A Month ago in the towns of Ashland, Talent, Phoenix, and some parts of Medford Oregon, a man made fire spread rapidly due to high winds and a long period of low humidity in the region. The entire down towns of Talent and Phoenix were completely destroyed. Two mobile home parks in these towns were burned to the ground with several other houses.
This area of southern Oregon already had a small economy and relied mainly on agriculture from pear orchards, wineries, marijuana farms; as well as non agricultural call centers, and retirement homes for these cities incomes. Due to the fire large amounts of farm land burned and the homes that housed the workers in these industries no longer exist. The cities tax base is also suffering. Since many people living in the low income housing cannot afford to rebuild their homes they have opted to move and seek employment in other areas. The overall economy of the region is on the brink of collapse and has the possibility of needing decades to recover if it ever does.
I wanted to make this news thread for people to consider donating to relief programs in the area for local businesses and small city government that are suffering from a double threat of COVID and fires. Anything will help. I just don’t want to see the city I grew up in become a ghost town in a few years.

nightmare, this is really terrible. very sorry.