Residents able to return home after Bear Fire evacuations counting their blessings

Some residents who evacuated after the Bear Fire broke out in Boulder Creek were able to return home today.

“It’s very difficult, your emotions run very high and yet you have to keep somewhat your head about yourself,” says resident Jeannette Bruce.

Jeannette Bruce President and owner of David Bruce Winery says these past two weeks have been nothing short of a nightmare.

The Bruce family not only owns the vineyard here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but also vineyards in Sonoma County, where they lost acreage. They say the wine for the year will not be impacted and the family is now thankful they lost nothing in the Bear Fire.

“To just go from one fire to the next, it has your heart racing. You’re trying to think of your belongings, you’re trying to think of any momentos, especially your animals, I have animals here and it was very hard for me to make certain decisions.”

Jeannette and her husband Dr. David Bruce live near the winery on Bear Creek Road and say these fires put into perspective what matters most.

“You think of just your life right there bundled up in 20 minutes. Then you say to yourself did I get everything, was this everything? Because if it isn’t, that’s it. This is what I’m walking away with.”

Another bear creek road resident says after hearing about the North Bay fires, their family made an evacuation plan. Little did they know they would need it just one week later.

“Actually the week before with all the Napa fires, we kind of made a quick plan on what to do if a fire were to happen here and we had all of our important documents and our animals, our kids. And that was pretty much all we felt we needed,” says Erik Cisler.

The Cislers moved to this house just one month ago. Even though they have been here such a short period of time they say the tight knit community helped them through the evacuation…and they are happy to be home safe, with no losses.