Residents prep for evacuations as Fairview Fire nears Anza
Evacuation warning and orders have spread rapidly, even reaching parts of Temecula and Anza.
Many Anza residents weren’t expecting it come their way. Emotions were running high, as the flames bring them memories of the Cranston fire that came close a few years back.
“It’s just awful, I just hope we don’t have to go through that,” said Anza resident Paula Crawley.
She said it breaks her heart to see the devastation of the Fairview Fire. “What people are having to go through, I can’t even imagine. I mean, we’re just worried here because it could happen, you know, but what that they went through is just horrible.”
A big plume of thick smoke could be seen above the mountain tops, as flames inch closer towards Anza.
“You can see the flames and it’s not too bad. But then, it starts coming up and it looked like there were 3 fires just in the area. It was crazy," said Anza resident Jeff Crawley.
Residents here are far too familiar with this feeling, after experiencing wildfires close to home a few years back. “Yeah, it’s uh ,you see the black smoke you know that’s structure. So you know that somebody’s losing their home when you see the black smoke," said Anza resident Michele Brown.
A partial power outage impacted parts of Anza, Mountain Center and Pinyon Pines. “Basically we think there was an Edison line that feeds us that was damaged," said General Manager Kevin Short of Anza Electric Cooperative. "We don’t know if it’s fire damage or not. They were able to do some switching and get us some limited capacity back on . In the meantime, we have a micro grid here we were able to turn on that keeps all of the businesses in Anza on.”
Even through power outages and evacuations, residents tell News Channel 3 Anza is a tight knit community that will make it through any natural disaster together. “We all pull together, I mean you’d be surprised. People that just come out of the wood work to do what we need to do to help. You know, truck trailers whatever you know. We’re there. You know, whatever we gotta do everybody pulls together," Crawley added.
