Weed Fire Aftermath: Mill a Key to Town's Recovery

By Jeff Barnard
Associated Press

WEED, Siskiyou County — Besides destroying or damaging scores of homes and other structures, a fast-moving wildfire struck a blow at the economic vitals of this struggling Northern California timber town, knocking its last wood products mill offline for an undetermined amount of time.

With a maintenance shed reduced to twisted sheet metal and the main manufacturing facility suffering structural damage, but still standing with a new coat of pink fire retardant, the Roseburg Forest Products veneer mill on the outskirts of Weed was out of commission Tuesday while workers began assessing the damage, said Kellye Wise, vice president for human resources of the company based in Dillard, Oregon. The company hoped to have a better idea of when the mill could reopen by Monday.

"We were in the middle of its path," he said of the fire. "It shows the great response of our employees, some of whom lost their own homes."

As the fire roared through trees, brush and homes on Schoolhouse Hill on Monday, the mill had enough warning to send home most of the 60 workers on the day shift and mobilize the mill fire crew, Wise said.

While they fought to save the mill, firebrands blew overhead and ignited bocks of houses downwind.

With 170 workers, the mill is the second-largest employer in Weed, a blue-collar town of 3,000 people in the shadow of Mount Shasta, and it dates to 1897, when founder Abner Weed decided to take advantage of its strong winds as a natural drying process for the lumber turned out by his sawmills.

The mill shutdown, however temporary, is one more blow to Weed, which has never recovered from the logging cutbacks of the 1990s to protect the threatened northern spotted owl and salmon that put tens of thousands of people in Siskiyou County out of work, said Siskiyou County Supervisor Michael Kobseff.

The mill jobs are particularly valuable because they pay wages high enough to support a family, much higher than the tourism jobs that many have to turn to, he said. Some who lost their homes are determined to rebuild, but others have no insurance, making state and federal assistance important, he said.

"It's just going to be this close-knit community trying to get back on track," he said. "It's not going to be overnight."

Winds gusting up to 40 mph pushed the flames into town, where they quickly chewed through a hillside neighborhood. Officials said a significant number of the 150 structures burned were houses; three firefighters lost their homes. The cause is under investigation.

"It went through here so fast it was unbelievable," Jim Taylor, a retired butcher who has lived in the town for 30 years, said Tuesday. His house was one of three standing along his street after firefighters arrived in time to foam the side next to his neighbor's burning house. "I'm not a real religious person, but somebody was looking out for me."

The remnants of the Holy Family Catholic Church were still smoldering, its metal girders twisted on the ground.

"I mean it was devastating," said Maureen Campbell, the church's music minister, who was baptized, confirmed and married at the church, along with her children. She lost her home to the fire.

"The house up there is no big deal. It can be rebuilt," she said. "But this is my family church, you know? It's much more endearing to me."

Associated Press writers Terry Collins in San Francisco, Raquel Dillon in Weed, Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, and Robert Jablon and Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles contributed to this report.