McKinney Fire: ‘Very respected,’ decades-long Forest Service fire lookout among four people killed
A longtime U.S. Forest Service fire lookout who spent decades scanning the Klamath National Forest for puffs of smoke and the next threat to communities across Siskiyou County died at her home during the McKinney Fire, the federal agency announced Monday. Kathy Shoopman, 73, died at her home in Klamath River during the blaze, which exploded in late July into the state’s largest conflagration of 2022, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Three other people died in the fire, though their names have not been released, pending positive identification and notification of their next of kin by authorities. Shoopman lived in Klamath River for nearly 50 years; meaning that her home was among the many under her watch. She worked in mountaintop perches across the Klamath National Forest, spotting f...
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