Diablo Grande residents face day of uncertainty as Canyon Zone Fire threat continues
The evolving threat of wildfires in Del Puerto Canyon continued to upend the lives of Diablo Grande residents, prompting many to worry about where to spend the night or get the medication they left behind.
Looking to retrieve essentials, some residents waited for escorts to temporarily reenter the community west of Patterson, only to hear Cal Fire downgraded the evacuation order to a warning Thursday afternoon.
By Saturday, the fire grew to 339,968 acres, making it the second largest in state history.
While many of the about 1,350 residents chose Thursday to return despite already booking hotel rooms, Cal Fire was still asking Diablo Grande to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice, said Jose Perez, president of the Diablo Grande Homeowners Association board. Back when the agency first issued the warning Monday, Perez said the board encouraged those with health problems to leave, but also fought misinformation on the community’s Nextdoor and Facebook pages.
“Sometimes people don’t really know what they’re talking about and people hear those comments and they kinda start panicking,” Perez said. “So we decided that I would ask one of our board members to start updating right off the firefighters’ command center information.”
Patricio Means, 75, along with his wife and son, were among those who evacuated the Canyon Zone Fire Monday night. They returned to Diablo Grande the next day, Means said, but drove to a doctor’s appointment Wednesday and hit the road closure on their way back. The family ended up staying in a Westley hotel and got escorted past blackened hills to grab medications about three hours before sheriff’s deputies allowed residents to return home.
“It’s really heartbreaking to see because it’s a beautiful area up there,” Means said. “But to see so much burnout on the road up there ... it’s not like anything I’ve seen before.”
As he waited for lunch at the Red Cross evacuation center at Creekside Middle School in Patterson, Means said he hopes the rainy season restores the scenery currently obscured by smoke and ash. But fellow resident Casper Williams, 23, worried about lodging for the night as he picked up bottled water from the center around noon Thursday.
Williams said his family of six felt like they were on their own about what to do next while waiting for updates. Many nearby hotels were booked, Williams said, and his family paid for a hotel in Tracy on Wednesday because they could not find anything closer.
“Everybody is just trying to figure out where to go now,” Williams said, adding that he left his contact information with the shelter.
Access to Diablo Grande remains restricted
In the early evening Thursday, security at Diablo Grande’s gates only let residents, not any delivery services or contractors, up the road. A Cal Fire crew set a backfire along a portion of the two-lane Diablo Grande Parkway, but let cars pass through.
As of Friday, wildfires had not reached any of the 650 houses, said Perez, who did not evacuate and helped patrol the community’s perimeter. Firefighter crews expanded firebreaks with bulldozers Wednesday night, Perez said, and kept watch until 4 or 5 a.m.
Much of the land surrounding the community has burned, Perez said, potentially hampering fire spread unless it comes from the south. Cal Fire urged those with pets and animals, plus those who require additional time to evacuate, to stay out of Diablo Grande.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 11:30 AM.
