MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) — “We all have a little PTSD,” said Audrey Cray with a local charity called “All In Monterey.” “When we live in an area that has a tendency to have fires anytime we hear of anything happening we all get very nervous, very scared.”
As firefighters continue to fight the Colorado Fire, many people are still displaced from their homes.
The fire is now 35 percent contained and impacting 700 acres.
Many people had to leave their homes with very little notice and situations like this one, can be very scary.
“They don’t know if they’re going to have a home to come to, if they’re going to lose all of their possessions and we’re just kinda there is a big warm hug, Cray said.”
As the Colorado Fire continues to burn people living west of 3800 Palo Colorado Road to Highway 1 and South of Bixby Creek in Monterey County are still evacuated.
“When you’re told to evacuate you’re leaving with the clothes on your back and there are so many things you don’t even think of you don’t grab,” Cray said.
Cray says they are doing what they can to help.
The non-profit provides support to their Monterey neighbors.
They are currently working with the Red Cross at the Carmel Middle School Shelter.
“We worked with the evacuation center making sure that they had toiletries clothing, anything that they would need at the evacuation center.”
Meanwhile, firefighters are still working around the clock to put the fire out.
U.S. representative for the Central Coast, Jimmy Panetta, says he met with Cal Fire about their efforts.
“They’re feeling confident but the terrain is really steep out there,” Panetta said. “If you’ve been along Highway 1, which many of your viewers have you understand how steep and rugged it is.”
Panetta was happy to report that still, only one structure has been damaged and their are no injuries or fatalities.
“People of that area, people of the Big Sur are rugged, they’re hearty, they’re used to these types of natural disasters.”
Panetta says he is calling on everyone to help prevent fires — like this one from happening in the future.
While we don’t know what caused this fire just yet, he says most of these fires are caused by human activity.