Pateros wildfire: Starting over

Aug. 09--Editor's note: It's been just three weeks since wildfire hit Pateros, destroying 40 homes in the city, and several dozen more in the surrounding rural area. The short stories below offer a glimpse into how some of those who lost almost everything were feeling in the days just after the disaster.

In the coming months, The World will continue to check in with fire victims to ask about their successes and difficulties as they move forward.

Perry Brownlee and Kathy Harding, Pateros

The Brownlee family lost more than a home when almost an entire city block in Pateros was reduced to ashes. They lost two homes, and three generations of family history.

A few days after the fire, Perry Brownlee was looking through the ashes in the house where he grew up. With him were his niece, Kathy Harding, and her son and daughter-in-law, Jake and Katie Hixon. The home belonged to Brownlee's sister, Ellen Whan, and her husband, Jim.

"It had all the heirlooms from the family, from Germany and Scotland," Brownlee said. "There was an old calendar from Scotland from the 1800s, family Bibles that came over from Scotland. I didn't lose a home, I lost a lot of memories," he said.

Behind this house, Brownlee's brother and sister-in-law, Dave and Ramona Brownlee, lived. Between the two houses that were now a pile of rubble, an old swingset still stood, its seats melted. Nearby, a yellow fire hydrant that served as a yard ornament stood out in the otherwise black and gray surroundings. Brownlee's mother salvaged it from the old city of Pateros before it was flooded by Wells Dam.

The ashes were still smoldering as the four Brownlee descendants sorted through the ashes in this home, looking for ties to their Scottish and German ancestors.

"Dr. (Harold) Stout owned it originally," Brownlee said of the house. "It was an historical building. He lived here and had his clinic here. My dad bought it from him." Stout was Pateros' first doctor.

Jake Hixon climbed into the basement floor, discovering a few dishes, and the bell of an old Edison. "It was the first one in Okanogan County," Harding said of the record player. "My grandpa, he ordered it from Sears & Roebuck."

Brownlee is a truck driver, and was in California when the wildfire swept into town.

"I knew this house would always be in the family," he said. "I never dreamed we'd lose it in a wildfire. Living in town, you just don't think like that," he said.

-- K.C. Mehaffey, World staff

Kerry and Tim Harvey, Alta Lake

Tim and Kerry Harvey were not home when fire swept down the Methow Valley and into the residential area around Alta Lake Golf Course. But their sons, 23-year-old Brandton and 21-year-old Blayne, stayed home to work while their parents were camping in their 28-foot trailer in Coulee City.

Aware of the fire, the Harveys checked in with their sons at about 6 p.m., and learned that everything was fine, Kerry Harvey said. "Then at 6 o'clock on Friday morning, Brandton calls and gets us out of bed and says, 'I think our house is gone.'" That was the first news they had that dozens of homes in Pateros and the Alta Lake community were destroyed by fire.

Their sons didn't get a chance to grab anything, she said.

Instead of recounting her own losses, Kerry Harvey talked about what her sons lost.

Brandton had just graduated from Washington State University in May, and his brand new diploma which just came in the mail was sitting on the table, she said. In the driveway, his graduation gift -- a 2004 Toyota pickup truck -- was charred beyond recognition.

Harvey said she had kept her sons' rooms like they were when they went off to college, and figured they'd move their things out when they settled down. She remembered their athletic awards, Letterman jackets, and other documentations of their accomplishments.

And the house itself -- "It's the only home they've ever known," she said.

Despite all the loss, the Harveys said they've been so grateful for all the help that friends have offered. "You find out how large your community really is. It reaches all the way to Spokane, and to Wenatchee," she said.

-- K.C. Mehaffey, World staff

Ted Shook and Lex Lindquist

Washington State Trooper Ted Shook, 34, of Pateros, had just finished a full shift when he was called back to assist with evacuations and highway closures near his home outside of Pateros at about 7:30 p.m.

He was manning a road block listening to the radio traffic when he learned that the fire had jumped Highway 153 and that the Alta Lake area where he lived was threatened. He left home with only the uniform on his back, he said.

But Shook said he stayed focused on work. There were people who wanted to bypass the roadblock and get back to their homes. It was his job to prevent them from endangering themselves.

Sgt. Lex Lindquist, 47, learned during work that his home outside of Brewster was threatened, and on an immediate evacuation notice. He relied on his wife, Michele, to gather up their children, horses and dogs and a few personal items. She later told him that the flames were right at her car as she drove down their road.

Lindquist said it was tough to go home and find his house had burned down. "It's hard to lose everything. I've never lost everything before," he said, but added, "We will rebuild, and we will survive."

