GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. — Hundreds of displaced homeowners are still in recovery mode three years after the Caldor Fire tore through the El Dorado County community of Grizzly Flats.
ABC10 spoke with survivors about why this recovery process has been so slow-going and the federal financial assistance they were denied.
The Caldor Fire burned more than 220,000 acres and destroyed more than a thousand structures. Estimates vary as to how many primary residences burned. FEMA says about 400, but the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) puts the number closer to 600. Either way, the majority of the homes lost were in Grizzly Flats.
Some survivors are just starting the process of rebuilding.
Jennifer McKim-Hibbard, who lost her Grizzly Flats home, tells ABC10 her family might never be able to afford to re-build their property. Her family is currently renting a home elsewhere in the county.
“It's heartbreaking as a mom, especially when I ask my children, you know, ‘What do you guys want for birthdays and Christmases?’ and all they ask for is their home back,” she said.
McKim-Hibbard said she expected about $700,000 from insurance, but her family received less than $200,000.
“So many other people are in the same boat, and they're all experiencing the heartache that my family is, with the reality that they're never going to be able to go back home - or they are back on their properties, and where these big, beautiful homes once stood, they're going to be living in trailers,” she said. “It's disgusting. It's sad…They've worked their entire lives for what they had. In a single night, it was completely destroyed, and three years later, they're still suffering.”
She works as program director for the West Slope Foundation, based out of Somerset. It’s a non-profit formed in the wake of the Caldor Fire to assist survivors and teach disaster preparedness so that future evacuees will be ready.
“Our fire is a lot different than, say, the Camp Fire, which - unfortunately - was a fatal fire. We weren't. We were lucky,” said executive director Scot Telfer. “But as far as financial assistance…we have about 65-70% of our survivors are underinsured. And the FEMA Individual Assistance - even though it was promised to us by the government and everything – never came through. I know our representatives have appealed it three or four times.”
Three years ago, President Joe Biden toured the Caldor Fire destruction.
“We are working closely with Governor Newsom to make sure California has every resource, every resource to keep families safe,” Biden said during his Sept. 2021 visit.
President Biden approved a Major Disaster Declaration for California amid the Caldor Fire, which freed up federal funds to help state and local governments with recovery efforts. He stopped short, however, of offering Individual Assistance, a key financial resource for families in the wake of disasters.
“Unfortunately, without getting that FEMA assistance - and a lot of other options closed because of that - we're struggling just to figure out how to get back home,” McKim-Hibbard said. “Not only did I lose my home and my family lost their home, but my sister lost her home and my best friend lost her home. So this is very personal.”
Last August, U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley – whose district includes the Caldor Fire burn scar – sent a letter to President Biden demanding that the President “finally fulfill his promise of disaster relief to victims of the 2021 Caldor Fire,” as Kiley put it.
Joining him was Cal OES Director Nancy Ward, who worked for FEMA from 2000-2014, including in various leadership positions.
She calls Grizzly Flats “the most poverty-challenged and socially-vulnerable area in the county,” even before the fire and says “without approval of Individual Assistance, the community of Grizzly Flats is precluded from receiving Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program funding….which addresses unmet housing needs.”
She pointed to nine other major disaster declarations approved for Individual Assistance throughout the U.S. in 2021, "which, cumulatively, had fewer destroyed homes than those destroyed by the Caldor Fire," Ward wrote. "The loss of Grizzly Flats and the socio-economic makeup of the community should be reconsidered."
ABC10 asked Kiley and Cal OES about the outcome of Kiley’s Aug. 2023 request.
A spokesperson for the Congressman said, “Kiley raised this issue directly in conversation with the President and in a follow-up meeting with the White House National Security staff. Despite that, the support of Cal OES, and the President’s promise to the victims, the White House has continued to stonewall on providing personal assistance to the victims of the Caldor fire. It’s frankly inexcusable.”
Amy Palmer, spokesperson for Cal OES, said, “As stated in her letter to Congressmember Kiley, Director Ward has discussed with FEMA the consequential level of inconsistency FEMA is applying in approving or not approving Individual Assistance under a Major Disaster Declaration. At this point, Congress can grant assistance to communities like Grizzly Flats through a disaster supplemental appropriations bill, and the President has the opportunity to assist those impacted by the 2021 Caldor Fire. At this time, we have no indication a different decision will come from Washington than the one already made.”
