Caldor Fire Evacuees Desperate For Answers On Return Home
SOMERSET (CBS13) — Caldor Fire evacuees in El Dorado County have learned it could be weeks before they find out what their homes look like.
"We hug, we cry, we give each other our love," said Janet Winters.
Four Corners in Somerset has become a space for support.
Many were there waiting to learn if their home is standing ins a community now left to just ash.
"You don't sleep you don't eat," said Tamara McVey.
She has parked there since Monday.
It's as close as she can get to her home in Grizzly Flats, just a few miles up the hill.
"My stomach just has been in knots for days," said McVey.
No one is allowed past the checkpoint. Law enforcement is stopping anyone in evacuation zones who is not clearly a firefighter or a first responder.
Tim Bell was desperate to get to his Grizzly Flats home, which is just six miles outside of where the fire hit. It's a place he's lived for forty years.
Cal Fire now says the 23,000 evacuees may have to wait another two weeks before areas under evacuation reopen.
Bell is getting desperate with a dog and two cats left behind with no food or water.
"We got animals. Two weeks by the time we get up there, they'll be dead," said Bell.
For evacuees to get through, Cal Fire says there can't be any fire in the immediate vicinity, utilities need to be turned back on, the terrain safe enough for drivers, and fallen tree and debris have to be cleared out.
It's a process evacuees worry could take months, not weeks, and they wonder what will be left.
"It's your whole life savings right there in the house," said Paul Kordik.
At 77, he's thinking about having to rebuild irreplaceable items.
"I've had stuff since I was 12 years old and that's in the house," said Kordik.
They're memories and mementos he fears will simply go up in smoke.
"I'm just afraid of losing everything," he said.
Cal Fire will release the total numbers of structures burned, then the county releases specifics to homeowners when it comes to their own property.