At around 3 p.m. on September 8, Mary Martin was standing outside her home at Royal Oaks Mobile Manor talking with her neighbor about a branch that had fallen on his awning.
鈥淭hen another neighbor came out and he was showing him,鈥� Martin says. 鈥淎nd then the planes flew over with the fire retardant. And that鈥檚 what we noticed first.鈥�
Martin has lived in the Rogue Valley for seven years. She's on a fixed income and lives by herself, except for her cat, Cambria.
After seeing the planes she looked for information on TV but couldn鈥檛 find any. Outside, she started to see smoke. That鈥檚 when a police officer arrived and said 鈥榞et out now.鈥� She had five minutes, she says. She couldn鈥檛 even get her cat out from under the bed.
Martin got two neighbors in a car, one who was disabled and the other who couldn鈥檛 see well, and they left.
鈥淎s soon as we turned out and I looked in the rear-view mirror I saw the black smoke,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t did look like a monster coming.鈥�
Within hours, the fire swept through Royal Oaks Mobile Manor. Martin lost her mobile home and everything in it, including her cat. Nearly two weeks after the fire, she says, she's still in shock.
Officials estimate that more than 2,300 homes were destroyed in the Almeda Fire, mostly in Talent and Phoenix. Amazingly, through the efforts of law enforcement and emergency responders, three people are known to have died. It could have been much worse.
The fire was unprecedented in the Rogue Valley, fueled by drought conditions and high winds. But during the fire, neither of Jackson County鈥檚 emergency notification systems worked as intended.
Jackson County can send out two types of emergency alerts. One is through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, better known as IPAWS. It鈥檚 FEMA鈥檚 national emergency system.
鈥淚t has to be an imminent, unanticipated event that is going to cause severe destruction or death. So, there are pretty specific criteria to launch an IPAWS type message,鈥� says Stacey Anderson-Belt, the emergency manager with Jackson County. I spoke with Belt in mid-August about the FEMA IPAWS alert system.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to be the ticker-tape on the bottom of the television, that鈥檚 going to be going out to AM/FM radio, satellite radio, all broadcast stations,鈥� Belt says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also, if I select the wireless emergency alert, and you are designating a geographic area, it is going to ping every cell phone in that area regardless if they鈥檝e signed up to receive alerts.鈥�
During the Almeda Fire, Jackson County did not send out an IPAWS alert. So, residents like Martin didn鈥檛 get an evacuation message.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have internet, I didn鈥檛 have cable TV, so I didn鈥檛 have that news,鈥� Martin says. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 see a ticker on the bottom of the TV or anything.鈥�
The second notification system the county uses is sent through a software program called Everbridge. Residents sign up in advance to get alerts. But there were problems with Everbridge too.
Jennifer Walker lives in Phoenix. She鈥檚 been in the area since 1965. Her late husband worked in law enforcement in the Rogue Valley for 38 years and her father was the head of the local weather service for 20 years. When the forecast for strong winds came up before the fire, she could tell conditions were bad.
鈥淲e have had how many days [of] 100-degree temperature? We have single digit humidity?鈥� Walker says, recalling the days before the fire. 鈥淭his is a recipe for freaking disaster.鈥�
Walker had previously signed up for Jackson County鈥檚 alerts but hadn鈥檛 checked her account in years. Then the fire started.
鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 anything readily available for me to call and I wasn鈥檛 getting any alerts. And when I had the chance to go and sign in, I couldn鈥檛 even use my password,鈥� she says.
Outside, she saw the smoke plume and DC-10 air tankers dropping fire retardant. A Phoenix police officer drove down the road and told her 鈥榶ou need to go now.鈥� So, she left. The fire stopped about a quarter mile from her house.
This combination of federal and local alerts is how all counties in Oregon and California operate. In Oregon, some don鈥檛 even have a system like Everbridge.
In Lake County, they had just bought an emergency notification program called AlertSense in late August.
鈥淥ur office just recently purchased a mass-notification system,鈥� says Lake County Sheriff Deputy Daniel Tague. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been pushing for it for a long time and we鈥檝e been setting it up as we speak.鈥�
Counties must register to use the federal IPAWS system. But testing those alerts doesn鈥檛 always happen.
Kymmie Scott is the emergency services manager for Del Norte County in California. They got access to IPAWS this year. I spoke to her before the recent fires when the major health concern was the coronavirus pandemic. She said they鈥檝e been hesitant to test it when the public is already on edge.
鈥淧eople are already overwhelmed with the amount of emergency management information they鈥檙e receiving because of the current incident,鈥� Scott says. 鈥淭ypically when there鈥檚 something in real life going on we don鈥檛 do testing.鈥�
Jackson County is a registered IPAWS user. But, according to records provided by FEMA and an agency spokesperson, their log data shows the county has never tested the wireless emergency alerts live or for practice in FEMA鈥檚 lab testing environment.
"Of the counties on the list that are IPAWS users, the IPAWS log data does not show any alerts 鈥� live via IPAWS WEA [Wireless Emergency Alerts] or practice in the IPAWS Lab environment 鈥� coming from the following counties: CA: Del Norte, Tehama, OR: Jackson, Klamath. These counties may have agreements in place with a neighboring county or state level agency to send alerts to people in the counties jurisdiction when needed," a FEMA spokesperson wrote in an email to JPR.
Officials in Jackson County did not respond to requests for comment.
Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler said last week that if an alert had been sent, the situation could have been worse if everyone tried to leave at once, snarling traffic.
鈥淚f those roads would have blocked any more, we can鈥檛 say what could have occurred, but it could have been tragic,鈥� Sickler said. 鈥淲e had a hard enough time clearing the roads to get people out as it was.鈥�
Phoenix resident Jennifer Walker says she thinks better communication didn鈥檛 happen because resources were spread out too fast, in a type of fire no one had experienced before in the Rogue Valley.
鈥淚 have no concerns about whether or not they tried their best, I just don鈥檛 think what鈥檚 there is best enough,鈥� Walker says.
According to meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Medford, the wind event that fanned the Almeda Fire was unique for September, but not unprecedented. They鈥檙e more common later in the season, around October after there鈥檚 usually been rain.
Medford resident Mary Martin says despite losing her home, her cat and everything she owns, she鈥檚 not planning to leave the Rogue Valley.
鈥淚 have a family here,鈥� Martin says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my family of choice.鈥�
For now, she鈥檚 staying with a friend. And, like many, she鈥檚 trying to raise money with a GoFundMe campaign.
The Almeda Fire is now contained. At this point it鈥檚 unclear why a mass notification was not sent out or if something went wrong. Last week officials said they needed time to do a thorough debrief of what happened during the fire.
Correction: A previous version of this story said Martin was evacuated around 11:00 a.m. It was closer to 3 p.m.
