Hot Type: Under Fire

In her exclusive column, Heidi Siegmund Cuda offers personal reflections on her fire-scarred community and the weaponization of disaster

“I’m wearing your shoes,” said my friend whose house burned down.

She now has two pairs of shoes.

The fires came the week I was in the process of deaquisitioning. US historian Dr. Nancy MacLean told me ever since the election she went on a cleaning frenzy, as if getting ready to deploy.

I followed her lead, purging possessions the same week my friends were losing everything. The staggering losses after a devastating election was too much to process.

I stopped looking at my text messages during the fires, it was too sad. I stopped counting the number of friends who lost everything. Trauma upon trauma. Although everyone I know lost power, I never did and kept working through the night collecting things to give away. It was hard to breathe most days.