Living Through the Largest Fire in Nebraska History
From Good Movement Draws Good Movement by Terryn Drieling
April 7, 2026 · 32 min · Episode 129
About this episode
The episode discusses the personal experiences of living through Nebraska's largest fire, focusing on the emotional and physical toll of the crisis.
In today’s episode, Tom and I are sharing what it’s like living through the largest fire in Nebraska history. This isn’t a polished or perfectly processed story. It’s still super fresh, and in many ways, we’re still IN it. What started as concern quickly turned into evacuation and long days of uncertainty. All of that turned into the very REAL possibility of losing not just land, but livelihood, animals, and a way of life that runs deep in this part of the country. This conversation isn’t about tying things up in a neat bow. We want to give an honest look into an experience that SO many in our state have been living, and also, create space for both gratitude and grief to exist at the same time. In this episode, we cover: The rapid shift from awareness to evacuation as the fires escalated What those days looked like in real time The reality of protecting animals, land, and livelihood under pressure Experiencing the fire from 2 perspectives The emotional weight of leaving home without knowing what you’ll return to The physical & mental toll of long days on the front lines Why “it will grow back” overlooks the real human impact Holding both gratitude AND grief at the same time…
People in this episode
Host: Terryn Drieling
Guest: Tom
Topics covered
- wildfire experience
- evacuation
- emotional impact
- animal protection
- grief and gratitude
- community resilience
Keywords
- Nebraska fire
- evacuation
- wildfire
- emotional toll
- community impact
- animal protection
- grief
- gratitude
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Nebraska
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