What they saved
from the flames
The Dixie Fire burned the town of Greenville, Calif., to the ground. Forced to flee, evacuees were faced with the question: What do you take with you when you may never come back?
Photos and reporting for The Washington Post
Harvey Merino, 43: As an artist who makes T-shirts and decals, Merino needs his sketchbooks of ideas. So he made sure to take them when he heard Greenville was in danger and rushed home from his grandfather’s house to gather his belongings. Merino said he chose items to pack by what would keep his mind busy.
Brianna Angel, 10: When it was time to evacuate her home in nearby Crescent Mills, Brianna packed her guitar, the young-adult, science-fiction book series Divergent, and her Polaroid camera and photo album. She got the album last Easter and filled it with photos of friends’ birthdays. Sometimes you need something to help you remember the good times, Brianna said.
Josh Olson, 32: Items with sentimental value were a priority for Olson when he packed to evacuate. He brought his great-grandmother’s sewing table because he knew the relic meant a lot to his mom. He also took photos, a few bags of tools and various belongings that reminded him of his 10-year-old son. And his water bottle that he takes with him everywhere.
Guy Anderson: Already traveling in his van for a year, Anderson had gathered his most important items before the Dixie Fire arrived. Among those belongings was a photo of his adult son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter that he keeps tucked inside a Bible because he includes them in his prayers.
“Just talking to [God] makes it a little bit easier to forget about the fear, the what if, where are you going to go, what are you going to do. He told me that I’d be fine, just give it time.”
— Teresa Hatch, 61
Ben Mullen, 76: Although Mullen didn’t expect to be gone long, he said he still grabbed all his T-shirts, shorts and socks, and some family photographs.
Karen Van Zandt, 63: Grabbing a quilt made by her daughter in 2003 was as much an emotional decision for Van Zandt as a practical one. She had just washed it the previous day, and she knew she would need something to keep her warm.
Stephanie Fairbanks, 33: When the Dixie Fire struck, she packed items she couldn’t replace — the ashes of her two deceased dogs, antique meat grinders, and several tin cans and glass bottles collected from Greenville’s long-defunct mines. She also packed a copy of “The Rockefeller File” by Gary Allen, which she was reading.
Jeff Greef, 65: Greef’s decisions about what items to take when he left home were more practical than sentimental. Among the belongings he thought he would use was a baseball cap from his volunteer work with the Forest Fire Lookout Association, a national organization that promotes researching and repairing forest fire detection stations.
Harvey Merino III, 18: The first time an evacuation order went out, Merino packed clothes, shoes, hats and photos from when he was younger. Mostly, he said, he wanted to quickly grab a few items and then help his family get packed. He had planned to leave Greenville for college soon anyway, but he had expected he would have somewhere to return home to. He said he was trying to think of the fire as a fresh start.
“Only by losing everything did I really learn what’s important. And I don’t think there’s any way you can learn that until you absolutely do lose everything.
— Ken Donnell, 68
Ken Donnell escaped the Dixie Fire with only his wallet, his cellphone and the clothes on his back. He lost some sentimental belongings, such as a Gibson guitar built in 1963, but he was largely unfazed. Man-made items can be remade, he said. A photo of his late wife is one of the only sentimental items Donnell still has.
Mary Joseph, 44: During the second evacuation, Joseph took a Maidu baby basket in which she and her children rested as infants. Joseph, executive director of Roundhouse Council, a nonprofit education and resource center for Native American families in Plumas County, said everything she lost can be replaced.