Community rallies to help those forced to evacuate by McEwan Fire
On Tuesday, Karen Gilman noticed smoke as she drove down McEwan Prairie Road about 2:45 p.m.
She spent the afternoon at Spencer Lake. But at about 6 p.m., her Ring doorbell caught the Mason County Sheriff’s Department in front of her house, telling her family to evacuate.
Gilman was one of hundreds who evacuated during the McEwan Fire near Shelton, which impacted more than 200 Mason County homes north of Shelton. The fire was at 257 acres and 0% containment on Wednesday, but is managed within fire lines.
“We were flying from Spencer Lake to our house, trying to load up everything,” Gilman said. “We packed everybody up and everything up.”
When she got back to her house at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, Gilman said she noticed things looked drastically different from when she’d left earlier. The sky was smokey and hazy, and she could not see the skyline. Wind was starting to blow heavy smoke through her neighborhood.
“The wind was blowing very strange,” she said. “It never blows towards southwest, it usually goes the opposite direction. It’s weird that it blew down and over to us because we’re in the lower left corner of their map.”
April Campbell, who runs Old Iron Park Stables, a boarding stable for 42 horses, also received Level 3 evacuation orders on Tuesday night. She said she felt more prepared to undertake evacuation procedures because she developed strategies — including a map of places she could move her horses — after a fire in the area 10 years ago.
The facility has a boarding stable on one side of John’s Creek and an event center on the other. The south side of the creek faced less severe conditions, so Campbell moved many horses there. For owners who were most concerned about where their horses would end up, she said she moved their horses to equestrian facilities around the county.
“We are a really close-knit horse community, we know everybody by first name,” she said. “Everybody sees the smoke plume, they don’t even call, they just come with horse trailers. I was overwhelmed with the number of trailers that showed up yesterday.”
On Wednesday, Campbell was caring for the horses still on the property and going about business as usual. She has, however, evacuated her main residence.
Rhonda Skinner-Nutt’s boarding stable and arena in Taylor Towne was not affected by the Level 3 evacuations, but she and her daughter knew they wanted to help house people and animals who were impacted. They have taken in sheep, chickens, rabbits and goats, among other animals, and is also providing spaces for tents and RVs on her property.
Others with available space and horse trailers to transport animals also have reached out to her, and she has served as coordinator between strangers who need those resources and those in the community willing to provide them. The facility she runs is also providing resources such as shavings and hay to those who had to evacuate without them.
She has been posting on different social media groups to spread the word, but those in need can also reach her by phone at 360-490-1969.
“We want to help, we love to help,” she said. “We have the means to help, as far as the facility, so absolutely we’re going to help.”
On Wednesday afternoon, all homes in the Level 3 evacuation area had been lowered to Level 2, which allowed them to return home if they remained prepared to leave at any time. Gilman’s husband went back to check on the house and the neighbors. She was glad to see her neighbors showing up for each other, offering rides or packing up each other’s things.
She said she was impressed by the response.
“It’s amazing to see all these parties come together so quickly,” Gilman said. “It was pretty cool to see everything in action. Not under the circumstances, but how it clicks and works to make the response happen.”
