Elk Creek resident recounts August Complex evacuation, community slowly reopens

An Elk Creek resident recounts the morning she had to evacuate from the August Complex, now the community in west Glenn County is slowly reopening after reductions in evacuation orders.

Infected.#### new at four - the august complex still burning in western glenn county - impacting people as far away as elk creek.

It sits near highway 162 and county road 306.

Action news now reporter jafet serrato went there today to see how people are holding up.

Folks who live in elk creek are slowly getting back to every day life.

When the august complex erupted evacuation orders went out for their town.

"i bailed about an hour before that occurred."

Brenda criner has lived in her elk creek home for 23 years.

"i knew it was coming i did you could tell by that rapid rate of the fire is was coming too fast."

(nats: come here ace) as soon as they got the order - she and her husband packed up their pets - grabbed whatever they could and left.

"i decided to go up to stony ford and i have verizon and verizon doesn't work very well up there."

She lost all communication... not knowing whether her home survived.

"it was very scary."

They returned thursday... her home still standing - and a sobering site to show how close the fire came.

"i have whole leaves i've collected in there that are burnt that's how large the debris fell."

(standup:) nearly 300 people live in the community of elk creek.

One of them is a restaurant owner and she decided to reopen her restaurant so she can feed the firefighters battling the august complex.

(fryer turning on) "i came back on wednesday.

I made cold sandwiches that day."

Offering a brief respite (res - pit from the battle.) "well they're glad to have a place to get something cold to drink."

Criner says she has no plans to move.

"i'm going to stay as long as its still standing."

In elk creek jafet serrato action news now coverage you can count on neighbors tell action news now - the last big fire they experienced was the chrome fire of june 2018.

No homes were lost... but one outbuilding was destroyed.

The fire burned nearly 23- hundred acres in the