San Bernardino County woman describes her escape from the Line Fire

After nearly a week of nonstop firefighting through record-breaking heat, authorities have started to survey the damage the 36,000-acre Line Fire caused.

At its peak, the destructive fire threatened about 65,600 structures and forced thousands of people in the San Bernardino Mountains to evacuate, including Brooke Palenchar.   

"I got a really bad feeling on Friday that it was just going to get us," she said. 

Palenchar, her kids and her husband, who is battling cancer, evacuated from their Running Springs home on Saturday. At the time, the fire had burned roughly 3,000 acres.

"Saturday, they had posted the evacuation warning, and at that time, we were worried but kind of hopeful because the winds were going a different direction, not towards Big Bear," she said.

By the afternoon, Palenchar could see the flames from her front door as it chewed through 4,000 more acres during its march toward the mountain town. She remembered the heat of the distant flames warming the air and ash falling around her as aircraft dropped retardant near her home. 

"Within a couple of hours, it was go time," Palenchar said. 

With a mental list of the belongings to take with them, Palenchar and her family rushed to pack everything they could into four plastic storage bins. Inside were albums filled with baby photos of her nine children and her grandmother's chip bowl, which had been a family heirloom for decades. 

"We grabbed everything we could in two hours and left," Palenchar said. 

She wished she had more time to grab a ladder and crawl into her attic to grab her own baby pictures and her grandmother's jewelry. 

As her family left, Palenchar said goodbye to her home after getting a strange feeling that it would be the last time she saw it standing. 

"When we left I was able to run through and touch my walls and thank my home for so much love that it held and for all the good memories," she said.

While her family bounced from different friends' and relatives' homes, Palenchar's neighbors who stayed in Running Springs updated her on the fire. They told her the flames reached her backyard.

Despite firefighters' best efforts, about an hour later, the fire had burned down her home.

"Everything else is gone. It's just gone. That's it," Palenchar said as she cried.  "There wasn't anything left and it was just down to the ground." 

After receiving the news that her home was gone, she turned on the TV and saw firefighters putting out the flames outside of the wreckage. 

"My world just stopped and everything got small," Palenchar said. "To see my chimney standing there and the edge of our deck ... It's insane."

Despite the pain from losing her home, she was grateful her family survived.

"We are very, very thankful for the firefighters," Palenchar said. "Everyone's life is much more important than our things."

According to Cal Fire, the blaze is an estimated 36,481 acres and 18% contained as of Wednesday morning, making it the fifth-largest fire in California so far this year. While unsure exactly how many homes were destroyed, Sheriff Shannon Dicus said during a Wednesday press conference that Line Fire destroyed some structures.

As Palenchar shares a living room with her nine children, she couldn't help but think about how things could have been different if she had an hour longer. 

"I have nothing, no memories," she said as she cried. "I wish I would've been able to have one more hour and a ladder."