The South Obenchain Fire started on the same day.
Kellie Battaglia, a resident of Eagle Point watched half of her neighborhood be destroyed by the fire.
“The fire came within 20 to 25 feet of our home,” Battaglia said. “We lost our animal shelter. It burned the majority of our property but all of the rest of structures were still in tact.”
The fire was located just east of Eagle Point, burning around 33,000 acres and destroying 90 structures.
She didn’t lose her home in the fire, but four of her neighbors did.
She recalls what happened when she was evacuated that day.
“We were at a friends house parked outside on their property watching the flames on the hills by our house,” she said. “It actually got too much, I just couldn’t watch it anymore. And we went to a friend of ours business and we camped together in their business’s parking lot.”
Battaglia was evacuated for two weeks.
Not only did she have to deal with the fire, the pandemic made the situation even more complicated.
“It was completely surreal,” Battaglia said. “When you have a pandemic, businesses aren’t open so you actually cannot walk in and get the help you need, you’re having to make appointments.”
Despite half of the neighborhood losing their homes, everyone that lived there two years ago is still there today.
Now, they continue to stay connected after sticking together through the evacuations and even the rebuilding process.
“The fire, one of the positive outcomes of it, was that it brought our neighborhood together and so whatever we needed, we were there for one another,” Battaglia said.
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