Gerald Jesionka, 78, sits in a Red Cross shelter set up in an elementary school gym Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in Mohave Valley, Ariz.. Jesionka said he escaped the Willow Fire with only his mother’s ashes and his pit bull Baby. “It looked like the end of the world, ” he said.
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015 | 2 a.m.
MOHAVE VALLEY, Ariz. — Looking out from Fire Station 81 in Mohave Valley, there’s barely any smoke in the air Monday morning from the fire that caused about 850 residences to be evacuated over the weekend.
Many residents of the area, located about 20 miles south of Laughlin, clustered in and around the station Monday to share stories, get information and be among friends.
Some sat on the roofs of their homes Saturday and took in the approaching fire, which is believed to have been sparked by a lightning strike. Dark clouds of smoke whirled like tornadoes, and the glow of the sun could be seen peeking out behind the smoke and flames.
At the fire station, residents who talked about the fire almost always had pictures.
"Here's our house going up," said 61-year-old Terry King, who has lived in the area for 17 years.
King said he began loading his important documents, rifles, generator, clothes and other possessions as soon as he and his wife saw the smoke Saturday morning.
"My wife was looking out the kitchen window, and she saw this brown cloud, and she says, 'Oh my gosh, it's a dust devil coming right at us.'"
What she thought to be a dust devil was actually the rapidly moving Willow Fire, which affected nearly 7,000 acres of land near the Arizona border over the weekend.
Terry King reflects on the damage inflicted by the Willow Fire during an interview in the lobby of the Mohave Valley Fire Station 81 in Mohave Valley, Ariz. Monday, Aug. 10, 2015. King's home was among eleven homes reported to have been destroyed in the Willow Fire.
The fire, which spread in a mosaic pattern with some land burning and surrounding parts untouched, was estimated to affect about 6,000 acres as of Monday night, according to the incident management team in charge of fighting the fire.
Fire crews estimate 11 homes burned. Damage to numerous trailers, RVs and other structures has not yet been assessed.
About 75 homes remained evacuated through Tuesday morning in the Topock Lake Rancheros subdivision, where the damaged homes are located.
King lives in that area, as does 55-year-old Della Ward, whose home is about a block away.
Ward, who has lived in the area her entire life, said she was too worried about her animals to grab any important papers. She saved her goat, three chickens, three cockatiels, two snakes, and a number of dogs and pot-bellied pigs. She had to leave behind one duck and three pigs.
In the fire station, she and King compare photos and stories.
Both of their homes were destroyed by the fire, and friends have offered them places to stay.
The Willow Fire is shown approaching Terry King’s property in Mohave Valley, Ariz. on Saturday. His home was one of the homes that was destroyed.
"We had a house offered to us, but it's over there where they're still evacuating people," Ward said.
Their families are taken care of for now, and Ward said she’s already in the process of picking out a new home.
Still, she’s wondering when they’ll let her see the damage herself.
King’s anxious to get back too. He’s seen pictures of the area after he left, and it looks like a gazebo and some trees might still be standing on his property. He knows his home won’t be what it was.
“You still have that in your mind until you see it’s gone,” he said, “then that reality sets in: Oh, there’s not going to be anything to come back to.”
•••
Alan Sinclair, incident commander, explains that the fire was still being referred to as 0 percent contained during a press briefing Monday morning.
The containment number rose to 10 percent by about 10 a.m., and by about 7:45 p.m. Monday, it was 40 percent contained, according to the incident management team.
The areas of Tangerine Terrace, Arizona Village, Aqua View, Delta City, Marina Coves and Riverview Terrace were no longer under evacuation orders, Sinclair said.
Residents of Topock Lake Rancheros still have to wait, the management team announced about 3 p.m. at a public meeting.
They’ll be allowed back in at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
While some in the crowd thank the fire management team for their help, others are upset, asking why firefighters hadn’t evacuated them earlier or why there weren’t additional precautions in place to prevent fires.
“It came right at us because there was no firebreak behind our homes,” Ward said.
•••
Inside the American Red Cross shelter, located at Mohave Valley Elementary School, stacks of water bottles fill the area near the entryway, and volunteers sit, ready to lend a helping hand. It's the afternoon and only a few people are inside, lying on cots or sitting at tables covered with piles of clothes, toiletries and snacks.
Alan Sinclair, incident commander for Southwest Area Incident Management Team 3, and Mohave Valley Fire Department Division Chief Harley Harmon give a media briefing on the Willow Fire at Mohave Valley Fire Station 81 in Mohave Valley, Ariz. Monday, Aug. 10, 2015. Eleven homes are reported to have been destroyed in the blaze.
The shelter has 70 cots set out, and 21 people stayed there Sunday night, according to Diana Rodriguez-Beaugrand, a spokeswoman for the Greater Phoenix chapter of the Red Cross.
Gerald Jesionka, 78, says he was working on his truck when the authorities neared his home and told him to evacuate. He didn't know why.
"Then I turned around and I saw the sky, and my gosh it's spooky," said Jesionka, who has lived in the area about 15 years.
His pit bull named Baby and his mother’s ashes were the two things he thought to take with him, he said.
Baby is in an animal shelter next door being run by the Western Arizona Humane Society as Jesionka stays at the Red Cross shelter.
Baby is surrounded by 11 other pets who were placed there as their evacuated owners looked for other arrangements. Jesionka didn't have his medications when he arrived, so a nurse at the shelter went out and brought him some.
His home hasn’t been damaged, but he’ll be staying at the shelter until he can go out to take a look at the property.
Even two days after the fire, he says, the image is still clear in his mind. "It looked like the end of the world.”
Displaced residents listen to Fire Marshal Don Gibson, right, during a public meeting on the Willow Fire at Mohave Valley Fire Station 81 in Mohave Valley, Ariz. Monday, Aug. 10, 2015. Eleven homes are reported to have been destroyed in the blaze.
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