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‘Earthquakes, fires, flooding.’ In Kern County, the Borel Fire was a reminder of climate’s wrath

The Borel Fire destroyed nearly every home in the historic town of Havilah, including Mark Carruthers'. The family says they'll rebuild but others aren't so sure.
Joshua Yeager
/
KVPR
The Borel Fire destroyed nearly every home in the historic town of Havilah, including Mark Carruthers'. The family says they'll rebuild but others aren't so sure.

HAVILAH, Calif. — Two months after Kern County’s largest wildfire leveled the historic town of Havilah, those displaced are rallying around an unlikely, two-ton icon.

For weeks, Curly the Bull has grazed along the only road into Havilah, greeting first responders and residents as they return to the burned-up town. The community worked to feed and water him, until the scorched bovine was able to receive proper veterinarian treatment.

“He is the mascot of the Borel Fire,” said Mark Carruthers, Curly’s owner and one of dozens of families who lost their homes to the flames. “According to our neighbors, who left after we did, they witnessed about a 100-foot-tall fire tornado ripping through here.”

Curly rests in the ruins of Havilah days after the Borel Fire incinerated the historic community in late July. The community has rallied around the singed bull as the long road toward recovery begins.
Joshua Yeager
/
KVPR
A bull rests in the ruins of Havilah . The Borel Fire incinerated the historic community late last week.

He surveyed the charred rubble of his century-old home and workshop, just off Caliente-Bodfish Road in the southern Sierra Nevada, in late August. More than 200 structures were destroyed in the Borel Fire, which tore through 60,000 acres in late July, according to a Kern County Fire assessment. Two months later, many homes remain without water or electricity. Carruthers’ home was one of the victims.

“It all just caved in when the roof burned,” he explained, knocking on a gnarled metal panel that once covered his ceiling.

But Curly, he says, is still hanging in there.

“There’s been three times literally that we were like, ‘OK, we’re coming back to put him down.’ And all three times he was standing again, back on his feet. Just like, ‘not today,’” Carruthers said, bursting into infectious laughter.

A neighboring rancher is now selling T-shirts with curly’s face and the phrase “not today” to help pay for the bull’s care.

Crews remove hazardous trees and waste in what's left of Havilah, the first step in a lengthy recovery process.
Joshua Yeager
Crews remove hazardous trees and waste in what's left of Havilah, the first step in a lengthy recovery process.

An uncertain recovery

Those words – “not today” – have also become a rallying cry for Havilah, as the former gold mining but now near-ghost-town tucked in the southern Sierra Nevada grapples with a lengthy and uncertain recovery.

Even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) helped pay for the firefighting effort, the agency is unlikely to assist homeowners after the fire. And after the state helps clean up hazardous waste and debris, displaced residents are essentially on their own.

Local nonprofits, instead, have stepped in to help them with their immediate needs.

“That can be anything from shelter to medicine to air conditioning if it's hot, or heat if it's cold,” said Aaron Falk, president of the Kern Community Foundation, which has helped disburse more than $30,000 in financial assistance so far. “Because we’re Kern County, and we get earthquakes and fires and flooding, we’ve over 25 years built up a few pretty good endowments to respond to natural disasters.”

Firefighters are see in the distance as they work to contain the Borel Fire in Kern County. The fire started on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, and destroyed a historic gold-mining community.
Joshua Yeager
/
KVPR
Firefighters are see in the distance as they work to contain the Borel Fire in Kern County. The fire started on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, and destroyed a historic gold-mining community.

While Falk says he’d like to give more, his organization has to save some funds in case the fall brings heavy rains, which could then cause landslides – and more damage.

“It would be cool if we didn’t have to have a fund for disaster relief that we frequently use. But to quote, I think, Forrest Gump: ‘S--- happens,’ and we’ve got to be here for each other,” he said.

Fire season isn’t over yet

And in Havilah, as in other places in California this summer, disasters did indeed happen. The Borel Fire worsened fast when triple-digit heat, bone-dry conditions and Santa Ana winds all pushed flames toward Havilah.

“It created almost a blowtorch, and it was pointed right at this valley here,” explained Kern County Fire Captain Andrew Freeborn outside the Havilah Work Center, a fire station owned by the U.S. Forest Service that was itself damaged in the fire.

A historic marker sits charred after the Borel Fire ripped through the small town of Havilah, in the Kern County mountains on Friday, July 26, 2024.
Joshua Yeager
/
KVPR
A historic marker sits charred after the Borel Fire ripped through the small town of Havilah, in the Kern County mountains on Friday, July 26, 2024.

Freeborn says his department is concerned that the extreme conditions they saw on the Borel Fire are becoming increasingly common across the county and Sierra Nevada.

“We have continued to see fire after fire, large fires, destructive fires. And because of that, 2024 is going down as the most acres burned in Kern County’s history,” he says.

As if to underscore the point, during an interview, an alarm sounded on Freeborn’s radio.

“I might have to leave,” he warned, over frantic radio chatter.

Moments later, the firefighter and his team were on the move, sirens blaring.

Another fire had broken out, just outside the Borel Fire line.

Joshua Yeager is a Report For America corps reporter covering Kern County for KVPR.