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When the fire burned over Mount Vaca on Wednesday morning, it split with one fork racing down Pleasants Valley Rd., incinerating homes and ranchland.
An estimated 50 homes are reported to have burned but a full count of the damage likely will not be available for some time. Much of the road is torched, but Victoria and Ray Gregorich’s hilltop home miraculously survived, even while everything else on their 20-acre property burned.
The couple fled their home at 12:30 a.m., with Victoria on crutches after a recent surgery.
"I had seen it coming over up over this hill, it was just raging and so we got out and went to my daughter’s house and then just kept trying to come back," she said.
The couple made their way back to the property later Wednesday morning and the hillside and oak trees behind the house were still smoldering and the greenhouse was in ashes, but not the home.
"I couldn’t believe it when we came around the corner and the house was there," said Ray, who thinks they may have gotten lucky because he keeps the grass and brush down. "No grass or nothing in my ditch from that white fence all the way down to the end of my property over there, and I mow that field. Our neighbors runs his cows up on the hill, they eat the grass down."
The couple said they got extremely lucky.
"I just couldn’t believe it," said Ray. "I mean the embers came and landed on my shade sails in the backyard and burned holes in them but they didn’t start a fire on the roof, why?"
"When I was leaving, you just don’t know. So it’s very emotional, you know? You just want to make sure everybody’s okay," said Victoria. "There’s quite a few (homes) that aren’t here anymore. I hope everybody’s safe."