ABC10 reached out to the White House to ask if there’s anything Biden can do to help the people of Grizzly Flats. They deferred to FEMA, which did not reply by ABC10’s deadline.
In a statement to ABC10 for an investigation done in late 2022, FEMA said – in part, “Based on documentation provided by the state, and collected in local/state/federal preliminary damage assessments, the President determined that the impact to individuals and households from the Caldor Fire was not of such severity and magnitude to warrant the designation of the Individual Assistance (IA) program,” adding FEMA had provided nearly 100 million dollars at that point in Public Assistance for Caldor Fire recovery efforts.
“We got the cleanup, which was wonderful, but as far as resources and supplies and funding being put in the survivors’ hands, very little was done,” McKim-Hibbard said. “That doesn't mean that I'm quitting.”
She and Telfer continue to fight for funding and, in the meantime, connect survivors with supplies they need and lead-free disaster preparedness workshops.
“We actually did have a participant from one of our workshops who had to evacuate, and she sent me this really nice email and said, ‘I used everything in the binder, and we were able to get out quickly, and we knew what to take and we got to safety,’ so that that alone is rewarding enough to know that these are being put into use,” McKim-Hibbard said.
They’re also sharing their knowledge. This week, researchers from the University of Oregon came to West Slope’s office to meet with them and Grant Ingram, who owns a fire mapping company and is retired from the fire service. He advocates for Caldor Fire survivors and disaster preparedness.
“There needs to be plans in place ahead of time, to make sure this doesn't occur-- and if it does occur, that there's steps in place that people know what's going to happen next,” he told ABC10.
Grizzly Flats is coming back slowly. The town post office re-opened in late January, and new growth is popping up among charred remains. Some people are living in trailers on their property and can’t afford to rebuild. Others have homes in progress.
“We’re still trying to find funding solutions for the survivors. I'm working with state organizations to do that, but it's a long road right now, and we're feeling it here in the office,” Telfer said, adding grants are harder to come by the farther the Caldor Fire gets in the rearview mirror for those outside the community. “I'll apply for 20 grants, and we might get 10 now where the grants were carrying us. So we have a bunch of different fundraisers right now which are out there.”
Anyone interested in learning more about the West Slope Foundation or donating can do so HERE.
There, you can also find information about free, upcoming disaster preparedness workshops.
The Caldor Fire was under the incident management of the U.S. Forest Service. ABC10 asked what the USFS has done since then in recovery efforts - and to help prevent future fires.
"The Caldor Fire Restoration Project is one of many projects within and supporting the 2021 Caldor Fire recovery efforts," a spokesperson told ABC10.
The spokesperson went on to say:
Recovering from a wildfire is not a single decision, single project outcome. The Eldorado National Forest, the El Dorado Resource Conservation District, Great Basin Institute, and many other groups have been working on forest and community recovery since the Caldor Fire. Some projects that we have implemented include:
- Fire Suppression Repair to prevent water quality and sensitive resource impacts from fire suppression actions
- Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) analysis and project implementation to stabilize lands and resources within the fire area and monitor the results. https://www.fs.usda.gov/naturalresources/watershed/burnedareas-background.shtml
- Immediate Hazard Tree mitigation on significant public use roads (Mormon Emigrant Trail, Silver Fork Road, North-South Road) during the incident (October – November 2021).
- Collaboration with the El Dorado Resource Conservation District to use existing NEPA decisions (ENF Roadside Hazard Tree Abatement; https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=62238) to support Caldor recovery efforts, especially near cabin tracts, Sierra at Tahoe, and key ingress/egress routes.
- Partnership with the El Dorado Resource Conservation District (https://www.eldoradorcd.org/) resulting in additional work on private land in Grizzly Flats, hazard tree removal in Sierra at Tahoe, and hazard tree removal in cabin tracts along Highway 50.
- Grizzly Flat Community Fuel Break project involving hazard tree removal and follow up planting in the spring of 2024.
- Working with 177 Recreation Residence owners impacted by the fire, and El Dorado county with cabin site cleanup and the rebuilding process.
- Partnership with Great Basin Institute for Hazard Tree removal along district and forest roads within the Caldor Fire area.
In many cases these are the same staff and specialists that is working on the EA. Fire recovery is not simple and we all (agencies, landowners, permittees, visitors) have a lot of work to do. The EA is our next step in the recovery process. We anticipate beginning the implementation of actions covered by the Caldor Fire Restoration EA in late 2024 or early 2025.
