SAN DIEGO --
More than two dozen homes were lost in the rural Poway neighborhood of High Valley during the October wildfires. Of the 215 homes that dot the hillside east of Espola Road, 28 were burned down.
There might have been more homes had it not been for Greg Gershman and several of his friends, who snuck back into the area and hosed down some homes.
"We went over here. My friend Jesse's home was burning, but we couldn't save that. We tried to save other houses," said Gershman.
Firefighters were down below, but there were only a few of them and they were ordered to stand down after 40 hours on the fire lines. There was a command decision to focus efforts on stopping the flames at Espola Road and protect the heart of Poway.
"We made a stand along Espola Roard the previous day and twice the fire tried to jump Espola Road and get into city. If it had, it would have burned straight through and burned thousands of homes," said Poway City Manager Rod Gould.
Some residents and firefighters said they were not happy that more effort was not put into the battle in High Valley and that the neighborhood was abandoned.
Fatigue, resources, strong winds, topography were all cited as reasons for the strategy that day and night.
"I believe fire trucks had more challenges up here, topography, a lot more hills, steep driveways, challenges to get in to where fire hydrants are, I believe," said Gould.
One major improvement that should be done within the next six months is a second entrance and exit for the High Valley area.
