The skies over Davenport were thick with acrid brown smoke Thursday morning as a wildfire raged in the Santa Cruz Mountains around Bonny Doon. Dubbed the Lockheed fire, the blaze had torched more than 2,300 acres by midmorning after dry conditions caused what had been a relatively small fire on Wednesday to explode in size overnight. About 600 people living on Swanton Road, Warrella Truck Trail, Last Chance Road and Rancho del Oso were evacuated while more than 300 firefighters battled the flames. The fire threatened 250 houses and 25 businesses.
“Right now the Central Coast vegetation is very dry, and last night’s conditions made the fire grow significantly,” said Cal Fire Captain Julie Hutchinson at the fire team’s staging area near the CEMEX cement plant in Davenport. “We have no idea what caused it at this point.” She added that evacuations “have gone smoothly so far.” Story continues below slide show. Scroll to end of article for video clip.
Lucas Willhite and his 8-year-old daughter Chevelle were nearby at the Whale City Bakery Bar and Grill searching for Lucas’ mother, who had been evacuated Thursday morning. White and gray ash rained down on the bakery’s porch while Lucas explained that this fire had been a rude awakening for them all.
“My mom just moved to Swanton Road this past Saturday,” he said. “I’ve been calling all morning, but I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. I called in to take the day off work and came down here to see if I could find her. We’re really worried.”
Others like Katie Damon were the ones being evacuated. She said she and her family got the message to get out around midnight Thursday morning.
“It happened really fast,” said Damon. “There’s five of us in the house and we had to get everyone out really quickly. Hopefully they can get it under control.”
WAMM founder Valerie Corral, whose infamous marijuana farm is located off Swanton Road, telephoned from inside her home at about 10am to say she’s sticking it out, and actually sneaked past sheriffs deputies to make it back to her home yesterday evening. “It’s not that we’re risking our lives for the plants,” she said firmly. “I feel very protected and like we will weather this.” Still, she says most of her neighbors have evacuated, and the blaze is about a mile away from her home. “It’s raining ash,” she said. “It smells like you left your fireplace open in the house. It is so sick with smoke.”
In Davenport, Pacific Elementary School was opened as a disaster center by the Red Cross, but after only a few families sought aid there before finding a place with friends and family, the whole operation was centralized at Vintage Church on Mission Street in Santa Cruz. Diane Bridgeman, a Red Cross mental health coordinator, said so far a handful of people had stopped by the church to leave contact information and grab a bottle of water, but most were going about their day.
“We’ll probably be serving some food later,” she said. “This may turn into a shelter if the need arises.” At the time, only Last Chance Road resident Linda Lemaster was seeking shelter, listening to a little hand-crank radio on a cot. She said she left her home a little after 1am after throwing together a few possessions. “Out of my kitchen door the hill was framed in a wall of orange,” she said. “There was fire falling down the hill like volcano lava. It gave me goose bumps.” —With additional reporting by Jessica Lussenhop
