Neighbors at Lakeside’s Monterey Cell Lodge group say Sharon Edwards cares for everybody round her.
On Monday, Evaleen Buhl referred to as her “Sharon our angel” as Edwards performed the position of guardian angel at the same time as a fireplace from a road beneath burned down her personal shed and flames licked at her cellular dwelling.
Buhl, who turns 90 subsequent month, is blind and might’t stroll.
“I didn’t odor something … till my neighbor got here banging on my home and acquired me out of right here, however that’s the one means,” Buhl stated. “I might nonetheless have been in there.”
A nook of Buhl’s dwelling was broken (and contents of a shed had been destroyed), however Edwards was one among at the very least 4 homeowners whose properties had been gutted by the comb hearth southwest of Lake Jennings. Two folks had been reportedly taken to the hospital — one with burns and one other struggling smoke inhalation.
By 10 p.m., firefighters had halted the unfold at roughly 5 1/2 acres, stated Mike Cornette, a fireplace captain with Cal Hearth. It was 100% contained by late night.
Buhl’s daughter, Evaleen Hickman, praised Edwards.
“If we didn’t have her.… She helps all people. On this park, she is wonderful,” Hickman stated. “She was at all times there to assist my mother as a result of we don’t dwell along with her.”
“We have to all pull collectively and assist Sharon now,” Hickman stated.
Buhl, Evaleen Hickman and son-in-law Dwayne Hickman know a lot about shedding all of it. In 2003 they misplaced their dwelling within the Cedar Fire.
Recalling that point, Evaleen Hickman stated, “It was so devastating to lose all the pieces you’ve labored for, you owned. All of your life is gone. We didn’t get to avoid wasting something. My coronary heart was in that home.”
Surveying the injury to her mom’s cellular dwelling, Hickman stated, “In comparison with shedding all the pieces within the Cedar Hearth, that is OK.”
For neighbor Bob Hayne, Monday was a tragic day.
“I really feel badly, badly as a result of these are our associates like proper right here that misplaced their homes and stuff.”
Hayne pointed on the rubble of a house just a few doorways down on the opposite facet of the road.
Nothing within the pile was recognizable.
“He was at work,” he stated of his neighbor. “He misplaced his two cats in there.”
Hayne stated his neighbor contacted a relative to retrieve the cats, however by the point the brother-in-law arrived, the roof had collapsed, and it was too late.
Hayne, 87, who has lived in his dwelling for 39 years, thinks he is aware of the perpetrator of the house fires — a tall eucalyptus tree off Freeway 8 Enterprise, slightly below the hill behind his home.
“Now we have a big eucalyptus tree behind us that the county would by no means handle,” Hayne stated. “It’s on county property throughout the fence line, subsequent to Outdated 8.”
He stated that tree has anxious neighbors for 30 years.
“When the hearth got here up outdated (Freeway) 8,” he stated, “it caught that eucalyptus tree on hearth, and it exploded. And that’s what acquired us, and it hit the again of our home,” melting the home skirts and buckling the entrance facet of his dwelling.
Instances of San Diego has reached out to county officers for remark.
Embers from the tree flew over his home and ignited the house throughout the highway and up a hill.
Earlier than engines arrived, Hayne was in his again yard. Calling the blaze “intense,” he stated, “I used to be again there with the hose, making an attempt did do one thing, which was not a lot.”
Requested if he felt the necessity to evacuate along with his spouse, Pattie, 80, he stated: “Yeah, straight away.”
“Cops chased me off 3 times,” he stated, however stayed in an effort to avoid wasting his dwelling of 39 years. “Then I tripped and fell over the hearth hoses.”
He had moved his automobile away and gotten computer systems out of the home.
The Coches 2 Fire broke out shortly earlier than 3 p.m. off the 13300 block of Los Coches Street East within the Glenview space, simply north of El Cajon, in keeping with Cal Hearth.
For a time, 17,300 resients had been beneath evacuation orders, county Supervisor Joel Anderson stated in an e mail itemizing assets.
As floor personnel and crews aboard air tankers and water-dropping helicopters labored to extinguish the hearth, authorities cleared folks out of an space bounded by Interstate 8 to the south and west, Los Coches Street to the east and Enterprise Route 8 to the north.
A short lived shelter for the displaced was at Viejas On line casino in close by Alpine.
Dan Lauridsen, 72, stayed placed on one other hill, making an attempt to avoid wasting his dwelling of 42 years. He stated he felt “extraordinarily fortunate.”
Employees subsequent door and a neighbor noticed him in his storage as the hearth unfold.
Lauridsen stood exterior his cellular dwelling as helicopters repeatedly dropped water close to his home. Earlier than firefighters arrived, he ran, acquired his hose and commenced watering the hillside behind his home.
Requested how he thought the firefighters had been dealing with the blaze, he stated: “actually, actually, actually, actually, very well.”
It was not instantly clear how many individuals had been injured by the hearth, although none had been firefighters, stated Mike Cornette, a fireplace captain with the state company.
The reason for the hearth was beneath investigation.
A second of levity got here amid the devastation as Dwayne Hickman jokingly informed a fireman, “Don’t let that home burn. I don’t need my mother-in-law residing with me.”
Hickman stated the fireman replied, “OK, I perceive,” and turned the hose on the house. The household laughed at his story.
Evaleen Hickman assured her mom that there could be a spot for her with them sooner or later if wanted.
“We have already got a room you,” she informed her mom.
“I hope that they discover out who did it,” she stated. “It higher not be a cigarette or intentional.”
Up to date at 12:10 a.m. Sept. 9, 2025
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this report.
