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SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KTVU) - Firefighters battling the Loma fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains got a break from Mother Nature Wednesday with cooler temperatures.
Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted in Santa Cruz County. Cal Fire's latest update shows the fire has now burned 2,800 acres and is 22 percent contained. KTVU spoke to one man, who is battling cancer. He lost his home and his dog in the fire.
"I was devastated at that point," said Isaiah Branzuela who lost his home. "I knew it was real."
Branzuela can't get the image of what's left of his family home of eight years on Loma Chiquita Road out of his head. His home burned to the ground by the Loma fire.
"Not a couch not a chair not a picture nothing," said Branzuela. "It was just all ash."
The 44-year-old father of three girls said losing his home was not as hard as losing his best friend, a Husky named Thailin. The two were inseparable yet Branzuela left him home Monday given it was such a hot day. When the fire broke out, he rushed to save Thailin hiking half a mile past road closures but it was too late.
"I'm heartbroken," said Branzuela. "Seven years he was with me every day."
He's dealing with all of this, as he battles terminal cancer.
In Day Three of the intense fire fight, SkyFox was overhead and captured plumes of smoke above the Santa Cruz Mountains. An air attack made repeated water drops on hot spots, as hand crews worked through the difficult terrain.
"It's steep, it's rocky," said Cal Fire Division Chief Angela Bernheisel. "There's a lot of heavy brush to cut through and clear out of the way."
As night fell, some evacuees gathered at a Cal Fire staging area in Morgan Hill with their belongings watching the fiery glow from the ridge.
As for Branzuela, friends are helping him and his family collecting donations and raising money through a Go Fund Me page. Branzuela said, he's used to fires in the mountains, but nothing quite like this one.
"When something is that big and out of control that much it doesn't matter how much preparation that you do," said Branzuela. "The flames looked so high to me."
Cal Fire puts the official number of homes burned down to one home. Brazuela expects that number to rise. Cal Fire hopes to have it contained by Monday.
If you'd like to help Branzuela's family, here's his GoFundMe page.