VACAVILLE — Brandon Camber woke up around 2:30 a.m., jolted by a power outage that cut off his air conditioner. In the distance, he could hear the sirens.
Camber, technical sergeant at Travis Air Force Base, walked outside his home off English Hills Road and looked across the street to see his neighbor’s house on fire. He scrambled to get his wife, three children and two dogs out of the house and out of town.
“It’s crazy. I’m glad I woke up,” said Camber.
He and his family were among the thousands of Vacaville residents forced to flee their homes early Wednesday, as fires burning at Lake Hennessey and Lake Berryessa in Napa raced over Mount Vaca and blew into Vacaville. Neighborhoods on the west side of Interstate 80 from Allendale to north Vacaville and into Fairfield were evacuated, with thousands of homes threatened by the fast-moving blaze. Several residents interviewed said they did not receive an evacuation alert from county emergency operations.
The fires of the LNU Lightning Complex have burned about 46,225 acres in Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties as of Wednesday evening. By the afternoon, with the fire still 0 percent contained, parts of I-80 were closed when the flames jumped the major freeway. So far, at least 50 structures have been destroyed by the fire, although it is unknown how many of those were in Vacaville.
On English Hills and Pleasants Valley roads, dozens of homes were destroyed or damaged, alongside others that were untouched. Some structures burned to the ground, chimneys the only thing still standing amid piles of rubble and melted cars. Horses, goats and llamas wandered around bewildered, left behind by their owners in the scramble to get out of the area. Hot spots flickered around the area all day Wednesday, smoke billowing up around fallen utility poles and downed trees dotting the rural roads north of downtown Vacaville.
Around 11 a.m., Camber stood on Cantelow Road, as close as he could get to his home. He was sure the house is gone but could not see it from outside the fire zone.
Across town, in a WalMart parking lot, Taylor Craig sat on the steps of his Coleman RV, worried about his 11-acre ranch on Pleasants Valley Road. Around midnight, Craig watched the orange glow over the ridge. Fifteen minutes later, the fire had spread into his neighbor’s property, and he and his family ran for their lives. He did not have time to evacuate their goats, chickens, horses and llama, but a neighbor and friend tore through his place on a skid steer, breaking down fences to let the animals run free.
Craig wasn’t sure what state his property was in as of 9:30 a.m., but feared it was not good. Ricky Benson, a hand on the ranch, drove from his own home in Sacramento at about 1 a.m. to check on the property, but with flames whipping through the area and the heat so intense he could feel it from in his car, Benson wasn’t able to get as close as he’d liked, and eventually turned and fled.
Rattled awake by neighbors pounding on doors, approaching sirens, and power outages, residents fled in cars to evacuation centers; by morning, RVs and trailers filled the lots of drug stores, grocery stores and churches.
At the Ulatis Community Center parking lot, one of several Vacaville evacuation centers, Mason Isnor huddled with family outside a RV trailer. He left his North Park Street home in the early morning hours, as the fire burned on the nearby hills. He and others had run pounding on doors to alert neighbors.
“It was smoky, and ash was everywhere,” he said. “From our bedroom window we could see a red glow over the hills.”
His aunt, Katie Gibson, had been forced from her home in Villageande, along the Russian River, a few hours earlier, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, fleeing to her her other home in Vacaville, only to find herself in another evacuation zone. Her brother, Tim Carroll, lost his Paradise home in the 2018 Camp Fire. More than 150 of her colleagues at Kaiser in Santa Rosa lost homes in the Tubbs Fire.
“The PTSD we have around fires now is just horrific, especially when you are trying to make sure your family is safe,” Gibson said. “When is it enough? Makes you wonder.”
Vacaville has not had a devastating fire since “Black Thursday” in 1965. Fires between Dixon and Peabody and Vanden roads were raging, when a power line fell, igniting dry grass in the English Hills. Flames gobbled up 13 homes and 45 other structures, killed an unknown number of cattle, sheep and horses, burned 6,588 acres, and damaged Travis Air Force Base.
Inside the Ulatis Community Center, Shawnee Whaley was wrapped in a Red Cross blanket. A phone call had woken her at around 3:30 a.m. Confused, she rejected the friend’s phone call but then noticed her power was out.
When she opened the front door of her home on the 700 block of Shady Glen, she was blinded by glowing thick smoke. She ran across the street to wake her mother and their 83-year-old neighbor.
“I could literally see the flames. I was frantic,” Whaley said. “I grabbed an empty purse, my cell phone, car keys and shoes.” As they drove toward Food Fair along Orchard Street, she could hear police on loudspeakers calling for an evacuation.
Hours later, she and other evacuees waited for news. People watched Gov. Gavin Newsom on a projector screen provide updates on power outages and wildfires.
“We are in our PJs,” Whaley said. “I want to know if I still have a home, if my animals are still alive, if my neighbors’ houses are still there.”
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Author: David DeBolt, Annie Sciacca