Innominate Coffee Shop and Cafe is named for the 5th highest peak in the Bighorn Mountains of northern Wyoming. It is in the town of Ranchester, WY, at the foot of those mountains that are now on fire.
At its peak, more than 900 firefighting personnel were battling the Elk Fire. The grueling physical work in managing fires is easily noticed, but the emotional toll on fire crews and residents facing evacuations often goes undetected.
Yellowstone Public Radio’s Orlinda Worthington visited with folks at the cafe who are offering free mental health services and more to all those affected by the fire.
Innominate Coffee Shop serves as a local gathering place five days a week for the two small communities of Ranchester and Dayton Wyoming, population about 1800 combined. Co-owner Melissa Butcher says topic conversation at the cafe right now centers on the Elk Fire, burning in the Big Horn Mountains nearby. A place that she fears will never be the same.
“It’s where we recreate, it's where we hunt, it's where we cut wood, it's where some of us get water. I mean, it is a tremendous part of our identity. It's going to be forever changed,” Butcher said.
On this day, representatives from Volunteers of America take up a table where residents are invited to sit down and share experiences, learn about services, or just chat.
“It's been a lot of conversations just people stopping by and you know and having a cup of coffee and some coffee cake,” Wilson said.
Ryan Wilson and Heath Steel both work for the Volunteers of America in Wyoming, the community behavioral health provider for much of the state.
“We've gotten to meet with firefighters and medics and, and folks who have suffered loss of their homes this morning and either offer a word of compassion or offer an invitation to services,” Steel said.
Jayme Ackerman is the Senior Director of Clinical Services for Volunteers of America Northern Rockies. She says emotional trauma can get overlooked in the midst of the initial chaos of a disaster. But when the adrenaline rush of fighting a fire is over, that is when emotions ranging from people feeling unsafe in their environment to thoughts of suicide can emerge.
“After the fact, that's when we're really starting to see the effects, the trauma, the worry, the anxiety, I mean even just like the come down of anxiety when you know that your home is safe or that you know that your loved one is safe, those kind of things,” Ackerman said.
As the fire passes through communities, Heath Steel says they’re seeing folks who are just starting to realize they had loss or they had trauma.
“And we have some folks who are still actively battling who may not come down for days or weeks. We've also seen some moral distress when there's been a loss that you weren't able to stop or you weren't able to prevent, then that starts to catch up days and weeks later and these resources are available around the clock,” Steel said.
Ackerman shares some signs to pay attention to.
“With trauma and anxiety come some mixed emotions, maybe easy to anger, sadness, maybe just not feeling like yourself. That's when I would hope people would reach out for services,” Ackerman said.
Along with the effects of trauma, Melissa Butcher worries about the economic impacts of the fire in this area that gets a big boost each year from tourism. She points toward the empty campground behind the cafe.
“Just for example, our campground is normally full of hunters right now. And not just us, by any means, there are many, many that will be affected in ways we haven't even begun to realize. And I think we'll come out a bit stronger, but it's going to be tough,” Butcher said.
In Ranchester, Wyoming, I’m Orlinda Worthington.
Mental health services from the VOA are available to all. Information on services can be found on the Volunteers of America Northern Rockies website, voanr.org.
