Student has close call with So Cal fires

By Danielle MacMurchy

The comfortable mountain home hidden among a forest of oak trees northeast of San Diego, in the hills of Julian, Calif., has been home to Fresno State junior Aimee Cozens for the past 20 years. She was visiting home about a month ago when she and her family realized their house may be in the path of the Southern California Cedar fire.

The fire was reportedly started about 15 miles from the Cozens’ home on Oct. 25 and was headed the other direction. By the following morning, the desert winds had shifted directions, pushing the flames toward more residential areas, including the Cozens’ house.

“ At first we thought (the firemen) would get control of it,” Cozens said. “We weren’t worried at all.”

Although initially Cozens did not think her home was in danger, several of her friends’ homes were in trouble. Unable to make it back to school in Fresno because the freeways had been closed, Cozens spent that evening helping her friends evacuate their home—which was eventually destroyed.

Monday afternoon Cozens and her family were told to pack their belongings and evacuate. As Cozens debated what items were worth rescuing, she recalled memories she had made in the house as a child. The first thing she grabbed was her Cabbage Patch Doll collection. She also loaded the car with several family photo albums, clothes and the family’s eight dogs and three cats. Cozens was forced to leave her two horses.

“ It was really hard to leave everything,” Cozens said. “I thought, essentially, my life was going to burn down.”

As she prepared to leave, she could see the flames burning on the hill behind her house.

“ When we left the house I was hysterical. I called my boyfriend and he was scared that I would drive off the road,” Cozens said. “I shouldn’t have been driving.”

That afternoon, the family drove to safety, leaving behind their home of 20 years.

Cozens and 15 to 20 other relatives, who were also seeking shelter from the flames, spent the next five days at her grandfather’s cabin 30 miles from Julian. At night they resorted to sleeping on the floor, in cars and in tents. Although it was crowded, Cozens said the familiarity of her grandfather’s cabin, as well as her family, comforted her.

“ Without having the family there it would have been a lot harder,” Cozens said. “The family really came together.”

After forcing 4,000 Julian residents to evacuate their homes and taking down hundreds of homes in the area, the Cedar fire was forced by shifting winds to turn away. Approaching the house on three sides, the fire came as close as a quarter of a mile to the Cozens’ home.

Cathie Cozens, Aimee’s mother, said the most difficult part was not knowing if their house would be there when they returned.

“ A house is just a house, and things are just things,” Cathie Cozens said. “But over time you’ve accumulated things that have special meaning that can’t be replaced.”

The city of Julian, an old 1800s mining town, is a beautiful place, Aimee Cozens said. As she drove through the town for the first time since the fire’s destruction, she said it looked like the moon—desolate.

“ People have no idea of the impact of this. The fire impacts you in some way, whether directly or indirectly,” Cozens said. “Everybody’s lives in Julian have been put on hold.”