‘Everything has a memory, and everything is gone’: McComb family one of eight trying to recover from 14,000

The McComb family spent the past four years cleaning, renovating and beautifying their “forever home” and property in the forests north of Colville.

But a 14,000-acre wildfire ripped through the family’s 20-acre piece of heaven earlier this month, leaving only the 45-year-old home’s foundation, a tall chimney and, miraculously, a wooden shed.

“Right now, I’m looking at devastation,” Maggie McComb said Tuesday at her property, which still had a burning smell.

She said she now laughs when she drives up to the home’s ashes and dilapidated metal knowing her husband, Matt McComb, always thought the chimney was an eyesore. Now, it’s basically the only feature of the home.

“I can’t believe that chimney survived,” Maggie McComb said. “It was obviously indestructible.”

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