By Maggie Rohr

Imagine your gender reveal party being the biggest failure in human history. Gender reveals became popular around 12 years ago as a fun and light-hearted way to reveal the gender of a child to friends and family. Recently, however, they’ve come under scrutiny for helping worsen wildfires on the West Coast. 

Sandy, Oregon is located in Clackamas County, shaded here on a map of Oregon. Image credit: Arkyan

On September 5th, a gender reveal party in California went terribly wrong when a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device”  sparked a wildfire that spread over 10,000 acres in El Dorado. Dry conditions all over the West Coast caused fires in Oregon and Washington this fall. In Oregon alone, at least 35 people died during this wildfire season, and half a million had to rapidly evacuate their homes. People on the East Coast and Europe have received indirect effects of these wildfires, including hazy skies. According to meteorologist and founder of New York Metro Weather John Homenuk, on Sept. 19 “Historic wildfires ravaging the West Coast last week sent plumes of smoke blowing across the country, even across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Netherlands.” New York City resident Yvonne Caruthers was running along the Hudson River when she saw the  “the sun coming up through the smoke-haze.”

In an interview with The Match, Janel Rieder, owner and administrator of Assisting Hands in Happy Valley, Oregon, shared her experiences with the terrible wildfires. Rieder’s home is located in Sandy, in Clackamas County in the northwest corner of the state. Rieder’s family and home faced many repercussions of the wildfires.

She explained the different levels of evacuation that took place in Oregon: “‘Green’ is be aware and ready. ‘Yellow’ indicates to be packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Sometimes the notice was only 15 minutes or less. The ‘Red Zone’ was evacuate now, don’t gather anything, just go. Everyone who lived in the Red Zone could not go back to their homes. Police blocked the roads in the Red Zones.” Rieder’s house was located two miles from a red zone; however, she chose to evacuate on September 11 because there was only one way in and out of her property, and it was surrounded by woods. Rieder and her family were among the more than 500,000 people who were also forced to evacuate their homes in Oregon during the September fires. 

Map of wildfires throughout the country in September 2020. Photo credit: NWS Storm Prediction Center, Norman OK.

Conditions in Oregon during these times were miserable. Hot, windy weather made it hard to breathe. Rieder states, “The air was rated ‘hazardous,’ and the worst in the world at the time. We had to wear N95 masks just in order to be outside. Inside the house was smoky, too.” These wildfires created some of the world’s worst air pollution, with air quality index readings 350 to over 515. Normal air quality ranges from 51-100; however, Oregon’s air quality during the fires was substantially higher than average. Residents were being urged to stay indoors to avoid inhaling smoke and ash. To put this in perspective according to Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website Air Now, “The higher the Air Quality Index value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 represents good air quality with little potential to affect public health, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.” Rieder described the sky as, “orange and the smoke was just hanging in the air. It looked apocalyptic!” The closest fire to Rieder’s house was about 2-4 miles away, and she said the “wind was so bad it caused the fire to spread more rapidly and closer to my house.” 

Flames from the Valley Fire cover a hillside along Highway 29 in Lower Lake, California. Photo credit: Jeff Head via flickr.

Although the fires were horrific, the use of forest management helped contain fires in other areas. Forest management is when professionals help thin out trees so that a massive fire does not occur. The town of Sandy was frustrated because, according to Rieder, “our governor does not believe in [forest management], and that is one of the reasons the fire was so bad.” The raging wildfires in and around Sandy could have potentially been contained or less detrimental if forest management had been used effectively in their area. 

Not only have the wildfires taken a toll on residential life, they have also affected businesses. Rider works for Assisting Hands, which specializes in homecare. According to their website, Assisting Hands, “offers a range of at-home services, from non-medical to skilled nursing, including wound care, management of tube feeding, meal preparation, light housekeeping and laundry, companionship, medication reminders and medication administration, shopping and errands, personal care, and help with bathing and dressing.” According to Reider, her business faced setbacks because “a couple of staff called out because they had to either evacuate, or they just could not breathe.” They had to decide whether it was safe or not to go to each client’s house, depending on the area they lived in. Rieder had “scheduled a new client who lived deep in the fire zone the day the fires broke out. She is an older lady, who had to evacuate her 40-year-old son who had just suffered a severe stroke. I felt so terrible for not being able to help her. But no one was allowed even near her home.” Everyone wanted to help each other; however, the state had to deem whether or not it was safe to go into certain situations. 

Although this situation was appalling, the community came together to take care of one another. In Silverton, Oregon, the Red Cross Cascades Region, and a group by the name of “Powers” joined together to pack 500 wildfire clean-up kits. These cleanup kits were given out to people who lost their homes in the fires and needed help getting back on their feet. Each kit contained safety gear, including tarps, gloves, N95 mask, hand sanitizer, garbage bags, a wooden sifter box, a rake, and shovels that residents could use  to look through ashes to find belongings that might have survived the fire.

People in the community are stepping up to help those who are in need and who have suffered significant damage due to the wildfires. According to regional president for Kaiser Permanente of the Northwest Jeff Collins, “Our hearts go out to everyone who has lost a home, business, and — even more tragically — a friend, or family member to these terrible wildfires.” When asked about how her community reacted to the wildfires, Reider stated, “We saw the community come together to take care of one another. Restaurants were giving free meals to firefighters and first responders. The community donated water, snacks, and supplies for firefighters to just grab and go.” The empathy being shown not only in communities but around the world puts on display the love everyone has to offer in times of need.