Though Creek Fire continues to burn, now at 166,965 acres, can residents return home?

Expecting a quick return to your homes after evacuating to avoid the massive wildfire burning along the border of two central San Joaquin Valley counties?

The answer remains a definitive: Don’t.

Officials from Fresno and Madera counties continue to urge evacuees “to be patient.”

“It’s going to be a couple of weeks,” Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Pursell said Wednesday night at the latest nightly virtual briefing on the Creek Fire. “We want you to be able to get you back to your homes. But we want to make sure that it’s safe.”

In its most recent update provided at 7:30 p.m., Cal Fire reported the Creek Fire remained at 0% containment and had burned 166,965 acres.

But with the blaze’s growth appearing to slow for a second straight day — an increase of about 4,000 acres after increasing by roughly 20,000 acres and 90,000 acres the previous two days — some residents who were evacuated might naturally began to wonder when they can go home.

At least to assess the condition of their property, if not move back in completely.

But officials advised that before residents would be allowed back, many roads would need to be cleared of fallen or falling trees, downed power lines and other large debris.

Roadblocks are in place and residents are expected to obey and not go past them, officials said.

And even after roads are cleared, various utility companies will need to go in and assess what needs to be done to restore their respective services. Consider it a process that will take a couple of weeks, rather than days.

“We can’t wait until you can get back to your homes,” said Zack Zamudio of the Madera County Sheriff’s Department. “But we don’t have a time when that’ll be.

“When it is safe, we’ll allow you to go back home. We want to make sure your safety ... is 100 % before re-entering.”

Evacuees should follow the social media accounts of local law-enforcement agencies, officials said, and also look for word in traditional news media and on the radio to learn when they’ll be allowed to return home.

“That’s going to be a very slow, gradual process — community by community, ” Pursell said of residents returning. “It’s going to take a while.”

Is my home damaged or destroyed?

Officials said they regularly receive questions about the condition of specific properties and residences.

But with the massive fire still very much active, there simply isn’t the conditions nor the manpower to check on and answer each inquiry.

“We want to get you that information,” Pursell said. “We’re trying to get that information.

“The reality is, we’re in a triage stage. We’re not in position to check on each individual residence.”

Who’s watching my home?

In both Fresno and Madera counties, deputies are patrolling evacuation zones looking for any suspicious activity.

‘We understand that you had to walk away from your home,” Pursell said. “When deputies are not doing evacuations, they’re out patrolling.”

Fresno County has a force of 150 helping out on the patrol

Madera County’s force is 100, “working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”.

“Your homes are being protected,” Zamudio said.

Assessing the damage

Because of the number of fires happening along the West Coast, including more than two dozen major wildland or multi-fire “complex” fires in California, Cal Fire is limited to eight damage-inspection teams in the field for the Creek Fire.

“We were hoping to have 10,” said Nick Truax, a Cal Fire incident commander, who added that 51 new fires popped up in California on Tuesday.

There are roughly 1,300 firefighters on the line in Fresno and Madera counties.

“This fire, under normal conditions,” Truax said, “we would probably have 3,000 to 4,500.

Truax said about 50% of the homes in Fresno County and 30% in Madera County that were affected by the Creek Fire had been evaluated via a “windshield survey.”

“When I say (the percentages), it’s the areas that we can get into,” Truax said. “There are a lot of roads out there that are just blocked.”

A windshield survey is essentially a guesstimate of how many homes and other buildings have survived or been damaged or destroyed.

It’s at times difficult to distinguish from the concrete slab that remains whether it was a shed or home or business. Property lines blur with fences gone.

Estimates are that at least 360 structures, including homes, businesses and minor buildings, have been destoryed or sustained some sort of damage, Truax said Wednesday.

This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 8:23 PM with the headline "Though Creek Fire continues to burn, now at 166,965 acres, can residents return home?."