Gregory Smith is wearing a baggy white T-shirt. It smells of smoke. It’s the same T-shirt he’s been wearing since he was suddenly and swiftly evacuated from his Camarillo home on Wednesday. There was no time to stop and think and no time to pack a change of clothes. He had just enough time to collect his dogs and leave, with little more than he is stood up in.
"The power went out and I thought it was because of the winds," explained Smith of the events on Wednesday. "And an hour later, it started getting really dark and smoky and then the fire truck started coming up."
Smith explained he flagged down the truck, as without power, he didn't have information available on his cell phone.
He said he had "minutes" to get his belongings, and leave.
"This is all I've been wearing for two days," he said.
He recalls the panic of leaving his home on Valley Vista drive with his dogs.
"The winds were a firestorm. The embers and the big, huge ash tree branches were crashing in the streets and I was swerving around them following the fire truck," he said.
He’s one of many who came here, to the Padre Serra Parish Church in Camarillo, which is being used as an evacuation center. It’s not luxurious, but it’s safe, it has power, snacks, hot drinks - and is staffed by Red Cross volunteers who know what to do at a time like this. Staff like Dave Wagner, a public affairs volunteer with the American Red Cross.
"A lot of people I've seen, whole families, are coming in. They're all in tears. They know they've lost their home," said Wagner.
"We have a couple of folks who lost some pets. So it's a very emotional time," he said.
"We're giving them whatever they need. We have an array of services that are available to them. We'll be here as long as is needed. A lot of people are already going home, that's great. But a lot of people have homes that they know were destroyed and we will be here helping them get on their feet and back into their homes for whatever time it needs," Wagner said.
For those who had to evacuate because of the Mountain Fire, the order came quickly, with little time to contemplate what it really meant. Carol-Ann Higa has severe asthma and she’s come here because her home was threatened. But until the air is clearer and her power is back on at home, it’s safer for her to stay at the shelter, where there’s electricity to run her oxygen machine if she needs it.
"I had to go in my oxygen tank for about an hour to recover," said Higa. "You don't know what to bring. You bring your wallet, whatever you could put in there."
She says she hasn’t been able to sleep but the tears that Higa sheds aren’t for herself. They are because she’s overwhelmed with emotion because of the kindness and help she’s received here.
"You don't realize how devastating it can be. You're kind of in a shock and this is my first time in an evacuation center. I didn't know what to expect, but everybody here, all the workers just pulled together," she said.
"People are willing to help me get my food and things because I can't walk that far," she said.
"I kind of teared because just, you know, you're in a safe place. People care. I've never seen workers like this," she said as she wiped tears from her eyes.
For Higa and Smith, they are the lucky ones who – when they leave this center, have a home to go back to. That’s not the story for hundreds more whose homes have been destroyed or damaged by this fast-moving wildfire.
