The mountain town sheltering Dixie fire refugees: ‘Each year we hold our breath’

By the time the Safeway parking lot in Quincy, California, began to fill with emergency vehicles and RVs carrying people planning to spend the night, Megan Bray had already stocked the shelves with extra Gatorade.

It wasn’t the first time a wildfire had descended on this northern California region and threatened the towns scattered through the forested mountainsides. Bray, the store director, knew first responders and anxious evacuees would need the extra electrolytes.

“This isn’t our first fire season so we are prepped and ready to go,” Bray said on Saturday. “Every year we are just holding our breath for when it’s going to start. And this year it started way sooner than we expected.”

Quincy is just south of the edges of the Dixie fire, the largest wildfire raging through California. Unlike the nearby town of Greenville, which was consumed by Dixie’s fast-moving flames, it was spared the onslaught experienced by its neighbors when the fire surged to the north and the east.

By Tuesday morning, the Dixie fire had swelled to more than 604,500 acres and was just 31% contained. Amid windy weather and with dry, hot conditions in the forecast, authorities issued new evacuation orders across the region. The flames are now approaching Susanville, home to 18,000 people and another town that, like Quincy, was considered a safe zone to house evacuees.

Nestled into the Sierra Nevada range, Quincy is about as picturesque as they come. With slightly fewer than 2,000 residents, the town each year welcomes thousands of tourists looking for a bite on its downtown drag after backpacking or en route to the popular High Sierra Music Festival.

Now, the recreation destination has become a refuge. The Plumas county