Making Sense of Staying After Mega Fires

• In Event: 41016 - Disaster and Questions of Place

Abstract

This paper is an ethnographic study in the McKenzie River Valley of Oregon where the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire disaster burned more than 500 homes. We ask: Why did the wildfire survivors’ stay in a fire-stricken place while risking more fires in the future? Using Paulsen’s concept of place character, we show diverging understandings of place related to how deeply rooted people were in the community. Those with deeper roots in the community - that we term old-timers - are more likely to understand their community through the prism of the logging industry that once dominated employment. Those who moved to the community more recently, or newcomers, tended to view the community in relation to its recreational value as a forested river community. While economic considerations are certainly primary in terms of influencing people’s decisions to stay in the community after the fire, we argue that subjective understandings of place, or place character, intertwine with economic factors to shape decisions to stay in the aftermath of mega fires.

Authors

• Haisu Huang, William and Mary

• Jill Ann Harrison, University of Oregon