Brian Haase drove away from his Camino Cielo home Wednesday night as fire crested a ridge and started coming down the hill.
He had just finished the house six months earlier, and he and his family have lived there for about a year.
He knew wildfires would be a risk in the small community tucked into mountains in Los Padres National Forest.
“I told my kids, ‘One day, it will come.’ There’s no way. You don’t build a house in this type of environment and not expect it to happen,” Haase said Friday.
But then, the Thomas Fire hit the same year they moved in.
“I didn’t think that was going to happen,” he said.
When the fire reached the home late Wednesday, flames barreled down from multiple directions, making it too dangerous to try to defend, Haase said.
“It was too much of an inferno on all sides,” he said.
Haase’s house and barn stayed standing. He had left sprinklers running on the roof and thought that might have helped.
But some of his neighbors had huge losses.
Just up the road, a house and barn burned to the ground. Several others farther down the hill also were gone. On Friday, piles of soot, burnt metal and smoldering wood sat next to skeletons of vehicles and blackened foundations.
Haase left about 8 p.m. Wednesday after the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office had come around recommending that people leave.
Down the road, the Bells decided to go, too.
“When we pulled out, I pointed up and saw the flames coming over the ridge right here,” said Bryan Bell, who lives there near the home of his parents, Judy and Carl Bell.
“We thought we were just being evacuated and we’d be back,” Judy Bell said. She and her husband bought the house on the property in 2004.
They had packed some clothes, photos and a few important things and emptied the small safe – “some jewelry and stuff I don’t wear,” Judy Bell said with a laugh. “But we didn’t take everything we should have taken.”
On Friday, she looked around at a foot of powdery, white ash where her house used to stand.
There was no sign of the antiques or furniture she had collected over the years. “It was so hot,” Judy said. “I’m sure there isn’t anything.”
The day after the fire blew through, one of her sons was nearby helping people get horses out of the area and went to check on things.
“He was just crying on the phone,” she said of when he told her the news.
The Bells had bought the house and remodeled it. A deck was finished the day before the fire swept through.
“This is crazy, Mom,” Bryan Bell said as he stood on the side of what used to be a home. A recently added small stone wall looked relatively unscathed.
Maybe they’ll build the next one out of rock, his mom told him.
On Wednesday night, Judy and Carl Bell got the last room left at the La Quinta in Ventura after leaving, she said. The hotel was filled with other evacuees.
For the past two days, their phones haven’t stopped ringing. People have offered up empty homes to the couple. Friends offered to drive a motorhome over from Arizona.
It helps, she said of the support.
“We were going to spend the rest of our lives here,” she said. And then quickly added, “We still will. We’re going to rebuild.”
—
©2017 Ventura County Star (Camarillo, Calif.)
Visit Ventura County Star (Camarillo, Calif.) at www.vcstar.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Source: Oc Register
Thomas Fire rips through Los Padres communities in Ventura County, destroying homes
More from NewsMore posts in News »
- Robber shot by police tried to re-enter Fullerton bank with apparent explosive, body-worn camera footage shows
- Federal review slams Redlands Unified’s failures to address sexual abuse complaints by students
- Trump downplays deadly Charlottesville rally by comparing it to campus protests over Gaza war
- TikTok has promised to sue over the potential US ban. What’s the legal outlook?
- Cal Poly Humboldt closed through the weekend as student protests continue
More from Orange County NewsMore posts in Orange County News »
More from Top Stories LADNMore posts in Top Stories LADN »
- Redlands boots embattled LA developer from homeless housing program
- Plan to kill Catalina deer using sharpshooters in copters is opposed by county
- Reunited and it feels so good: Voyager 1 is talking sense again
- Man breaks in to home of LA Mayor Karen Bass, is arrested
- After 25 years of selling tamales in Chicago, an undocumented immigrant mother returns to Mexico without her family
More from Top Stories OCRMore posts in Top Stories OCR »
- Robber shot by police tried to re-enter Fullerton bank with apparent explosive, body-worn camera footage shows
- SURFscape trade show focusing on surf, outdoor adventure is beachfront in Huntington Beach
- California schools may be required to provide kosher and halal meals
- Big GOP donor Buck Johns lists his 3.5-acre Newport Beach estate for $25 million
- Dana Point Planning Commission sets hours for embattled Headlands bluff-top trail
More from Top Stories PSNMore posts in Top Stories PSN »
- Covina man charged with shooting deputy in West Covina
- Plan to kill Catalina deer using sharpshooters in copters is opposed by county
- Reunited and it feels so good: Voyager 1 is talking sense again
- After 25 years of selling tamales in Chicago, an undocumented immigrant mother returns to Mexico without her family
- 37% more Southern California workers added in March than average
More from Top Stories SGVTMore posts in Top Stories SGVT »
- Covina man charged with shooting deputy in West Covina
- Plan to kill Catalina deer using sharpshooters in copters is opposed by county
- Reunited and it feels so good: Voyager 1 is talking sense again
- After 25 years of selling tamales in Chicago, an undocumented immigrant mother returns to Mexico without her family
- 37% more Southern California workers added in March than average
More from wildfiresMore posts in wildfires »
- California commissioner, Farmers CEO ‘look outside’ for answers to insurance crisis
- Controversial plan takes shape to protect Joshua trees from climate change, fire and development
- State Farm shedding 72,000 home insurance policies in California
- Catastrophe modeling proposal would reshape California’s home insurance rules
- Infernos rage from Texas to Australia as fire season kicks off early
Be First to Comment