LAKESIDE, Calif. — Residents at Monterey Mobile Lodge Park are surveying the damage left behind by the Coches Fire, which destroyed some homes while leaving others with significant heat damage.
Roger Dickson's home survived the blaze, but the fire that consumed his next-door neighbor's residence left heat damage on one side of his mobile home. A singed shed, a melted air conditioner, cracked double-pane windows and melted trash receptacles tell some of the story of how close the flames came to claiming another home.
The fire's intensity was evident in the warped trash cans and the cracked exterior windows on one side of his residence.
"This is how bad it melted," Dickson said, showing the extent of the heat damage on one of his trash bins.
The ordeal began around 3 p.m. Monday when Dickson's wife, who struggles to speak after suffering a brain aneurysm, came into their home yelling about the approaching danger.
"Ball of fire, ball of fire, ball of fire going that way," Dickson said, recounting his wife's warning.
When Dickson stepped outside, he was met with a wall of flames and smoke just feet from his home.
"I came out, oh my, so much smoke!” he said.
At that critical moment, a neighbor appeared and helped guide Dickson's wife to safety.
"Grabbed her by the arm and took her up that way, and then she told me, you get in your car and go!" Dickson said.
He followed the advice, eventually picking up his wife and driving to safety, though fear gripped him during the evacuation.
“It was just going so fast. I thought my house was going to burn," Dickson said.
Dickson credits his home's survival to the fire-resistant cement boards that make up the structure. His next-door neighbor wasn't as fortunate. His home was completely destroyed.
Dickson later had a brief conversation with his neighbor, who wasn't home when the fire struck.
"Just the way he had that look on his face. I said, ‘How is your house?’ He said, 'gone,'" Dickson said.
The full extent of the heat damage to Dickson's home isn't yet clear, but he plans to file an insurance claim. He also wants to properly thank the neighbor who helped during the emergency.
"When I see her I'm going to really thank her," Dickson said.
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