‘They just forgot about us’: a US motel of climate refugees with nowhere to go – photo essay

Nearly a year ago, a fire upended their lives. Now the Oregon residents find themselves stuck in limbo

If you were to drive through Medford, a small city in southern Oregon, you'd pass by an unremarkable motel. You'd see guests sitting out on their balconies, smoking cigarettes, walking their dogs across the small patch of lawn, and watching the kids laugh and play in the pool.

But these people aren't typical hotel guests. They are 159 fire refugees, displaced after losing their homes during one of the worst fire seasons the west coast has ever experienced. As the climate crisis causes higher-than-normal temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds, Oregon and California are facing more intense blazes than ever before. This new breed of fires is destroying entire communities - the 8 September 2020 conflagration known as the Almeda fire, for instance, decimated two towns in southern Oregon, torched 2,700 houses and displaced 3,000 people.