"Dangerous wildfires continue to blaze through the Northwest U.S., making national news headlines and leading to evacuations of towns" within the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Northern California Independent Booksellers Association regions, Bookselling This Week reported.
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One evacuated Washington town is Chelan, the location of Riverwalk Books, where owner Libby Manthey reported that area residents had been permitted to return to their homes on Monday, August 17, but August 15 and 16 "coincided with the busiest weekend of the summer season--it's like losing the two days before Christmas. But the store will be fine, and we will be fine. We're just feeling very sad over the loss of the three firefighters and for so many who lost their homes and their livelihoods."
The town of Winthrop, Wash., home to Trail's End Bookstore, was also evacuated, and the store was forced to close from August 20 to August 23. Now reopened, Trail's End "plans to donate proceeds from coffee sales at its espresso bar to vetted fire relief funds, and it has set out a donation jar for customers."
Thom Chambliss, executive director of PNBA, reminded booksellers affected by the fires that the Book Industry Charitable Foundation offers assistance to booksellers and their families who have emergency needs caused by disasters, BTW wrote. "We would encourage any of our stores to turn to [Binc] in natural disaster cases."