September 8th remains a red-letter day in Oregon, and will probably stay that way for a long time. That's the date, in 2020, of the wind-driven fires that burned down thousands of homes in Western Oregon. Those include the Almeda Drive fire, which destroyed 2500 homes between Ashland and Medford.
We're taking several sessions this week to look back on the fire and on the current status of recovery. OEM, Oregon Emergency Management, played a role in the aftermath of the fire, one it has yet to relinquish. Stan Thomas is Deputy Director and Mitigation and Recovery Section Division Director at OEM, and is our guest.
OEM recently put out an after-action report on the response to the 2020 fires, and that is part of the discussion.