‘Raining ash’: Smoke from Creek Fire is yet another blow to Fresno-area restaurants
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From Fresno to Oakhurst and as far away as Lake Tahoe, smoke from the Creek Fire is swamping communities, dealing yet another blow to businesses like restaurants.
Businesses in Shaver Lake, Bass Lake, Auberry and North Fork are closed as the communities have evacuated after the fire started Friday near Big Creek. But even places not in the fire’s path are dealing with ripple effects of the fire and its smoke.
It’s a double whammy for many restaurants already coping with the coronavirus pandemic. For months, they’ve been unable to use their dining rooms, only seating customers outdoors.
Coarsegold/Oakhurst
Wild Fig Kitchen in Coarsegold was busy with Sunday brunch, its busiest day of the week made even busier by campers and tourists stopping for food on their way out of town. But when the smoke and ash got too heavy, owner Marc Neff decided to close the restaurant.
“It was just raining ash on the people around noon,” he said. “This is crazy, and we can’t use the inside, of course. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow.”
Workers posted a photo on Instagram of an outdoor table covered in flecks of ash.
Neff wanted to let his staff go home. Two of his workers, who live in Bass Lake, had already evacuated.
He was packing things up at his own home on Road 420 near North Fork, in case he needed to evacuate.
“It’s nuts, obviously, we’ve never seen anything like this year,” he said.
It was a similar story in Oakhurst, where South Gate Brewing Co. posted a photo from its parking lot of an eerie red glow of fire just over the mountain.
The brewery and restaurant closed Sunday, saying on its Facebook that it will stay closed indefinitely.
Its post said: “As the #CreekFire grows to over 140,000 acres, our prayers are with all of the firefighters and other first responders that are battling this enormous fire. We are also thinking about all of our neighbors that are being affected by this, including our South Gate team members.”
Although mountain communities are getting the worst of it, eateries in Fresno and Clovis were feeling the effects of the smoke this week too.
Fresno/Clovis
Sandy’s Country Junction in Clovis has added 10 tables to its existing outdoor patio since restaurants in Fresno County are not allowed to let people dine indoors due to COVID-19 restrictions.
But they were empty Tuesday.
“Today, we’re super slow, we don’t even need the extra tables,” said manager Nancy Cruz. “We usually are busy on Tuesday and and today we are not.”
Two Fresno Street Eats events with multiple food trucks were also postponed Sunday due to air quality and extreme heat.
Eastern Sierra/Bishop/Mammoth
The smoke from the Creek Fire blew east and north too, filtering into Mammoth Lakes, a popular tourist destination. The community has had smoke since the fire started, and occasional strong odors of smoke and falling ash, said Lara Kaylor, director of communications at Mammoth Lakes Tourism.
And the city of Bishop on Highway 395 was socked in with smoke too.
Although the community is a five-hour drive from Fresno because of the mountains, it’s only 47 miles as the crow flies from the fire. And much of the smoke blew right toward it over the weekend.
“it’s just smoke all around us,” said Debbie Ross, an office assistant at the busy Erick Schat’s Bakkery, a restaurant in Bishop.
“Normally even when we get some smoke, you can kinda see the outlines of the mountains,” she said. “You can’t even see the outlines of the mountains.”
Heavy smoke from the Creek Fire was reported as far away as Lake Tahoe too.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 12:59 PM with the headline "‘Raining ash’: Smoke from Creek Fire is yet another blow to Fresno-area restaurants."
