After thousands evacuated, Yuba County’s Willow Fire seems to come under control
The Willow Fire flared dramatically overnight, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 Yuba County residents, before smokey conditions and cooling weather helped tamp down the blaze midday Wednesday.
The fire held steady at 1,300 acres at 2 p.m. Wednesday said Steve Mueller, a battalion chief with CalFire. Crews were still defending defending homes and conducting damage assessments in Loma Rica, a Census-designated area of Yuba County.
“There were structures lost,” he said.
Calm winds and — weirdly enough — shade from other major fires in the area helped firefighters gain the upper hand, Mueller said.
Many of the structures lost appeared to have been down Skyview Court, a gravel path off Willow Glenn Road that twists up a hill with views of Collins Lake. Fire raced across the ridge and destroyed several buildings and vehicles overnight, with many still smoldering midday.
The fire was estimated at 300 acres at 4 a.m. The Yuba County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation order overnight for the entire Loma Rica community, where about 3,000 people live, and numerous road closures. Detailed evacuation and closure updates can be found on the sheriff’s Facebook page.
Wind dies down, ‘I praised the Lord’
The main road that cuts through Loma Rica was all but deserted and eerily calm under a thick haze by noon Wednesday. It was a very different scene from just a few hours earlier, said Angela Roubal, a clerk at Gold Eagle Market on the edge of the road block at Smith Road. When she got to work shortly before 7 a.m. evacuees who were chased from their homes packed the parking lot, some sleeping and others anxiously waiting for supplies.
“A lot of people were confused,” Roubal said between ringing up a customer’s cases of bottled water and giving someone else a map of the area.
She said her husband woke her up about 1:30 a.m. when law enforcement came to her door and warned them about the Willow Fire. She said she wouldn’t evacuate then, but stayed up and kept watch of the area ridge lines. It was burning close to the 2017 Cascade Fire, which burned across her property but spared her home.
The difference this time: she noticed the wind died down significantly after law enforcement made the order.
“I praised the Lord,” she said.
At noon, the sign that says “DELI” barely flapped in the breeze. The shop planned to stay open all day.
Evacuating mom, watching the weather
Kim Hobbs, who owns Pizza Round-Up on Loma Rica Road, said around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday she noticed an ominous glow in the night sky from the second-story balcony of her home in Browns Valley, about six miles south of Loma Rica. Hobbs saw other residents loading up animals and evacuating the area in the middle of the night as she drove to Loma Rica to evacuate her 79-year-old mother, whose medical needs include the use of oxygen.
Hobbs returned to Loma Rica on Wednesday morning to tend to her business. She was working frantically around 10:30 a.m. to set up a generator to preserve what little food she had in her freezers. Hobbs said the fire was three to four miles away, noting the air was extremely smoky but winds were calm.
“I feel safe right now,” Hobbs said. “There are no winds. I’m hoping (firefighters) can get some airstrikes on it. Things are pretty calm right now, but last night was a little nerve-wracking.”
Hobbs couldn’t help but recall the Cascade Fire, a 2017 wildfire that killed four people and scorched nearly 10,000 acres, sparing Hobbs’ business but destroying the home she had on the same property.
“That fire came whipping through and it took life, so I’m worried,” Hobbs said. “I think my worries would be for our community. If another fire like that came through it would be devastating. I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t come back.”
Yuba evacuation advisories
Yuba officials added a voluntary evacuation advisory for the area north of Marysville Road between the towns of Oregon House and Dobbins around 10:30 a.m. The existing mandatory order in Loma Rica remained in place as of that time.
Loma Rica is about 15 miles northeast of Marysville, a few miles off of Highway 20 at Browns Valley.
The fire incident is separate from the Bear Fire, which is also forcing evacuation orders and warnings in Yuba County, closer to the Butte and Plumas county lines a few miles away. The Sheriff’s Office says the voluntary order near Oregon House and Dobbins is due to the threat from both of those fires.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 7:17 AM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated in parts the Willow Fire was in Yolo County. It is in Yuba County. Additionally, the story incorrectly stated that 44 people died in the Cascade Fire. Four people were killed in that fire.
