Nearly five years ago, a combination of dry conditions and heavy winds starting on Labor Day quickly accelerated the spread of multiple wildfires that had broken out in Oregon’s Western Cascades. Eleven people died in the Labor Day fires, which burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, from Clackamas county to the California border.

As the fifth anniversary of the deadliest fires in the state’s history approaches, we hear from two survivors who lived in southern Oregon at the time. We first spoke with retiree Sue McMillan less than two weeks after she evacuated her home in Phoenix with her pets ad a few belongings to flee the Almeda fire, which broke out near Ashland on Sep. 8, 2020. The fire burned her home and her possessions and prompted McMillan to leave Oregon in March 2021. Today, she lives in Santa Rosa in northern California to be close to her family, although she says she misses Oregon.

Misty Rose Muñoz was returning from an appointment in Ashland when the Almeda fire broke out. As the highway swelled with motorists, Muñoz was unable to return to her home in a mobile home park near Phoenix. She still managed to alert her neighbors and her daughter to evacuate. Even though Muñoz’s home didn’t burn down, the flames, smoke and ash caused irreparable damage and left it uninhabitable. After leaving the Rogue Valley in Sep. 2023, Muñoz moved to Portland where she eventually found work as a school bus driver. After years of housing instability, in March, she bought a home in Ashland through a grant she received from a federally funded, state administered program that helps wildfire victims repair or replace their homes.

McMillan and Muñoz join us to share their memories about surviving the Almeda fire, what they lost and their years-long journeys of recovery.

As 5-year anniversary of Labor Day fires approaches, two survivors of Almeda fire share their stories