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The frantic wind in Ashland, Oregon, woke me up at 5 a.m. on September 8, 2020, the morning of the fire. For a heavy sleeper whoâs known to set five or six alarms for early mornings, I was surprised that I had been startled by the sound of harried wind chimes outside my window. In retrospect, the unrelenting minor-key clanging of the hollow pipes seems like some kind of omen. But for the next five or six hours, I went about my regular morning routine: coffee, oatmeal, Twitter, work.
Then, around 10 or 11 a.m., the winds guided what became a fierce inferno named the Almeda Fire on a highly destructive path. Fire season always poses a serious threat to Southern Oregonâs Rogue Valley, but no one could have predicted the severity of the Almeda Fire, which primarily affected the towns of Talent and Phoenixâjust north of Ashland. On the following day, FEMA stated that the fire had burned approximately 600 h