In the fire’s path

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Ashley McGehee’s house is in the Tahoe Paradise area. She lives one block south of where officials believe the fire started. McGehee, 18, said her family was told to get out of the house about 4 p.m. Sunday. She got a call from her mom Sunday afternoon while she was working at a Jamba Juice, a 35-minute drive away in Stateline, Nev.

‘I looked outside and someone said it was raining soot, and one of the boys told me it’s by Truckee, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s far,’ and then someone told me it was by North Truckee and I was like, ‘That’s right over my home,’ ‘ McGehee said. ‘By the time I drove up there, they were kicking everyone out. My parents did salvage everything except the furniture.

‘My parents were hiking actually where the fire started, and they saw it. Neither of them had their cellphones so they decided to run and they ran to the car and drove home. They noticed it was by our house, a street away.

‘When they saw it, it was just a little thing,’ McGehee said. ‘What everyone’s thinking is, since there was no lightning, is that some kids were up there the night before and had a bonfire. It was man-made. There’s nothing else that could have started it; it was a beautiful day.

‘It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was raining soot, everyone kept running inside, saying something’s happening. I just took off my apron, and my mom [called and] said, ‘Hurry, we have to evacuate.’ I drove as fast as I could, but I didn’t make it in time.’

McGehee’s family filled up her father’s Ford F-250 truck, her mother’s Ford Explorer and her brother’s Subaru with their family photos, laptops, scrapbooks, family heirlooms and other irreplaceable items, leaving nearly all their clothing except a few pair of pants. Today, McGehee had only her Jamba Juice T-shirt and a pair of jeans she had been wearing at work. She said her family went around to neighbors’ houses helping them. At one house their neighbors told them to kick in windows and grab whatever they could; they drove two cars to safety.

-- Tami Abdollah