Storage sheds bring wildfire victims closer to recovery

Titus Yoder, owner of Yoder’s Hauling & Delivery Services in Drummond, Montana, and JR Troyer of Pocatello, Idaho, set to work with a pair of hydraulic tilt trailers and heavy-duty pickups to ferry the finished sheds to property owners from Palmer Mountain in Okanogan County to Pearl Hill in Douglas County. An earlier attempt to deliver the units shortly after they were built proved to be more than road conditions and restrictions would allow so Yoder postponed his part of the process until this month. His equipment combination provided the speed, efficiency, and maneuverability to get all 30 units delivered in less than five days despite some access challenges on steep, narrow, and winding roads.

The fully enclosed sheds were built by a volunteer crew from Western Anabaptist Mission Services (WAMS) from St. Ignatius, Montana, who used donated supplies and covered space to construct 30 of the 10-x-12-foot units over a 10-day period.

The Okanogan County Long Term Recovery Group (OCLTRG) formed to help victims of the 2014-15 Carlton Complex and Okanogan Complex wildfires sourced funds, materials, and space for the shed-building project.

Marson & Marson Lumber/Lake Chelan Building Supply in Chelan provided the building materials while the Okanogan County Fairgrounds supplied covered space for the WAMS crew to work and a staging area for the completed sheds.

The Cole Spring and Pearl Hill fires started last Sept. 6, destroyed some 100 homes, burned nearly 190,000 acres, and took two lives before being contained. Seven months later the recovery process is slow particularly for victims who lost everything to the flames. The WAMS crew moved on to Malden in Whitman County to help rebuild homes for fire victims there but the sheds built by them and delivered by Yoder’s Hauling remain as evidence of their good works.