Havilah

Nearly three weeks after the blaze, it was a sliver of silver lining for Gonzales, who like most of Havilah’s 150 residents is trying to plot a path forward after the Borel fire burned the historic mining town to its foundations.

Havilah sits amid rugged, grassy hills that have yellowed in the summer heat.

Alexis Henderson was at work at an Amazon warehouse, more than an hour away, when she learned that the Borel fire was slicing through the mountains toward her home in Havilah.

About two miles north, Roy Rede and his business partner, Kirk Clark, were creating their dream animal ranch across 30 acres in Havilah when the fire hit.

Havilah resident Bo Barnett, wearing the same clothes he had on when fleeing , recounts escaping the Borel fire.