Some choose to ride out fires despite mandatory evacuations

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) All is calm at the Lucie Lane neighborhood off San Benancio Road. It is quiet, with a thick haze of smoke blanketing the hills.

Gary Pybas has lived there since 1984 and he is not ready to leave just yet.

"Last night at about 10 o'clock, the sheriff's department came up and said it's time to go, it's a mandatory evacuation. And I said I really don't want to go, we think it's under control for the area we live in, and he said well you have to sign this. So I signed something and he left," said Pybas.

But that does not mean Pybas is not ready to go if push comes to shove. He's already packed things with his wife the last few days, and he's got more in his trunk.

"Well, we kind of expected it. It's moving around. It is what it is. You just deal with it," said Pybas.

"Be ready. Ready, set, go. We try that all year long, readyforwildfire.org. You can go on there, you can see tips on if you need to evacuate, what you can do to harden your home and if you need to go," said April Newman, the Cal Fire spokesperson for the River Fire incident.

Cal Fire has been busy in the major neighborhoods at the base of the fire south of Salinas, like Las Palmas and Indian Springs Ranch, where hundreds live.

Most residents have already evacuated, but some lingered to watch a controlled burn along a hillside that Cal Fire was conducting on Thursday.

Firefighters hope these kinds of efforts will pay off in the long run, as the Carmel and River Fires inch closer together in the south.