Despite Pomas Fire Burning Close By, Life Goes On As Usual In Holden Village

Although there's a 3,500-acre wildfire burning just three miles away from the bucolic banks of Lake Chelan's northwestern edge, you'd never know it in the small community of Holden Village.

The settlement saw its first Western inhabitants arrive in 1896 and the village was used to house workers at the Howe Sound Mining Company's copper mine, which at one time was one of the largest in the U.S., until it closed in 1957.

Three years later, Howe Sound deeded the Village to Seattle's Lutheran Bible Institute, which cleaned up the site and took the necessary steps for it to be operated as an independent non-profit, which began hosting retreats 1962.

Currently, Holden Village has about 70 year-round residents and hosts as many as 300 retreatants during the summer months.

"Holden Village has Lutheran roots and is still very Christian-based in its identity but it's become more expansive in practice," says Village spokesperson, Stacy Kitahata. "We are available and open for not just Lutherans or other Christian denominations but for any different expressions from other faith and wisdom traditions. Holden Village is a courageous community that welcomes all people into the wilderness to enrich our relationships with God, the Earth, and others."

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Although Holden Village has never gone through a close call with wildfire as serious as the one which struck its neighbor to the north in Stehekin during last year's Pioneer Fire, it has seen a few brushes with disaster over the years - including during the 2015 Wolverine Fire, when crews successfully performed burnout operations around the town to spare it from the advancing flames.

Fast forward to 2025 and since early July, the Pomas Fire now sits only three miles away from Holden Village as the crow flies and a Level 1 Fire Advisory has been issued for the town, but Kitahata says you'd never know it by the skies overhead.

"We saw some smoke columns from the Village because the fire was burning debris and down trees in the Entiat River drainage for the first few weeks. Then, because of the wind directions and because the fire ate through some of that fuel which was left over from the 2015 Wolverine Fire, the smoke has dissipated and we have air quality levels that are in the green zone. In fact, we probably have better air quality up here at Holden Village than a lot of your listeners and readers do in their own towns."

Fire managers have said there is little chance that any flames from the Pomas Fire will be able to escape from the steep and rocky environs where they have been burning since the blaze was first reported on June 13, but Kitahata says the town will be ready no matter what might happen since it's perpetually under what amounts to a Level 1 Fire Advisory every summer as a general practice.

"We're on a Level 1 Advisory, yes, but we're kind of in the practice of maintaining that already during fire season anyway. Because of how remote we are and the fact that we have about 250 people here in the Village, we always have a level of preparedness in place so that we're ready to go if a wildfire strikes. And right now, we have everything in place if the fire hazard level changes and we need to evacuate the Village."

Among the Village's current population are 42 firefighters from Oregon that are under the management of Complex Incident Management Northwest Team 12, who have all been working since arriving on July 9 to protect the community in the event the Pomas Fire does get too close for comfort.

"We are hosting them right in the guest quarters in the Village," says Kitahata. "We made arrangements to get them housing and are doing meals on a special schedule for them because they're up really early and out there working to keep us safe. So they're 'embedded' with us doing things like eating in our dining hall alongside the retreatants and enjoying ice cream at the Holden Village snack bar. Over the years, Holden Village has grown accustomed to hosting people like firefighters, especially since we've had fires here like the Wolverine back in 2015 and we've also had fires on the other side of the (Cascade) Mountains in the past five years. We've also hosted folks who were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail who've gotten diverted by wildfires, and of course the Village hosted a lot of people who were involved with remediating the old copper mine last decade."

In addition to lodging ground personnel assigned to the Pomas Fire, Kitahata says Holden's facilities also allow for the staging of rotary-wing aircraft as well.

"We have our own Holden Village LZ (Landing Zone) where we're both trained and equipped to welcome a variety of helicopters, from medical to firefighting and even private. Holden Village sits on (U.S.) Forest Service land, so things like this are not only part of our mission but our mandate - that we be prepared to handle any emergency or other situation which might occur here in our remote location."

For those who don't wish to hike in, Holden Village is only accessible by ferry or private watercraft via Lake Chelan, where it can then be reached using a well-maintained Forest Service road that links it with the tiny community of Lucerne, about 11 miles to the east.

Kitahata says this dirt-track connection is vital for those arriving and departing from the Village anyway, but its importance would become even greater in the event Holden needs to be evacuated.

"Every year we hold drills for doing this before the guest season arrives. All of the staff at the Village are trained in how to defend it against fire in the event of small incidents, like someone's bacon catches fire in the kitchen, and we also do a Village-wide staff fire evacuation training as well. It's designed so we can get people out of the Village within two hours, along with securing all of our critical sites and infrastructure. So if we do reach a Level 2 (evacuation notice), we would start getting everyone on buses that go out of Holden Village down to Lucerne where the Lady of the Lake would meet them to take them to Chelan. We have a compact with the company that runs the ferry service to Lucerne to be available for us in the event of an emergency that requires a mass evacuation. We also have a secondary gathering point in Lucerne where folks can wait in the event, like now for example, when we have more than 100 guests, because the Lady of the Lake can hold about 100 people, so we'd need them to make at least two trips."

Communication from the Village to the "outside world" is reportedly good, since its confines are linked up with satellite cell service and shortwave radio at all times, and some guests and staff members even have other devices that work just as well in remote areas.

Kitahata says the Pomas Fire has had a minimal impact on retreatants at the Village, although in recent days a few hikers who've been passing through have had to make alternative plans or been slightly delayed due to firefighter activity on several trails which originate at Holden. Aside from this, she says Holden Village is fully open at this time and has space available for those who are interested in staying with them.