The Backstory: Aftermath FROM THE ASHES At 2 a.m. on October 9, 2017 Jeremiah Kahmoson and his family awoke when a burning patio umbrella landed on the roof of their home in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California. An intense windstorm was driving the Tubbs Fire over the mountains from where downed power lines had ignited it on Sunday night into the densely populated suburbs. Within 10 minutes, Kahmoson's house and the whole neighborhood were engulfed in flames. Stuck in a traffic jam of evacuees, the family barely made it out ahead of the blaze. The next day, Kahmoson and his photographer friend Jerry Dodrill headed into the burn area to assess the destruction while the ashes were still hot. " We found Jeremiah's climbing gear and burned bicycles, " says Dodrill. " Carabiners had melted into puddles, and carbon fiber bike frames turned into powder. " Dodrill captured this image of a garden sculpture of Quan Yin, the goddess of compassion and mercy, watching over the destruction with her calm face. 72 OUTDOOR RETAILER / December 2020 Jerry Dodrill is an expert mountain climber with degrees in fine art and photography and was a protégé of legendary Galen Rowell in the late 1990s. See his photos of the 2017 and 2020 wildfires near his Sonoma County home in " Welcome to the Pyrocene " on page 28 and find more of his work at jerrydodrill.com. Photograph by Jerry Dodrillhttp://www.jerrydodrill.com