Call For Help Amid Caldor Fire Answered In Kyburz

KYBURZ (CBS13) — Throughout the combat against the Caldor Fire successful El Dorado County, we person heard stories of courage, with assemblage members stepping up to bash what they could.

John Lucia is simply a quiet, unassuming feline surviving on the quiescent agelong of Highway 50 successful Kyburz.

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“Samuel Kyburz picked retired wherever the sawmill was going to be, wherever golden was discovered. He was this cardinal feline successful California past but cipher knows astir him,” Lucia said.

Th past buff made past himself past Wednesday nighttime arsenic the Caldor Fire raged crossed from wherever helium lives connected the American River. Crews were scrambling to combat the fire. That’s erstwhile his neighbour called from England, asking him to commencement the pumps on the water’s edge.

“He said ‘Do you cognize thing astir pumps?’ And I said I don’t know. And helium said ‘I person assurance you tin instrumentality attraction of it,’ ” Lucia said.

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Lucia remained calm nether pressure, clearing debris from the pumps and mounting up a h2o tender presumption for occurrence crews.

Lucia’s neighbor—an epidemiologist—is a spot of a survivalist who had installed an underground suppression strategy and pumps successful the river.

“Vietnam vet—POW—he was a smokejumper, and I deliberation of each the things helium talks astir that’s what helium is astir arrogant of,” Lucia said.

It was each built conscionable successful case—and that conscionable successful lawsuit was conscionable successful time. Crews filled up for days until Lucia directed them to different draught constituent astatine Camp Sacramento successful adjacent Strawberry.

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“I said ‘You tin backmost your trucks close into that fjord and you tin draught and capable these things up successful astir six minutes alternatively of 15 due to the fact that I can’t proviso the h2o due to the fact that I’ll beryllium coming up excessively acold and I person excessively acold a line, ‘” Lucia said.

Rachel Wulff