September 11th is not only an important anniversary for our nation, but it’s also a significant date locally. 26 years ago today, the Forty Niner Fire broke out. That fire over the next several days grew to 33,500 acres and forced some 4,000 people to evacuate. Charlie Jacobs was the CalFire information officer in 1988 when the fire broke out, and provided most of the up-to-date information to KNCO. Jacobs, on ‘KNCO Insight: Nevada County Action’ this afternoon (Thursday), recalled that the main reason he got that job was because he was the only one with a cell phone. Jacobs says his boss made sure he had one…
At one time or another, four to five thousand homes were in the path of that blaze. Jacobs says firefighters don’t think of themselves as heroes, but are proud of the work they do to protect their communities…
The Forty Niner Fire destroyed 144 homes and 219 other structures , including 89 cars and trucks and 17 boats and trailers, and did an estimated 22.7 million dollars in damage.
Priscilla Marie Mayfield
We went through the fire with the help of the fire department and some close friends like Dr. Claydon and Dr. Mark Winger. They left there office and came to save our house. We had already left because the fire was on hi way 20.We went out the back way and they came in the front. They emptied out our swimming pool and saved our house. After 26years we now have NID untreated water for our land and fire protection.