MIDDLETOWN, Calif.— High school math teacher Bill Davis watched from his home as smoke mounted from one of the most destructive fires in California in recent memory.
From a previous fire in late July, he knew to expect a recorded call on his cellphone or look for someone coming through the neighborhood with a bullhorn yelling for people to evacuate.
“None of that happened,” he said. His house in Lake County burned after he finally rounded up his cats and left.
Davis was among a number of survivors who say they never got an official evacuation notice Saturday about the blaze — a situation that raises questions about whether more could have been done to notify residents.
Authorities defended their warnings and rescue attempts, saying they did all they could to reach people in the remote area of homes, many prized for their privacy.
“You may get that notice, or you may not, depending on how fast that fire is moving. If you can see the fire, you need to be going,” said Lynnette Round, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire.
Round said two men in Calaveras County — 66-year-old Mark McCloud and 82-year-old Owen Goldsmith — died after rejecting orders to evacuate.
