Board Members
Reta Cochrane
Board President
My commitment to this organization’s work is rooted in personal experience. While teaching at Dorena School in 2014, a second-grade student approached me in the hallway, bouncing from foot to foot and urgently asking if he could use another bathroom. When I asked why, he replied, “The gym bathroom is on fire.”
I ran to the restroom and discovered that a fire had started in a wastebasket and had already climbed the wall and begun burning the ceiling. The bathroom walls were covered with plastic sheeting, and thick, heavy black smoke filled the room. Never having used one before, I grabbed a fire extinguisher and notified the school office to call 911 and evacuate the building, and began fighting the fire alone. The smoke made it difficult to breathe and see, forcing me to step in and out of the room repeatedly to catch my breath and clear my eyes before continuing. It seemed to last forever before I was able to extinguish the fire. Fortunately no students or staff were harmed. Due to the distance, South Lane Fire & Rescue arrived approximately 40 minutes after the fire was out.
A few years later, on September 5, 2018, the Row River Fire moved quickly through our community, destroying homes and outbuildings. My barn burned down and flames advanced toward my house. As the fire approached, several former students came to help defend the property. Using leaf blowers, they pushed the advancing flames and burning debris back onto already burned ground, allowing the fire to burn itself out just feet from my home. (News Story)
Experiences like these made it clear to me how vulnerable our valley was without nearby fire protection and helped inspire my work to form the Row River Rural Fire ProtectionDistrict.
April Klein
Board Member
April volunteers as a board member because she knows what it means to need help and not know if it will arrive in time. As a child, she watched a neighbor’s home burn, saw how fast fire moves, and how a quick response kept it from reaching her own family. A few years later, she called 911 after watching her younger sister get hit by a truck, believing she had just lost her. EMS arrived in time and saved her life.
Those moments and others stayed with her. They are not distant memories, they are the reason she stepped forward. She believes every family in this valley deserves the same chance, that help will come, and that it will come in time.
For April, community means showing up for one another before something happens, so that when it does, no one is left waiting.
RRVCP Staff Members
Kathleen Istudor
Executive Director
I was inspired by witnessing firsthand the courage and vulnerability of our community.
Several years ago, residents in the Row River Valley had organized an informal group of water trailer owners who responded when fires broke out in the valley. These volunteers, many over the age of 50, often became the first people on scene when fires started along the forest corridor.
In September 2022, during the Holiday Farm Fire period, I arrived at a fire across from my property near Wildwood Falls. Communications were down in various places in the valley, and other fire departments were already committed to fighting larger fires. In front of me was a smoldering RV that had earlier sent more than thirty feet of fire into the air beside a stand of fir trees.
A group of local volunteers with water trailers and equipment, and had succeeded in bringing the fire down to smoldering embers. These men, many of them fathers, grandfathers, and longtime residents, had worked together to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading into the forest. They did this often, risking their lives with limited resources because they cared deeply about protecting their neighbors and the surrounding forests.
At that moment and those men inspired me to join Row River Fire Response and help build the partnerships, preparedness, and infrastructure our valley needs. I found a renewed sense of purpose in helping strengthen the safety and resilience of the place I call home.
Laura Bee
Programs/Communications
My great-grandfather fought the Tillamook Burn, a massive fire that scorched 350,000 acres from 1933 to 1951. A logger by trade, he shared unforgettable stories of that disaster, one that made global headlines. I did not know then that I would one day face fire in my own way.
My own encounter with fire came as a resident of Talent during the 2020 Alameda Fire, which raced 20 miles in four hours. From my rooftop, I watched flames sweep through the valley like wind-driven rapids while aircraft roared overhead and propane tanks exploded into the night. My neighborhood became a shelter zone. I helped guide trapped people to safety and cared for injured animals after the burn. I lost my bees.
That fire taught me how quickly chaos comes, how vital community becomes, and how communication can fail when it is needed most. Since then, I have committed to learning all I can about wildfire, preparedness, and resilience. I live with go-bags, solar batteries, water storage, and a rule to never let my gas tank fall below half. I am slowly mitigating our overgrown land and shaping our lives around fire season.
I am grateful to be part of RRVCP and its mission to protect this valley. The Row River and its living landscape have captured my heart. The people here, sturdy, friendly, and full of can-do spirit, inspire me. I am here to serve, to organize, and to help us grow stronger together.
