COMMUNITY RECOVERY
If there is a need to change the narrative around fire, then there is also a need to change the narrative around fire recovery.
Haisu Huang, a Mellon Environmental Postdoctoral Scholar at William & Mary, studies the process of rebuilding and recovery in the wake of uncontrolled wildfires. Her approach from a sociological perspective, with an expertise in environmental sociology, enables her to think critically about the inequities involved in rebuilding, such as people’s access to resources and their needs for longterm recovery.
Huang’s dissertation research, conducted at the University of Oregon, focused on the community response to the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire along the McKenzie River in Oregon, about 50 miles east of Eugene. The wildfire started from a combination of downed power lines, extreme wind and dry weather close to the Holiday Farm RV Resort. It burned over 170,000 acres and destroyed more than 500 homes.
As a sociologist, Huang became especially interested in how the idea of “home” influenced the McKenzie residents’ decisions to rebuild.
The concept of home is subjective, but it has structures, Huang says: “There’s a physical dwelling, of course, but there are nonmaterial aspects as well, like social support and employment.”
Huang’s research focused on eight communities along the McKenzie River that were destroyed in the 2020 fire, including the town of Blue River. “It was very heartbreaking for the locals because there are a lot of historical and community landmarks in that town,” says Huang.
One landmark was the liquor store, a place that held more than alcohol. “It’s a place full of memories, full of connections,” she says.
Huang found that two groups emerged from ther ethnographic fieldwork on the McKenzie. She called them the “old-timers” and the “newcomers.”
The old-timers often had strong generational ties to the place: They had either been born in the area or had moved there when they were young, with parents who worked in natural resource projects such as gold mining, timber logging and dam construction. In contrast, the newcomer community was drawn to the recreational nature of the area, a place popular for fishing and hiking, with mineral hot springs and resorts.
The two groups’ responses to the fires differed based on their understandings of the place.
“For the old-timers,” Huang says, “McKenzie was their one and only home. And because this place is home, they wanted to go back and rebuild.” Those residents’ identities were firmly tied to the place. Even though it had become a burn area, and even though there might be more fires in the future, they felt a familiarity and stability there.
In contrast, the newcomer group had a more tenuous connection to the place. Huang found that they prioritized economic factors, such as insurance, in their recovery efforts in addition to emotional factors.
Insurance was the first issue that newcomers raised in their conversations with Huang when they discussed rebuilding, for example, while it was less of a focus in conversations with old-timers.
The topic of insurance in fire recovery efforts is complex and plays a major role in rebuilding efforts.
“The fire survivors reported some insurance policies dictating that to get the maximum insurance benefits they would have to rebuild on exactly the same spot,” Huang says. “And if they don’t rebuild exactly where they were, they won’t get as much money.”
It’s a topic that has caused chaos and confusion in the wake of this year’s LA fires, too. Several major commercial insurance carriers pulled out of the market in recent years, including Allstate, Nationwide and State Farm.
Jon Layne has experienced the pressures and headaches of dealing with fire insurance in his own rebuilding efforts. “There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not dealing with insurance issues,” he says.
Ultimately, Huang argues, the choice to rebuild depends on a multitude of factors that center upon how the residents’ notions of home are embedded in the places where they live. Since the rebuilding effort takes years, residents must be deeply invested in the process.