Rising from the ashes

Two years after a 2020 fire consumed nearly her whole town, homeowner Lori Dickinson stands in front of her newly rebuilt, single-story home and talks with pride about the JELD-WEN windows. “They are awesome,” she says. “I am so happy with the product.”

The Labor Day fire was part of a week-long wildfire event across the Pacific Northwest.

In the months that followed, JELD-WEN overcame supply chain challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic and made windows available to Lori and other town residents, who were desperately in need of a new place to call home. 

“Our teams always work hard to provide customers with the products and solutions they want, when they need them, and with a customer experience that is superior to what they will find anywhere else,” says John Krause, senior vice president and general manager of North America, JELD-WEN.

Few customers have ever needed JELD-WEN customer service more than those of Malden, Washington.

On the morning of Sept. 7, 2020, no one in Malden suspected that a fire would wipe out 80 percent of their town that day. The fire started when a pine tree was blown onto live power lines. The sparks ignited tinder-dry forest and wind gusts of more than 50 miles per hour fanned the flames into a firestorm, which swept through the small Eastern Washington farming community.

In a matter of hours, a total of 189 structures were burned to the ground including Malden Town Hall, Library, Post Office and 67 homes. Lori’s family home, furniture, photos and mementoes were reduced to ashes. “I lost everything,” Lori says. “It was terrible.”

Speedy evacuation ensured no one died in the fire, a victory that is still celebrated today.

But rebuilding the small town would not be easy, especially with a shortage of labor, a scarcity of lumber and other materials, and other challenges associated with the pandemic.

Members of the Western Anabaptist Mission Service, created by the Amish community located in Saint Ignatius, Montana, offered to build new homes. 

“We chose to use JELD-WEN windows in the donated, rebuilt homes because we could get them, they were available, and we needed them now,” says Toby Yoder of the Western Anabaptist Mission Service.

Beginning in 2021, as the mission service scrambled to buy and build, many other window manufacturers couldn’t meet demand. “As we ordered materials for the houses, we found out that our regular window suppliers couldn’t meet our schedule,” says Toby. “But the lumber yard we work with gave JELD-WEN windows a hard recommend, as they could have them by when we needed,”

To the rescue came JELD-WEN basic vinyl single-hung windows.

“Like the rest of the world, we experienced supply chain challenges throughout the pandemic, but we steadily overcame them by shifting our operating strategy across facilities in the U.S.,” says John Krause, explaining just one of the advantages of the company’s model of operational excellence.

“We installed the windows and are very satisfied with the service and quality,” says Toby. 

Read more about JELD-WEN's commitment to responsibility and sustainability in the company’s 2022 ESG report.