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C a l i f o r n i a ’ s O l d e s t N e w s pa p e r – E s t. 18 51
th
Volume 170 • Issue 112 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Friday, September 24, 2021
Caldor still challenging firefighters Thomas Frey Staff writer
Mountain Democrat photos by Eric Jaramishian
Amie Whedbee and her daughter Abby, 15, return to their fire-ravaged home in Sierra Springs Tuesday. After being evacuated due to the threat of the Caldor Fire the Whedbee family went home only to days later lose nearly all of their belongings in a house fire, which is under investigation.
Family displaced after escaping house fire
The Caldor Fire continues to challenge firefighters in the area of Caples and Strawberry creeks northwest of Caples Lake. “We’re calling it the alligator’s mouth,” said California Interagency Incident Management Team 12 Operations Section Chief Michael Page, who reported the latest from the fire lines Wednesday night. Crews have been expecting a firefight there, according to Team 12 Incident Commander Michael Nobles. “Although the fire activity and Caples Creek has brought a lot of attention, this is something we anticipated,” Nobles said. “We were organized for it and we were ready to respond to it, which we did quickly and swiftly.” Nobles said a fire behavior analyst has been predicting Caldor’s spread through windows of 24, 48 and 72 hours. “We really generate our plans based on that outlook,” Nobles said. Bulldozers have widened the Schneider Camp four-wheel-drive trail as a break in the vegetation n
See Caldor fire, page A6
Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
“I kissed my daughter Abby on the forehead and I told A Sept. 13 fire that her to run as fast as destroyed a Lupin Road she could with her house in Sierra Springs brothers, and I was left Theresa Whedbee going back to find and her daughter Amie, her little sister,” Amie a single mother of five, said. without a home. Amie checked The Whedbees are downstairs for her now scattered. Amie missing daughter told the Mountain Kali, 9, finding her Democrat four children quickly behind a door. are with her at a hotel in “I didn’t know what Roseville while Theresa was going on,” Amie is staying with a friend said. “I’m thinking, in Placerville. The fifth ‘Was it something like Theresa Whedbee, far left, and her daughter Amie, far right, child has been staying the Paradise Fire? Is along with four of Amie’s children, search their neighborhood with his dad, as he was everyone’s house in for their missing dog Trouble. the night of the blaze. flames like this?’ I Amie, a full-time didn’t know at that Folsom Lake College student who also holds down point. I just wanted to make sure my kids are safe.” a caregiving job, said she had come home after a Shoeless, pantless, phoneless and with burned long shift. She finished her homework when the feet, Amie hurried to a neighbor’s house to call 911. family decided to put on a movie before bedtime. As the fire consumed the house and both cars Amie recalled suddenly waking up around 2:30 parked there, Amie and her children sprinted to a.m. to a nightmare no mother should have to the fire station on Pleasant Valley Road. experience. “I could hear things exploding and I didn’t know “We had a big sliding glass door upstairs off the if it was just our house on fire or if anyone else’s kitchen that is an exit to our back patio and there’s was. I was scared to death,” Amie said. also a kitchen window with an air conditioner in As they headed to the fire department, they woke the window. All of that was gone,” Amie said. the neighborhood yelling and screaming, warning She described flames burning through the them of danger and urging anyone to help. windows. Amie and her children ended up at Marshall “I screamed as loud as I could to wake up my Hospital where Amie’s feet were treated for burns. kids,” Amie said. “They all say to this day, ‘Mommy, Theresa said she was visiting friends that I can’t get your screams out of my head;’ but they evening, later driving home to find 10 fire trucks heard me, they got up.” lined up on Lupin Road. Firefighters gave her the Amie’s sons Justin, 11, and Cash, 5, were sleeping bad news. next to her upstairs while daughter Abby, 15, was “I just lost it and I looked over and I saw my also upstairs in her own room. Amie said the house just totally gone. That was devastating,” stairs were on fire as she ran barefoot, carrying her Theresa said, “and more devastating that my kid youngest son through flames and out of the house. and grandkids had to go through that.” Abby, Cash and Justin were all out of the house. The Whedbees were renting the home and Three down, one to go. n See displaced, page A8
PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
Courtesy photo
Firefighters pack up hose line at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.
Caldor Fire base camp moves out of fairgrounds Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer The El Dorado County Fairgrounds is nearly open to the public again as the Caldor Fire base camp has been relocated from Placerville to Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe. Fairgrounds staff is returning to a sense of normalcy with a small contingent of Cal Fire personnel still working on site along with folks from the U.S. Forest Service and California Conservation Corps. Their presence is expected well into October but fairgrounds activities will return, starting with a monster truck show this weekend. The El Dorado County Fair, which was slated for this weekend, Sept. 23-26, was canceled Sept. 7 as it was not known how long firefighters would need to operate out of the fairgrounds. n
See Base camp, page A9
No sign of man who went missing in Grizzly Flat Mountain Democrat staff El Dorado County sheriff ’s detectives say they have not been able to locate Martin Hardy Creel, a 57-year-old man who was reported missing last month following the evacuation of Grizzly Flat. The sheriff ’s Search and Rescue unit conducted a search using canines Sept. 11 but Creel was not located, according to Sgt. Eric Palmberg. Creel was among Grizzly Flat residents ordered to evacuate but his family hasn’t heard from him
since Aug. 18. Family members reported they last received a call from Creel — a 5-foot, 6-inch, 200-pound white male with blond hair, blue eyes and possibly wearing eyeglasses — Wednesday, Aug. 18, around 11:30 a.m. The family member was not able to speak to Creel due to poor reception. Family and friends said they tried calling Creel back repeatedly but those calls were not answered. Authorities say Creel’s white Dodge pick up was later found abandoned in the Grizzly Flat area near Sciaroni and Grizzly Flat
roads. Grizzly Flat was evacuated overnight Aug. 16 as the Caldor Fire made its way through town, taking down entire neighborhoods, an elementary school, church and post office. Between Aug. 16 and Aug. 18 the blaze ripped through more than 60,000 acres, including the Grizzly Flat area and north and east of there, the most activity seen on the Caldor Fire. Anyone with any information that could help authorities locate Creel is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (530) 642-4714 or email Sargentj@edso.org.
Martin Hardy Creel
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