Crozier Fire evacuee: ‘We live in the forest, and it’s beautiful, but it’s scary’

Eighty-one-year-old Beverly Stevens was fast asleep in her home in Swansboro Country, a rural community north of Placerville, when local authorities came knocking at her door at approximately 2 a.m. She learned that a fire had been spreading through the nearby Eldorado National Forest for over half an hour and was ordered to evacuate immediately.

Outside of her home, Stevens saw white smoke from the Crozier Fire rising from the woods before she caught a ride with law enforcement officers to the nearby El Dorado County fire station. She left the key to her property with a neighbor who declined to evacuate at the time, arranging for him to care for her three cats and horse. In the early hours of the morning, she moved to a temporary evacuation point at the El Dorado County Library in Placerville, where she has remained for hours.

Around 2 p.m., the Silver Fire fire broke out in the county, prompting more evacuations and visitors to the library. According to El Dorado County public information officer Carla Hass, 42 people passed through the temporary shelter on Wednesday, stopping by for pizza, snacks, water and a place to sit and swap information with neighbors throughout the day. The Silver Fire has spread to about 35 acres and is 35% contained, and the Crozier Fire has spread to 245 acres and is 5% contained, Cal Fire reported. The Crozier Fire is moving north and deeper into the Eldorado National Forest, but has not spread further in the direction of the residential areas currently under evacuation orders. Though Stevens said she believes her home will be okay, she is still worried about the possibility of damage to her property and pets.

“I don’t want to lose my house. My late mother had really nice, beautiful furniture, and I don’t want to lose all that furniture. My cats — I can’t lose my Sunny, my orange cat, he’s my buddy,” Stevens said. “I’ve never evacuated before.”

Cal Fire has not yet reported any injuries or harm to structures in the area.

In the afternoon, El Dorado County officials announced that overnight shelter would be available for evacuees at the Cameron Park Community Services District center located at 2205 Country Club Drive.

The announcement of overnight shelter provided some relief to Swansboro residents who were left uncertain about places to sleep until this afternoon. Kristen Gardner, who rounded up — in under and hour — the four children, two dogs, one cat, one parakeet and three other adults living on her family property for evacuation, considered sleeping in the car with her husband if shelter wasn’t made available. As Gardner waited for news about shelter options in the library’s lobby area, she expressed relief that the children in her family were able to evacuate to Grass Valley.

“We live in the forest, and it’s beautiful, but it’s scary,” Gardner said. “We’re all just hoping for the best and trying to stay comfortable. We just want to go home as soon as possible.”

Though the fire has remained mostly uncontained, evacuated residents sitting together in a meeting room at the library expressed gratitude towards the fire department’s rapid and “aggressive” response. Evacuee Nancy Flanagan, who previously worked as a firefighter, said that the department mainly comprises volunteers dedicated to serving their neighbors. She said that shortly before the Crozier Fire was set around 1:20 a.m., her husband had driven by a small fire that the local firefighters promptly put out.

Residents said that though homes in Swansboro are spread out across the region, with most people living on multiple acres of land, the community is incredibly tight-knit. They praised their community’s resilience in the face of challenges like the fire, including neighbors who stepped in to give each other rides, knock on neighbors’ doors and rouse each other when they received text alerts from local authorities in the wee hours of the morning.

“Because we’re so far out, all we can depend on is each other,” Flanagan said. “It’s not the same anywhere else. We all watch each other, even if we don’t like each other — it’s really unique. It’s very weird.”

Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire.

This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 7:02 PM.