Christian retreat center evacuated as wildfire nears

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The first of about 270 "villagers" left late yesterday morning by bus and regularly scheduled commercial boats. The evacuation was expected to be completed by tonight.

Only 13 core staff members will remain, said Kristofer Gilje, operations manager. The village will remain closed until at least Sunday.

The voluntary decision to evacuate was made Saturday night, after Forest Service fire managers concluded they couldn't keep the month-old Deep Harbor Fire from spreading north along Lake Chelan beyond lines they had established earlier. Last night, the fire had covered 29,500 acres.

While the Chelan County Sheriff's Office raised the fire warning level Saturday night, it did not order the evacuation.

"We have to emphasize this is a precautionary measure," said Dianne Shiner, Holden Village co-director. "The village itself isn't at risk. What's at risk is our access."

Still, some guests and staff members couldn't help contemplating the worst.

"I love the place," said Ed Short of Issaquah, 75, who has come to Holden every year since 1975 and lived here full time between 1994 and 1999.

"We all hope and pray that, Lord willing, it'll be protected. We have to give thanks for the years we've had, I guess."

Holden Village may be the most isolated community in Washington. Getting here involves a boat ride up Lake Chelan to a landing called Lucerne, then a bus ride up an 11-mile gravel road that dead-ends at Holden. Beyond lies the rugged Glacier Peak Wilderness Area.

Television and commercial-radio signals can't penetrate the 8,000-foot peaks that surround the village. There is no telephone service or Internet access. Cellphones don't work here.
 
The road, whose lower reaches now are threatened by the Deep Harbor blaze, is the village's lifeline and only evacuation route.

Holden is an abandoned mining-company town that was given to the Seattle-based Lutheran Bible Institute after the mine closed in 1957. A nonprofit corporation has operated it since 1961.

Thousands from throughout the United States and the world have come to Holden to study, hike, play and worship, and many have developed a lifelong attachment. Most spend a week or two. Many return, some for a year or more.

Guests and staff members who arrived Saturday came from Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, North Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois.

"There's a lot of people who care about this place," said Aaron McCandless, 19, of West Seattle, who is halfway through a two-year staff stint. "It's kind of a sad, scary time for everybody."

But the mood at Holden yesterday was calm, at times even humorous.

During announcements at breakfast, co-director Janet Grant said the bookstore would be open as usual. "Somebody said it was going to be a fire sale," she quipped.

Sunday-morning worship went off without a hitch. Some evacuees swam in Lake Chelan or snacked while they waited for boats at Lucerne.

"I think I'm pretty much at peace with the whole thing," said Paul Bergman, 54, a teacher from Beaverton, Ore. "I figure the village is in God's hands. If it's to be, it's to be."

Villagers learned of the decision to evacuate at a meeting Saturday night. In some respects, it came as no surprise.

While the fire was 12 miles away, smoke had been wafting over Holden for days. A U.S. Forest Service fire-information officer had been providing nightly updates on the fire's progress.

Village administrators had established a plan to evacuate in just four hours, if needed.

"I don't think that in this place anybody ever has a false sense of security," said the Rev. Nancy Winder of Faith Lutheran Church in North Seattle, who was among those awaiting evacuation yesterday. "Everyone's aware of the risks here, especially fire."

But Holden is first and foremost a community, said Winder, who came to Holden 33 years ago and served two years as the village's pastor: "Community makes a difference. ... Life is better. Life is safer. Fear can be handled better that way."

Yesterday, villagers witnessed some unfamiliar sights. Chelan County sheriff's deputies arrived on motorcycles. Helicopters flew overhead. Firefighters began establishing a perimeter of hoses and sprinklers around the community and clearing the lower branches of trees in an effort to protect the historic buildings, most of which date to the 1930s.

"Holden is right now our priority," said Steve Sabo, structure-protection supervisor with the Central Washington Incident Management Team.

The Red Cross has established a shelter in Chelan for displaced villagers, although a show of hands indicated most who left yesterday planned to go home or had made other arrangements.

Holden co-director Grant said refunds would be provided to guests whose reservations can't be honored, as well as those whose stays were cut short.

In other Central Washington fire news, another day of temperatures nearing triple digits made things difficult for firefighters as they tried to get a handle on a blaze near Dryden, Chelan County, that jumped a road and forced the evacuation of at least 100 homes.

By yesterday morning, the Fischer Fire had burned across 1,000 acres, bringing the total acreage covered by the fire to 3,250. But by afternoon, it had grown so much so fast that fire-information officer Art Tasker said he couldn't even speculate on how much land it had burned.

About 140 firefighters were fighting the lightning-caused Mebee fire about a half-mile north of the North Cascades Highway. The highway remained open, but officials closed a 20-mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report. Eric Pryne and his family were among those evacuated from Holden Village yesterday. Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com