Loma Fire remains 95% contained; residents return to assess damage

This is the home stretch for Cal Fire. They have been smothering hot spots, cleaning up dead and fallen trees, and making sure the debris doesn’t spark more fire around people’s homes.

“Some outbuildings and antique travel trailer, another antique travel trailer, a lot of fence post,” Norman Noble counted what he lost to the Loma Fire.

Nevertheless, he still says he got lucky.

“The house to the west burned, the house to the east burned, the house to the north burned,” Noble said.

Noble’s house stayed mostly intact, and he has Cal Fire to thank for that.

“I’m going to find out who they were. I’m going to thank the three men that saved my place,” Noble said.

But not everyone in the Santa Cruz Mountains has been as fortunate.

“They go through the five stages of grief. We’ve seen all five stages up here,” said Loma Fire incident commander Mike Mathiesen. “They are dealing with it the best way they can. They are an eclectic group up here.”

And Cal Fire says hot temperatures are again making their work difficult.

“This is the hardest day of the week. It was hot last night. It was hot yesterday. Tomorrow we should be getting some humidity recovery, which will help,” Mathiesen said.

While Noble has been working to rebuild what he lost in the fire, there is one thing he can’t replace.

“My cat. I wasn’t able to find him,” Noble said.

Once they have the fire contained, hopefully on Monday, Cal Fire says it will reduce the number of engines and begin patrolling the area to help residents with whatever they need.