VIDEO: The Borel Fire, which began on July 24, exploded just 48 hours later, destroying the historic mining town of Havilah as first responders rushed to evacuate residents. County Fire Captain Cliff Peet from Station 78 in Paiute recently took us back to the fire’s footprint, sharing his firsthand experience of the devastating blaze.
“These are all houses. Every one of these lots had a house. They’re all gone. There were like 5 houses on that street. They’re all gone, every one of them,” Peet said. The 20-year veteran of the Kern River Valley has seen numerous wildfires throughout his career, but nothing compared to the Borel Fire. “I was looking east, and this was the fire had gone through, and I could just see homes on fire out in these hills that I, I didn’t even know they were there,” Peet said.
When the fire started, Peet was 60 miles away, working overtime at County Station 53 on Taft Highway and Old River Road. It wasn’t until 36 hours later that he was called to action. “I got a call 2 or 3 in the morning, something like that. My cell phone rang, and it was one of our chiefs on the way up the chain, and he said, Hey, we’re going to send a strike team to the Borel Fire — and we’d really like you to go,” Peet said.
After meeting with his strike team at the Lake Isabella fire station, they drove through Bodfish toward Havilah, looking for water sources and urging people to evacuate. That afternoon, the fire’s intensity made the danger clear. “Somebody came over the radio and said, uh, the fire has crossed Caliente Bodfish Road in Havilah and is running to the east. And we looked at each other, and we were like, no. Now the fire is up there. That’s not, that’s not possible,” Peet said.
The Borel Fire expanded dramatically from several thousand acres to more than 35,000 in just one day, racing down the mountainside into Havilah. One of the first rescue operations involved two sheriff deputies and a Forest Service member who became trapped by the fast-moving flames.