Shook said he learned while he was still working that his house was gone. "As soon as you think you're OK, you go back and take a look at the absolute devastation -- there's nothing left," he said. "There's so much you take for granted -- it's all not there anymore."

But, he said, he believes the experience will make him a better trooper, with more empathy for fire victims. "I'll be able to tell people, 'I know what you're going through.'"

-- K.C. Mehaffey, World staff

Smoldering ember

Tom Miller and a collection of his neighbors in Pateros fought the fire all night to keep the flames away from their six homes.

They finally left the scene in the morning to get cleaned up. While away, a smoldering ember they didn't catch caught one of the houses on fire. It spread to another, and two of the six homes burned.

One of the homeowners, Jim Hall and his family, moved into another home they own in Grand Coulee, where he works at the dam.

They plan to rebuild, Hall says. "I can't see us going anywhere else," he said. "It was surreal. We're better off than a lot of people, because we have another place to stay."

-- Christine Pratt, World staff

"Everybody out!"

Theresa Blackburn can see the blue roof of her Pateros home even while she's at work as food, beverage and restaurant manager at the Howard's on the River complex across Highway 97.

The night on the fire, she had 10 tables filled with customers when authorities issued a Level 3 advisory, the most urgent.

"I told all employees and customers, 'Everybody out. Don't worry if you haven't paid, just get out. You've got to go. You've got to get out of here, now,'" she said, remembering that night days after the fire.

She, the restaurant's lead chef and a server watched from the complex's convenience store as the fire crested the hill and bore down on residential Pateros. Her house was right in its path.

"We walked outside the store and couldn't see 10 feet in front of us, because the smoke was so bad," she said. "It was awful. I was crying."

She evacuated to Chelan, along with others, not knowing if her house had burned. It wasn't until the next day that she realized it was safe. Four of her employees lost their homes that night.

-- Christine Pratt, World staff

Jim and Jennifer Johnson, Chiliwist Road

Jim and Jennifer Johnson knew they had lost everything before they returned to the pile of ashes and twisted metal roofing that was once their home on Chiliwist Road.

Jennifer is a dispatch supervisor for the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office and was at work on the night of July 17, when her family evacuated to a nearby motel. It wasn't until she was getting off work early the next morning that a deputy offered to drive up to see if the house where they'd lived for 23 years was still standing.

When the deputy returned to tell her the house was gone, Johnson said she couldn't believe it. "I thought it would go around my house. We've always been told we have a good green-belt," she said of her large yard on one side and a wide wrap-around driveway protecting the rest of the house.

Later that day, they went out to see the wreckage. "We came up and saw the tractor, and said, 'It's still there! And the wood -- it's still there!" she said, describing the 12 cords of firewood neatly stacked in one corner of the property, and John's tractor, untouched by fire, right where he left it in the middle of the driveway. "I thought, 'How can we be smiling? The house is gone," she said later. Also unburned: a field of barnaby thistle right next to their yard.

The Johnsons were not insured because of the high cost given by insurance companies that wouldn't believe the house was part of a fire district, Johnson said. She did have mortgage insurance that will pay their remaining debt. Johnson said regular house insurance wouldn't replace the things she truly cared about anyway, like the glass horses her daughter gave her every year.

Johnson said she's grateful that her daughter, Jenna, was visiting from the coast help her husband evacuate their horse, and grab a few things, like her father's paintings, their photo albums, birth certificates and passports.

As for rebuilding, she said, "We're done with the Chiliwist."

-- K.C. Mehaffey, World staff

Carol Hamshaw, Pateros

Carol Hamshaw had no plans to move in with her boyfriend until after they are married next month. But the Carlton Complex fires had another thing in mind. Hamshaw's house in the city of Pateros burned to the ground on July 17. So did the house belonging to her daughter and son-in-law, Libby and Forest Harrison. And her brother's house in Alta Lake.

But perhaps hardest of all was losing the house she and her fiance were renting in the Methow Valley, and planned to move into after they were married. That's where they were when this wildfire swept down the valley.

Hamshaw said she only had time to grab some antique jewelry, some photos and her medications. She also took her dog but was so busy, she forgot about her 17-year-old cat until it was too late.

She also lost her wedding dress and the invitations she was making.

The support she has seen from this community will not bring back all the things she lost. But it certainly feels good to know so many people care.

"You can't believe the love that has come from everyone," she said.

-- K.C. Mehaffey, World staff

Reach K.C. Mehaffey at 509-997-2512 or mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com. Read her blog An Apple a Day or follow her on Twitter at @KCMehaffeyWW.

Reach Christine Pratt at 509-665-1173 or pratt@wenatcheeworld.com. Follow her on Twitter at @CPrattWW.

___

(c)2014 The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.)

Visit The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.) at www.wenatcheeworld.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services