'Heart's Home': Finding Shelter From Twisp Fire Amid Last Year's Wreckage

When wildfire blazed through Meg Donohue’s property on Texas Creek last year, only a small cabin remained standing. It became a refuge last week when flames forced her to flee her new home 10 miles away in Twisp.

Donohue, owner of Blue Star Coffee Roasters, told KUOW’s Marcie Sillman on Tuesday that her return to Texas Creek was bittersweet.

“It’s a place that’s definitely our heart’s home. So losing it last year was really difficult,” she said, pausing to compose herself.

There’s no electricity, but she said it was as though the old place was embracing her. That comfort was needed.

“The impacts of last year were really just beginning to sink in before these fires hit,” she said.

Donohue was back at work in Twisp on Thursday morning.

“We served free coffee,” she said over the weekend. “Any kind that anyone wanted. Any number of shots.”

She says the real saviors of the town were the aircraft that battled the blazes, dropping water and fire retardant. She singled out jumbo jets being flown like crop dusters along burning ridges above town.

“The DC-10 is my spirit animal,” she said.

On Tuesday, she said the air was smoky but she could see a little bit of blue sky.

“Looking out from our coffee shop,” she said, “I’ve got this amazing view of the hills around this valley and this beautiful place, which is hopeful.”

Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.