Workers pick through debris piles at the site of a weekend fire on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Haines, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)
Workers pick through debris piles at the site of a weekend fire on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Haines, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)

As backhoes creaked and moved debris in the background, Sam Remeto and her husband picked through the charred remains of their home. 

“Oh look! My bathing suit,” said Remeto, picking up a colorful, soot-stained piece of cloth. “I could go swimming.”

It’s the first time since their apartment went up in…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...