Two and a half years ago, Alaskan Bush People star Billy Brown bought 435 acres of rural Washington land.
The family made it their new home. Now, the entire area is being ravaged by wildfire.
On Wednesday, August 19, Bear Brown took to Instagram.
There, he shared three photos of raging wildfires burning in the distance — yet alarmingly close.
The orange and read inferno was scary. The caption was downright sad.
“We suffered a devastating [loss] yesterday,” Bear writes in distress.
He reveals that “a fire swept through our mountain, our home.”
“The [loss] seems to be great!! It’s still burning!” Bear then promises: “I’ll keep everyone posted! God bless!”
Commenters poured in, sharing their sympathies and best wishes.
“It was beautiful!” Bear affirms of his family’s new homestead.
“We don’t give up,” he writes, “that I guarantee!”
It is unclear the specific levels of damage dealt to the Brown family’s property.
He is referring to the Palmer fire.
This raging inferno has ravaged Washington’s Okanogan County, burning over 6,000 acres and leading to the evacuation of more than 85 homes.
As we all know, fires do not necessarily destroy every house that must be evacuated.
Sometimes, people get very lucky, and their homes only need to be thoroughly cleaned after such a disaster.
Others are not so lucky and come home to charred rubble.
Fortunately, we don’t think that the Brown family was mostly in the viscinity of the blaze.
As we noted, dozens were evacuated, many of them being airlifted out by emergency personnel and disaster relief groups.
Unlike some of these folks, the Brown family would at least have somewhere to go.
As fans may remember from when Ami was receiving cancer treatments in Los Angeles, the Browns have a mansion in Beverly Hills.
They acquired it a number of years ago, as it was a short distance from the hospital where Ami was treated.
It has also served as a refuge during times when they are not filming, as well as a stopover point when they are not in Washington.
So far, none of the other family members have shared as much about the fire as Bear has.
Perhaps they are waiting until the wildfire is contained and damage can be assessed.
Some parts of their property might be unscathed. Alternatively, they may find nothing but bitter ashes on their homestead.
Hopefully, they are fully insured for just such a catastrophe. Right now, a number of states have intense fires.
As climate change worsens, “fire season” — once limited only to extreme environments like Australia and a few parts of the southwest — becomes longer and more dangerous.
No amount of insurance can replace a lost life, or counteract the ecological damage that extreme weather and disasters can cause.
Hopefully, we will soon know whether the Brown family will have to start over in their new homestead or if the fire’s damage was limited.
But we should remember that the Browns are wealthy reality stars. Sadly, the same is not true of all of the victims caught in the fire’s path.
We hope that all of those facing these deadly blazes remain safe and that their property does, too.