For Meegan Olson, where there’s smoke, there’s buffalo.
Olson, a Faculty Instructor for SEIU 775 Training Partnership, was in Cusick, Wash., conducting a Basic Training course in July. She was surrounded by smoke from the Eastern Washington wildfires, composed of several different blazes including the Okanogan Complex Fire, raging just a few miles away.
At first she was cautious when driving through the smoky haze for more than an hour to class. As the smoke thickened, her concern grew about whether she and her class of seven students would need to evacuate.
So she took her cues from wildlife in the area – peacocks, deer, and those buffalo, about 170 of them – to figure out just how worried she should be about the fire that was nipping uncomfortably close to her classroom’s doorstep. “The wildlife didn’t know what to do and as the fire encroached they would meander in.”
As long as the buffalo were hanging around, moving closer and closer to the Camas Center and away from the fire, she felt like it was still somewhat of a safe place to be. “That was the only thing that kept me sane,” says Olson. “Watching the buffalo.”
Wildfire pushed buffalo just outside Instructor Meegan Olson’s classroom. (Photo by Meegan Olson) Top photo: The Okanogan Complex Fire near Omak, Wash., just a few miles away from a training classroom. (Photo via U.S. Forest Service)
While they may have been technically safe from fire, the intensifying smoke was becoming uncomfortable for everyone. “As training would progress, the smoke would get thicker and thicker and everyone would get headaches and sore throats. You could really smell it.” She was out sick herself for two weeks with migraines.
When the firefighters and National Guard set up their fire camp at the center, the full impact of the situation Olson and her students were in hit home.
For Olson, who has been an EMT, a nursing assistant (CNA), a paraeducator, and a CPR instructor (to name just a few), being prepared for dramatic events is part of living in Eastern Washington. “We understand to pack more clothes and we pack for the weather.”
She made sure to emphasize safety to her students, advising them to take extra time to get to class, and to use their best judgment on whether they should come at all.
“(I told them) if you’re not feeling safe, call, tell them why you’re not coming to class. I want your safety. Class can be rearranged. I’m OK (with not coming to class).”
One of her students from Nespelem, about two and a half hours from the center, ended up in that circumstance. She had to go home when she heard the classroom was surrounded by the fire. Fortunately, that was as close as it got before firefighters eventually got the largest fires in state history under control in late summer.
Despite the challenges, Olson finds she has always been drawn to teaching. “I always bounced back to working with people and kids,” she says. “I like to help people better themselves.”
