6 March 2023
RENO COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) — Sunday marked one year since the Cottonwood Complex fire destroyed dozens of homes in Reno County.
The fire changed lives in Reno County, and many people are still picking up the pieces.
Beverly and Roger Johnson lost everything, including their house, cars and animals. Looking back, they say it could’ve been much worse. They thought that day was going to be their last.
“That hole right there is where the house used to be,” Beverly Johnson said.
That is the home they built in their lives for over 40 years.
“Sometimes I just think I want to come out here, and it’ll all be back again,” Beverly Johnson said.
They say it all happened so quickly.
“We got these hills here, and then, it come up over the hills, and it was like that fast,” Beverly Johnson said.
They jumped in their pond to survive.
“I fell in the pond. I just lied flat, face-planted myself into that water,” Beverly Johnson said.
But, the Johnsons didn’t go through the last year alone.
“We had a lot of help from VOAD, and a lot of help from United Way and all those people,” Beverly Johnson said. “We want to thank them so much, and the lots of friends and family and stuff that have helped us.”
VOAD is the voluntary organizations active in disasters. The organization started helping people just like the Johnsons right after the fire started and haven’t stopped since.
“We figure out how we can fill in gaps, so if someone was insured, but maybe the insurance didn’t cover everything, how can we bring resources to the table that might fill in those gaps to help them be able to recover and ultimately get back to thriving?” Reno County United Way executive director Lisa Gleason said.
Gleason says over 40 properties were affected. Since then, about one-third has rebuilt, one-third is still working through different options, and the rest moved on to different properties.
Beverly and Roger Johnson are living in a different house now. They want to rebuild but say that is only going to happen if the narrow, sandy roads are fixed so emergency vehicles can get down them.
The Johnsons say their next step is to clean up the property so it can start to look like their home again.
VOAD is still helping victims. They take donations here.