Colfax Hit With Three Wildfires In 24 Hours
COLFAX (CBS13) — After the River fire devastated Placer and Nevada counties, the Colfax area was hit with three more wildfires in the span of a day.
"I've had a fear of fire my whole life," said Britney Linn.
As of Wednesday, Linn has been forced to leave her home behind three times the previous 24 hours.
"I see the planes and I'm like 'Oh no.' Load up the dogs in the car, grab my important things and we started moving everything," she said after the third fire broke out on Wednesday morning.
Linn said she had just been finally allowed to return home before she was told to leave again for a second time.
"Last night, there was another fire," she said Wednesday.
Linn evacuations were ordered for all three fires.
"Sheriff's are flying in and out, lights and sirens huge planes flying over dropping retardant. They're like 'You've got to go.' Door-to-door evacuations," she said.
Linn said her fear is that the chaos in Colfax will wear off on residents.
"Eventually nobody's going to leave, like the boy who cried wolf," she said.
Placer County Sheriff's Lt. Nelson Resendes says officials don't order evacuations lightly.
"I understand the frustration with evacuations. Nobody wants to do it. It's cumbersome, it's an inconvenience but that's just the way it goes," he said.
Despite frustrating evacuations, Linn said her family is safe and they're happy to have a home to come back to because two months from now they've got something special planned.
"I'm going to get married—a wedding in October that we're having here at our property that hopefully doesn't burn down," Linn said.
Today's vegetation fire was put out quickly families are now back home. The Placer County Sheriff's Office said it understands the frustration but applauds the Colfax area for taking evacuation orders seriously. They say that kind of response can save lives.
Late Wednesday afternoon, evacuation orders were lifted for all evacuated residents.
