Survivor of Northern California's Mosquito Fire still has "nightmares about burning" 2 years later
GEORGETOWN — El Dorado and Placer County communities continue to recover two years after the Mosquito Fire burned more than 76,000 acres.
The fire started on September 6, 2022, destroying more than 70 homes and damaging 13 others.
Paul Decker has owned property on Volcanoville Road for 19 years. Before the Mosquito Fire, he and his wife lived there part-time in a trailer.
They also had tiny homes on the property and shipping containers with the plan of eventually building a dream home.
"This was always like my happy spot. This is the place I emotionally feel like I'm at home and I can't come up here with my wife anymore," Decker said.
Decker said he had many life-long belongings in the shipping containers. The trailer and tiny homes survived the fire, but many items you can't put a price on did not.
"This was my dining room set before I got married. There's nothing left. It's a 1950s dining set," Decker said.
Also among the items was a car from his uncle, who died in the Camp Fire.
Decker said his trailer was insured, but nothing else was.
"It was Sunday morning two years ago today that we were watching CBS News in the morning where the camera was right on our property," Decker said on Monday.
He said he still goes up to the property periodically to maintain it but his wife has only been up there three times in the past two years.
"Every time she comes up here, she just cries the whole time she's here because this is what she sees, all the burnt trees," Decker said.
Decker said although progress has been made, it often feels like they are a part of the "forgotten fire," as they still have a long way to go.
"I don't even know what the plan is. It's been two years and I've been trying to do everything I possibly can to make it nice up here," Decker said.
Despite doing everything he can, he still feels like the bad dream isn't over yet.
"I still have nightmares about burning. I wasn't here when it burned. I left the day before the fire started," Decker said. "But to this day, I still have nightmares about the burning."