Stress Takes Its Toll on Fire Refugees Sheltered at Fairgrounds

“It was like being on top of the world,” Becky Konrath said of the Water Witch cabin two miles from the Duck Wall lookout tower in Stanislaus National Forest, a home she had shared with Bob Moss and her 10-year-old daughter since April.

The two-bedroom homestead, hand-built from natural stone by the ranch owner who leased it to them, looked out over the San Joaquin Valley.

Saturday, three days after the 40,000-acre Paper Cabin fire east of Tuolumne City swept through the family’s neck of the woods, all they had was a snapshot of their dream home. The fire destroyed everything but the stone chimney and the wood stove.

“Bob went back there yesterday,” said Konrath, 37, a part-time hairdresser in Modesto. “He said it was as though it never existed. . . . It’s heart-sickening.”

Konrath and Moss, 41, a part-time ranch hand, were among the hundreds of refugees who sought shelter at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds here Wednesday after Tuolumne County law enforcement officials asked them to evacuate their Sierra foothill homes. But only about five families lost their homes in the Tuolumne County fires earlier this week.

Nearly 1,400 residents from more than a dozen rural Tuolumne County communities have been accommodated in three evacuation centers--1,200 of them at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds, Elizabeth Quirk, American Red Cross spokeswoman, said Saturday. A total of 5,687 people had been evacuated from homes in the area by Saturday; most went to homes of friends or relatives or stayed in motels.

For at least some people in the evacuation centers, the stress was showing, even among those who had not lost their homes.

“We are seeing the signs of mental stress, which is normal after the third day,” said Quirk, who slept only 10 hours in four days. “I was standing in the coffee line this morning when a young mother broke down. All I could do is take her in my arms and let her cry a little. People are anxious to go home.”

Lois Strong, director of the nursing program on the fairgrounds, said 111 people were treated for stress, minor injuries or respiratory problems and 20 volunteer nurses have been handing out face masks for smoke protection. Visibility in the Sonora area was about one-half mile. No serious injuries have been reported, Strong added.

At least 500 evacuees were sleeping on Red Cross cots in several of the grounds’ large halls, while hundreds more slept outside or in their campers or makeshift shelters in the shadow of the grandstand. Since the Mother Lode Fairgrounds opened to refugees Wednesday night, 6,000 meals have been dished out from the fairgrounds’ kitchen that is being run by volunteers and supplied with thousands of dollars worth of food donations from around the county, said Shirley Brown, manager of food operations.

Hundreds of Volunteers

Quirk said hundreds of volunteers were working around the clock to clothe, feed and entertain the evacuees. Three times a day they gathered around forestry officials to hear the latest update on the fires.

“We still don’t know when you folks might be able to go home,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Briscoe Price told a group of weary and concerned families Saturday morning. “No one has given me an answer to that question yet.”

Conversations with refugees showed that most were happy about the way they were received at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds.

“How could a person not be comfortable here with these people who anticipate all our wants and needs,” said Suzi White, who was forced from her home in Tuolumne City with her 11-year-old daughter Wednesday night when the Paper Cabin fire came within a mile of the city’s outskirts.

“I think it has brought people closer together,” said Steve Fagundes, a 33-year-old carpenter from the Matsen Ranch, where four cabins burned down earlier this week. Fagundes’ two-bedroom home was still unharmed, he said.

“But if the wind picks up and the lightning storms return, the chances are slim or none that I will have a home to return to,” Fagundes said.

Though tired and anxious, most evacuees were optimistic about the future.

‘Not Going to Run Away’

“It was my dream forever to be up in the wilderness raising my family the simple way,” said Fagundes, who is married and has two children. “Just because of this fire I am not going to run away with my tail between my legs.”

Even Konrath, whose home was reduced to charcoal and twisted sheets of corrugated metal, said she will start over again.

“It took our things but not our spirit and the love for what we were doing,” she said, estimating the loss of the cabin at tens of thousands of dollars. “It has put us on hold for a little while, but we’ll be back there. We have already agreed with the owner to rebuild it the way it was.”