Two Years Ago Today I was Evacuated From the CALDOR Fire. I had reported that a fire had been called in and the Fire Agency was responding. It was late and as it was called in and being responded to I went to bed. Shortly after I dozed off I heard a LOUD pounding at my door. It was Ray Nutting, owner of the large ranch at the top end of Happy Valley Road. He said there was a fire and I had to go. I responded that it was called in and it was being taken care of.. He literally grabbed my shirt and pulled me to the edge of the deck so I could see the small ridge separating us from Grizzly Flats. I could see the flames cresting the ridge and the explosions that were Propane tanks blowing up.
I needed no more convincing that it was time to make an emergency evacuation!
I loaded the big car with vital papers, my wife and her senior infimed mother, the dogs, and the cats and drove down the mountain as fast as I could. I was bounced from the Diamond Springs Evac center so I went to a friend’s house in Pollock. Before everyone was out of the car we heard the Sheriff’s cars announcing an Evacuation of Pollock Pines. We got back in the car and evacuated again without hesitation.
Within hours I was reporting from an Evacuation center in Green Valley. As I watched over a few days of the PIO giving briefings I saw the “Fire Map” with the fire on the property I had left with nearly everything I owned.
It was on the Grizzly Flats side coming down Little Butte Peak onto the Southern edge of the property. It was on the property but did not cross over a National FOrest road that is on the property at the southernmost edge. I breathed a moment of relief. It was short lived!
24 hours later the update was that a strategic backburn fire to save Sly Park had crossed over the starting point with an unexpected wind shift. It was out of control. It was now burning Westward in the Camp Creek river ravine. A steep canyon heavily overgrown that bordered the Eastern side of the property that I lived on had and evacuated the night that Grizzly Flats was razed by the all-consuming inferno now called the Caldor Fire.
I could see from the fire map that the fire was burning on the Northern edge of the property. I was not able to get ahold of Ray Nutting to get any update. The next fire map update by the Sheriff’s PIO showed the fire had rounded the corner and was now burning on the Western Edge of the Ranch.
Before that part of the fire was in control a statement was issued that a Bulldozer fighting the fire had been “Burned Over” but that operator was not hurt. I could not get any information on the location or name of the bulldozer or operator. until I finally got home as the fire had moved East away from the Grizzly Flats area and past Sly Park. When I was finally allowed to repopulate I drove to the driveway of the ranch and saw the bulldozer parked there. The top half blacked by fire and smoke, the bottom unburned with the distinctive Yellow color still visible. It was one of Ray Nutting’s bulldozers, and he was operating them to keep the fire from burning onto the houses on the ranch.
He and his sons had stayed on the ranch to fight the fire in the Strong objections of the fire professionals on scene. He disregarded the fire agency’s demand and exercised his Constitutional right to stay and fight to save his ranch in ways the professional firefighters did not – against the odds and regardless of his own personal danger of harm. Although the fire had made inroads of three sides of the ranch he and the combined efforts of firefighters including many airdrops had saved any structures from burning.
The Ranch is a “Timber Ranch” meaning that the Trees are harvested as they reach maturity. Ray Nutting is a Logger. Part of Sustainable Logging is removing competitive brush that takes water and other resources from the growing trees. As a secondary benefit that means the brush that is called a “Ladder Fuel” for fires is removed, considerably reducing fire risks.
That was my subjective perspective.
At the time, and to this day there has been much criticism of State and Federal Agencies for refusing to go full-heartedly to the initial firefight when it was first reported. Our own fire chief that was first on scene, [about the time I went to bed that first night] was unable to deploy her crew up the canyon from the fire as it was on a single dead-end road that would put the crew directly in front of a intense fire climbing uphill at a fast rate and at an extreme temperature. She immediately called in for airsupport to stop the fire as it raced up the canyon. I did not know this so I stopped reporting on the fire at that time and went to bed. Her request for air support was refused!
It was a stunning refusal as the area was a topic of a study just a few years prior that Calfire and local agencies had participated in. It was a known area that if a fire started there it would almost certainly grow very fast and threaten Grizzly Flats within a short period of time. So a vigorous fight by air support was critical.
But that request for air support was denied!
As was predicted the fire exploded into a conflagration that soon burned Grizzly Flats without mercy. I was fortunate that when allowed to repopulate I came home to a home. In part because of fate that I was one short ridge parallel to Grizzly Flats. In part because I live on a sustainable logging ranch with underbrush removed, and low branches removed, and dead trees quickly removed. In part because of a stubborn land owner with experience and heavy equipment that simply refused to walk away leaving his fate in the hands of others. In part because of professional firefighters that by then had tremendous airsupport.
A matter of Objective perspective.
This is a story of sister fire of equal anger and destruction. One born shortly before the other and screaming angry when the other was born. Her name was Dixie. She was born on July 13, 2021. Caldor was born on August 14, 2021.
Dixie was born on Dixie street on the northern side of the Feather River Canyon in a remote area above Highway 70 and Cresta Dam, midway between Paradise and Belden. A PG&E equipment failure gave birth to her.
By August 6, it had grown to become the largest single (non-complex) wildfire in our state’s history. It was already a HUGE, angry, and destructive fire by August 14, 2021. All available Northern California, as well as Southern California resources were dedicated to fighting her on August 14, 2021. The Dixie Fire was raging that day and was 320,000 acres. Before it was contained, the Dixie burned 963,309 acres.
The fire damaged or destroyed several small towns or communities, including Greenville on August 4, Canyondam on August 5, and Warner Valley on August 12. Caldor was born on August 14, 2021. It destroyed 1,329 buildings. It cost $1.15 billion to fight.
All Hands available were fighting the Dixie fire – when on August 14, 2021 the Caldor fire started and was still just a brush fire. The CALDOR fire started at what was the height of the fight against the Dixie fire.
Before it was over the Caldor burned 221,835 acres. It burned down Grizzly Flats almost immediately after it started on August 14 and soon destroyed 1,003 buildings. The CALDOR fire cost $1.2 billion to fight.
Because of this timing and severity of the Dixie Fire the state fire authorities held air support fire fighting planes to fight the Dixie fire at its height when the Caldor fire had just started and was relatively small.
Very soon after the start of the CALDOR fire it had grown from a brush fire to a fire that had burned down Grizzly Flats. Then the State Fire suppression priorities changed and air support was shifted.
Who is to blame for the magnitude of the CALDOR fire? The blame must be shared.
Initially by the State’s and Fed’s failure to manage wildfire risks in lands they mange;
The time the CALDOR fire started;
The Location the CALDOR fire started;
The existing raging and historic size of the Dixie fire that was competing for dedicated resources;
The cause of ignition of the fires. One being accepted as negligent maintenance of equipment by PG&E. The other allegedly to be from negligent actions of a couple of men. Both accidental, but both avoidable.
In short, the blame is a matter of perspective.
Cris Alarcon.
