With Fire Season Getting Closer, Volcano Residents Worry As Major Evacuation Route Remains Closed

VOLCANO (CBS13) – People living in a slice of Amador County have a growing worry as California inches toward fire season. They've created defensible space around their homes. But now, a major evacuation route is closed again.

Laura and Vincent Spinale moved from the Bay Area to the community of Volcano five years ago looking for a slice of happiness in the foothills.

"When you move up here, you don't worry about the fire danger until you're up here," Vincent Spinale said.

The worries have heightened for the Spinales' now that a major fire evacuation route for residents of Amador County is closed again for repairs.

"It had a rock slide and it washed out half the road," Laura Spinale said. "They spent a ton of money fixing it one time and it lasted four months."

On upper Shake Ridge Road, you can see the problem is the road giving way down the mountainside. It also connects as the closest exit to Highway 88 during a fire emergency. Residents think they wouldn't even get there.

On a good day, it takes three minutes to travel 1.4 miles from the roadblock to Carson Pass or Highway 88.

"If there was a fire, there'd be a traffic jam you couldn't get out of," Laura Spinale said.

The county admits the repairs haven't gone well. They're working with engineers, but a permanent fix is a long way off – leaving many seniors concerned.

"We've got one of the most important roads we've got for escape if the fire is lower than us that's the only way out," said Lawrence Mann, another Volcano resident.

The Mann's moved up here 26 years ago from Antioch.

"This is paradise for us," Rosetta Mann said.

Thinking of this tragedy in paradise, they want county officials to move quickly.

"They need to open that road so we can get out of this place," Lawrence Mann said.

Amador County District 5 Supervisor Brian Oneto said the county is working with local partners to get the road reopened before fire season.