Often there’s wisdom among those who’ve gone before us.
In hopes of helping others, Darla Gale, a licensed marriage and family therapist co-authored Sifting Through the Ashes: Finding Beauty, Peace, Love and Strength Through Trauma, which recounts first-person survivor stories from the 2018 Camp Fire in California, alongside thoughtful explorations of healing after devastating destruction. The Camp Fire in Butte County, including the town of Paradise, killed 85 people and displaced around 50,000, with some 18,000 structures destroyed.
Gale spoke with the Inlander from Los Angeles, where she works with 2025’s Eaton Fire survivors in Altadena, California, about what the Spokane fires survivors can expect in the very early days after losing their homes and how the community can assist them.
Initially, “There’s so much to think about that survival mode takes over… Most people are going to go into shock, disbelief, confusion,” she says. “Your mind is scrambling. You’re trying to make sense of something that doesn’t make any sense, and that’s all very, very normal.”…