Shero said living through the Dixie Fire gave her a sense of connection to other burn scar regions. Fire survivors from Paradise and burn scars in Oregon came to the Indian Valley with propane, money and other resources.
Shero says she knows fires like the Dixie will threaten communities every year. She wants to help those communities the way others helped the Indian Valley.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY SHERO) “I just knew that, you know, the next year there was going to be another town that was going to need some encouragement. So we’re gonna try and do that.”
Shero and her family and friends planned to drive up on Friday [Aug. 12] towards the cities of Weed and Yreka to cook for firefighters and fire survivors of the McKinney Fire.
Last week, the fire burned down Klamath River, a town of about 200 people. She shows me the back door of her van, where she’s painted “WE LOVE YOU KLAMATH RIVER!”
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY SHERO) “Klamath River burned down, which sucks man, and so this is what we're driving up there: We love you Klamath River.”
She says she’ll be cooking German food up there, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARY SHERO) “We figure somebody up there needs a schnitzel. Somebody up there needs a schnitzel from someone else who had their town burned down last year. And just say hey, it’s gonna suck. But you’re gonna get through it. And let people help you.”
For NSPR News, I’m Jamie Jiang.
