Welcome to The Newsfeed.

I'm Paris Jackson.

It's been five years since a fast moving wildfire devastated the town of Malden and nearby areas in eastern Washington in September of 2020.

Since then, residents have tirelessly worked to rebuild after many failed to qualify for disaster funds.

Cascade PBS investigative multimedia reporter Jaelynn Grisso has more on how the community continues to recover, while others still wait in limbo.

It was an incredibly windy day from the wrong direction, and then this huge black smoke on the horizon and it's like, oh man.

Carlon lived about three miles from Malden in neighboring Pine City.

He reluctantly evacuated when the fire broke out in 2020, leaving almost everything behind.

In the less than 30 minutes he had to escape.

Our home that we had was this historic 1929 brick bungalow, and it was like the only brick structure house in this whole area, so it really stood out.

The Babb Road fire destroyed 67 homes and all the municipal buildings in the town of Malden.

The state of Washington declared us a disaster zone and made a request to FEMA.

That request went unfulfilled for more than four months as President Trump denied the request amid a feud with then Governor Jay Inslee.

In early 2021 Malden received some FEMA funding and used it to build a new town hall, including a post office and a community center that just opened in May of this year.

The total damages did not meet FEMA's threshold of $4.5 million to qualify for funds to help individual residents.

We could have lost every building, every shed in town, and we would have never met that.

There is no program for basically, small towns.

-Without government aid many under or uninsured residents had few resources to start rebuilding their lives.

We have, however, been been graced with the assistance from the Western Anabaptist Missionaries.

Volunteers rebuilt eight homes in total for Malden residents.

Close to 130 individuals ultimately filed claims against Avista Utilities and a contractor after a state investigation linked the utility's power lines to the start of the fire.

Avista and its contractor agreed to pay at least $27 million in settlements on those claims earlier this year.

For Carlon, the biggest loss was the historic items in his home.

This is my family history that was burnt up.

I was, I was pretty shell shocked and broken.

Carlon rebuilt his home with a friend, a carpenter turned teacher.

The only thing we saved the bricks.

They cleaned thousands of bricks and used them as a nod to the old house.

While many residents have rebuilt or moved on, three homes have yet to be rebuilt, leaving those residents still living in RVs five years later.

-We've had some success, but knowing there's still families in RVs.

Does that feel successful, knowing that?

No absolutely not.

Recovery is still a work in progress.

But Frick, Carlon and many other residents affected by the fire keep moving forward one bit or one brick at a time.

You can't change the past.

You will never forget the past.

But what we can do is remember the past and move to the future.

In Malden, Jaelynn Grisso, Cascade PBS.

I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching The Newsfeed, your destination for nonprofit Northwest news.

Go to CascadePBS.org for more great local coverage.