‘Nobody came’ — fires burn through coastal mountains
There were no sirens, no evacuation orders and no deputies banging on the doors Tuesday evening on Whitehouse Canyon Road in a remote part of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Instead, raining embers and a “wall of red” flames chased residents and others from their homes in this wooded enclave in San Mateo County, as the lightningsparked CZU August Lightning Complex fire ripped toward properties throughout the night and into Wednesday.
“We evacuated ourselves. Nobody came,” said Janice McCargo, 56, as she watched the devastation from Highway 1 on Wednesday at about noon. “There’s no men on the ground. We’ve had no water flyovers. They’ve done nothing.”
By late afternoon, McCargo watched from her car as close to six police vehicles and a fire truck drove up the road to her neighborhood.
With fires raging throughout the state, the firefighters struggled to get a handle on the fire that burned through the Santa Cruz Mountains and sheriff ’s deputies scrambled to evacuate thousands of people as they received information from Cal Fire on where the blaze was heading.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, rugged terrain and insufficient resources, the fire burned 25,000 acres by the evening and destroyed at least 20 single family homes, according to Jonathan Cox, a Cal Fire spokesman. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries and 6,000 structures were under threat. Neighbors believe the homes of McCargo and others nearby were among the structures felled by the flames.
The CZU, a collection of wildfires along the coast in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, is one of dozens of lightningcaused blazes that have erupted in the past few days across Northern California, overwhelming fire crews and catching some communities tragically off guard.
The blaze burned in various directions in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. By Wednesday evening, the northern perimeter of the fire threatened Pescadero and La Honda. Firefighters think the southern end of the blaze is pushing toward Felton, a small community in Santa Cruz County.
Due to the heavy smoke, aircraft carrying flame retardant and water are unable to operate, said Mark Brunton, a Cal Fire operations chief. Brunton said the top priority is to save lives.
“Because of the conditions we are facing, it’s really difficult for us to get a clear understanding of the exact push of the fire line,” said Brunton. “Due to the lack of our resources, to be able to actually physically get out there and recon those areas especially without that aircraft… it’s a little bit of a guessing game.”
Ian Larkin, Cal Fire’s unit chief for Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, said the firefight early Wednesday was complicated by a lack of resources, as crews were stretched thin across the state in the aftermath of the lightning storms from the weekend and Monday. Those complications continued throughout the day.
The inability to call in more help “hampered our efforts significantly,” Larkin said Wednesday morning, adding that the teams on hand have struggled to deal with embers being blown by heavy winds ahead of the main conflagration, which then spark new spot fires.
Residents expressed frustration at the limited response Wednesday morning.
“We haven’t seen a fire truck — it hasn’t even come up on this road there,” said Jeff Northam, 65, who, along with his wife, parked his Toyota RAV4 and Kia vehicles Wednesday morning along Highway 1.
Fewer than a dozen of his neighbors parked near him, all standing by the road in disbelief as they watched thick plumes of smoke spill out from the mountain across from them.
The neighbors evacuated their homes between 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday, residents told The Chronicle. McCargo said they received their first evacuation order at 10:45 p.m. after they had already left.
Northam, who returned Wednesday morning to survey the damage, said he believed his and his neighbors’ houses were reduced to ash. The smoke was “so thick,” he said, he couldn’t see past his house and it was “so hot you could boil water.”
Northam later delivered the grim news to his neighbors.
Evacuation centers were set up early Wednesday to help residents in both counties affected by the fires. On Wednesday morning at the San Mateo County side at Pescadero High School, the facility was primarily functioning as an information hub Wednesday morning, said Rita Mancera, executive director of the local nonprofit Puente de la Costa Sur.
Mancera said that by midmorning, 66 families, totaling 108 people, had come through the center staffed by Puente and the Red Cross. Officials secured hotels for 37 families in Half Moon Bay, and other families have traveled elsewhere to avoid staying in a shelter.
An evacuation center was also opened at Half Moon Bay High School at 1 Lewis Foster Drive. Santa Cruz County’s evacuation center was set up at the county fairgrounds at 2601 E. Lake Ave. in Watsonville.
Higher elevation areas, including those in the Santa Cruz Mountains, have been are higher risk amid the ongoing heat wave and parched conditions this week, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Gass said forecasters expect to see a cooldown on the coast Thursday and Friday, but it’s unlikely that reprieve will reach higher elevations.
“The real big concern is the dry conditions, along with the ongoing fires that are currently out there,” he said.
Gaby Lee, who lives near Pie Ranch not far from Año Nuevo
State Park, evacuated her small herb and flower farm Tuesday night. She returned about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday with the help of a California Highway Patrol officer, who escorted her so she could save some of her flowers, which are worth thousands of dollars.
The 27yearold placed most of her flowers in a shipping container and she put two boxes of blue larkspur in her trunk. She watched from the roadside as nearby farmers moved pipes “to irrigate the perimeter and wet everything down.”
Directly behind the farm, where people tried to save their harvests, thick, dark plumes of smoke filled the air above the hills.
“I’m just scared for what’s happening to my home, and watching the mountains burn and thinking about the animals that are out there and all of our structures,” Lee said. “I’m scared for landslides that are gonna come this winter. At the same time there’s nothing I can do ... it’s so out of my hands.”