Evacuate or stay? SCU Lightning Complex forces Del Puerto Canyon residents to decide
When deputies told Rhonda Stoppe the wildfire was approaching her Del Puerto Canyon home of 30 years Monday, she and her husband evacuated.
Since then, Stoppe, staying with family in Patterson, has watched fires surround their 80-acre ranch on Cal Fire’s maps of the Santa Clara Unit Lightning Complex, which has burned 85,000 acres as of Wednesday morning.
“I have this strange sorrow because it’s the house I raised all my children in,” Stoppe said. “We have 13 grandchildren so it’s like the big family farm that everybody comes home to ... but it’s just stuff. If we can get our family out and everybody’s not hurt and we’re OK, it’s just stuff and we can always rebuild.”
Stoppe only had time to pack photo albums, external hard drives and materials for her author and speaker career as her husband gathered important paperwork and some livestock.
The wildfire marks the fourth time they have evacuated their home, Stoppe said, so they knew what to do, even though their power went out after a lightning storm Sunday. The coronavirus pandemic didn’t alter her plans either, Stoppe said, considering she has maintained a quarantine pod with her daughters and grandchildren in Patterson.
But not everyone in the Lightning Complex’s potential path has plans to shelter with family. Shahram Khoshyoom, a resident of the Diablo Grande community in southwestern Stanislaus County, said Wednesday morning that he doesn’t know where to go if the fire draws closer.
His family lives outside the United States and Khoshyoom said the sheriff’s deputy who warned him to leave did not give any shelter suggestions. The Red Cross closed a temporary evacuation center at Creekside Middle School in Patterson on Monday night because no families came, but Cal Fire announced its reopening at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Khoshyoom estimated 40% of his neighbors also chose to wait, judging by the lights he saw on during a drive last night and said his home of 10 years contains everything he has worked for in 100 hours a week as a caregiver.
“If there’s an emergency, I’ll leave the house,” Khoshyoom said.
Newman man evacuates mom, returns to protect house
Meanwhile, Newman resident Casey Graham decided his 75-year-old mother living alone farther west in the fire zone needed to leave. On Monday afternoon Graham drove down Del Puerto Canyon Road to the San Antonio Valley house he grew up in, then guided his mother to his sister’s place in Modesto.
“We had to move a couple of trees out of the road and clear the roadway for her because she was following us in her car,” Graham said, adding that there were flames on both sides of the road at times.
That night, Graham returned to the house and tried to protect it from the fire by setting up sprinklers on the roof. On Tuesday, he checked on a few neighbors and their ranches, including Rhonda Stoppe’s husband, whom she said returned to try to save more livestock. Stoppe praised Graham’s efforts and expressed gratitude for offers of help from other neighbors, including those who know her husband as a pastor at First Baptist Church in Patterson.
“It’s a great, loving community of people,” Stoppe said of the Del Puerto Canyon area. “When things like this happen they look out for each other.”
A former volunteer firefighter, Graham said he hopes to see more firefighting resources such as air support and bulldozers to contain the fire, the former of which he did not spot until Tuesday afternoon.
As of Wednesday morning, Cal Fire said 578 firefighters, three helicopters, nine dozers, three water tenders and 25 engines were assigned to the Lightning Complex, which has spread across Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Joaquin and Stanislaus county lines.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 2:16 PM.
