Vacaville Residents Wait To Return Home After Not Seeing Homes After Evacuation
VACAVILLE (CBS13) – There are always things that people will miss that are lost in any fire.
"I'll miss my photos, some of the gifts my kids made as children and the cats," Chris Bandy, who lost his home in the LNU Fire, said. "A friend of mine went up yesterday. I don't know how she got up there. She went up to save my cats; she couldn't find them. Took some photos and the house is gone."
Bandy found out the flames were rolling towards his home while he was on shift at Kaiser Vacaville.
He has yet to see the damage in person as he waited in a Lowe's parking lot planning his next steps. He said he knows his friends have his back.
"Within hours, I had 20 places I could stay. You know, my own room in all of my friends' homes. Just the outreach there," Bandy said.
They're also reaching out to Bandy to help him find anything left standing from the fire.
He hopes to find those old gifts and his 1985 class ring from West Point.
CBS13 asked the Army and Air Force Reserve veteran what it would mean to find a piece of his past amid the rubble. It was a moment that choked up this man who said material things can be replaced.
"I don't know. Ugh, I don't want to think about that," Bandy said.
There are others who hadn't been back home since evacuating.
Devon Hawkins and her mother are staying at a hotel as crews contain the flames in the area. Her dad and brother stayed behind to fight the fire and create fire lines to help save their home.
She hasn't been back, not knowing how home looks after evacuating.
"I'm just going to be grateful that it's still there and that, you know, my story is one of inconvenience and not loss," Hawkins said. "I have a friend that did lose everything so it's terrifying to see all of that."
Some are also looking on the brighter side as people settle in at the Lowe's parking lot in Vacaville.
Geno Angelone was staying on his friend's property when fiery chaos came knocking at one o'clock in the morning.
"They're rough. I mean, we have our trailer. We have good friends and family, and we still have our jobs and we got our health," Angelone said. "We saw the flames jump from the ridge to 100 feet from our trailer and a couple of their neighbors. And, we managed to get out."
Angelone said their friend and his brother stayed behind to save his friend's house.
He said he hasn't been back after evacuating and has mixed emotions wondering what the land looks like.
But he knows land is just that – land.
"A lot of sadness, but the fact that nobody died is the best part of all," Angelone said.
