Posted: 9:34 am Wednesday, Sep. 02, 2009

Updated: 11:30 am Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010

Auburn area fire destroys 20-plus homes and businesses

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A wind-whipped fire Sunday destroyed more than 20 homes and businesses and forced hundreds to head to shelters, as it scorched and hopscotched through wooded neighborhoods at the north edge of Auburn.

The fire left entire cul-de-sacs with nothing but smoldering hulls where once houses valued between $250,000 and $400,000 stood.

Fire officials Sunday afternoon activated an automated calling system – "reverse 911" – and spread the word to residents near Highway 49 to evacuate from the inferno, which was named the 49 fire. They quickly opened an evacuation center at Rock Creek Elementary School on Bell Road and an animal evacuation site at the Dewitt Center, both in Auburn.

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.

Some residents got the word, however, from others in their neighborhoods.

"I was napping when someone banged on my door and said there was a fire," said David Hall, 59, a resident of Shale Ridge Lane.

The fire had come to within 15 feet of the fourplex where he lived. So he left his unit in a hurry, escaping with no personal items.

The air was so smoky it was difficult to see, Hall said as he stood outside the Rock Creek evacuation center with another evacuee.

Lynn and Fred Ramirez, both in their early 50s, were on their way to Stanford Hospital for her scheduled surgery when their daughter called to alert them that the fire was nearing the couple's home.

Jennifer Ramirez, 31, called from the couple's Greenstone Court home in Auburn, where she and boyfriend James Wright were house-sitting. The big question: What should they take – besides dachshunds Molly and Doug?

Take the canvas bag with all important papers and documents. Everything else could go, Lynn Ramirez answered.

There was no time to waste.

Initially, Wright said, he merely smelled smoke. Then he heard sirens, and neighbors were gathering outside their homes on the court. Suddenly, Wright said, "The house at the end of the court caught fire and everybody started yelling that it's time to go."

Around 8 p.m., after reuniting at the evacuation center, the family learned that the fire had spared their home.

"There will be no power for 24 hours. But I don't care; we have a home," said Fred Ramirez with obvious joy and relief.

PG&E reported 3,700 homes were without power Sunday night because of the fires. By 9 p.m., the fire was 50 percent contained, said Tim Arndt, spokesman for Placer County.

Verna Root, 63, was jarred when she briefly couldn't find her mother, Ida Manes, 91, who is losing her eyesight.

Root said she had stopped at her mother's home in the Elder's Senior Citizens Mobile Home Park south of Dry Creek Road to make her mother lunch.

After driving away, she saw the smoke and firetrucks. But when she backtracked to get her mother, the roadway was blocked. She drove a back way instead. When she arrived at the home, her mother was gone and the front door was unlocked.

An officer called her soon after to tell her that her mother was safe at a shelter.

"A neighbor just put her in her car, swooped her up, and didn't even lock up," Root said.

The first center filled quickly, and authorities opened Auburn Elementary School on Lariat Ranch Road to overflow evacuees.

Patrick Bertholf, a chaplain of the Placer County Sheriff's Department, was there. By early evening he had counseled families who lost homes.

"It's not like you say a magic sentence and they are all better," the chaplain said. "You talk with them and you share with them."

They all seemed happy to be alive, he said, although they were shaky and stressed.

Bertholf had also given the shoes off his feet to a woman looking for her husband. The man, John Droghei, had gone to help a retired sheriff's deputy evacuate and had not been seen since. "She was walking around barefoot like a duck on a hot plate," Bertholf said.

Bob Vaughen, who works at Farmer's Insurance with Droghei, was helping in the search.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of residents appeared at the Auburn Elementary evacuation center offering food, but were turned away.

"Everyone wants to help but they don't know where to go," Bertholf lamented, citing the lack of organized collections.

Highway 49 was closed between Bell and Dry Creek roads, said Mary Welna, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Stretches of Highway 49 and other roads near the scene of the worst destruction were to remain closed all night. Caltrans was urging commuters to find alternate routes to work today.

Welna had no projection for full containment of the fire, which earlier was reported to be nearly 500 acres but later was determined to be about 275 acres.

But Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire spokesman, reported prog-ress. "We've stopped the forward progression of the fire. Now crews are working on the fire's perimeter and putting out the hot spots that remain burning."

No cause was known for the fire, which broke out around 2 p.m.

Regional fire dispatchers received a call from Cal Fire around 3:30 p.m. requesting additional support to fight the fire. Among those responding were 10 Sacramento area fire engines, according to Capt. Jim Doucette of the Sacramento Fire Department.


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