Smith: Upbeat talk among Valley fire evacuees, until ...

Four weary and overwhelmed people, all of whom probably if not certainly lost their homes and everything in them to the Valley fire, spoke at a round table Monday morning in the dining hall of the evacuee shelter in Calistoga.

For a time, they were hearteningly upbeat.

'It's exciting this morning,' remarked Janis Irvin, who's lived the past three and a half years in the Anderson Springs community five miles outside of Middletown and who presumes that her home burned. 'There are a lot of people talking about rebuilding.'

Irvin sat in the busy hall at the Napa County Fairgrounds with fellow Anderson Springs residents Peggy Rose and Margit Pataki, and with Middletown librarian Gehlin Palmer, who lost his childhood home to the inferno but was feeling grateful that his town's new library, senior center and community meeting place came through.

Peggy Rose, who expects that her home, too, is ash, proposed that when destroyed houses in Anderson Springs and elsewhere in the disaster zone are rebuilt, it may be that the new structures can be designed and constructed to be more fire resistant and environmentally responsible.

'It feels like this is (Hurricane) Katrina,' she said. 'It happened that fast. It was devastating. But it's an opportunity.'

A short time later in the conversation, Rose glanced at her cellphone.

THE TEARS CAME to her at once.

Rose read from a Yahoo group email distributed to residents of the approximately 200 homes in Anderson Springs, located off Highway 175 between Middletown and similarly ravaged Cobb.

It shared information posted on Facebook by the part-time caregiver to Barbara McWilliams, a well-traveled and intellectually intrigued retired teacher who lived with multiple sclerosis and moved into Anderson Springs less than a year ago.

Rose read the email to Pataki and Irvin, who soon also wept.

The caregiver, Kelseyville's Jennifer Hittson, wrote in the Facebook post, 'I'm just sick with grief.'

Hittson shared that she left McWilliams' home at about 3 p.m. Saturday. She reached Highway 175 and saw police directing traffic away from the highway.

Hittson wrote, and Rose read aloud, 'At this point I realized it was a fire, but I didn't realize the seriousness of it.

'When I got home I checked Facebook and realized that I needed to get in touch with Barbara to get her out of there. She is 72 years old and has advanced MS, making it difficult for her to move herself around. She has no vehicle, as she cannot drive, and I knew she would not even be able to make it off of her porch without help.

'I called and her phone was busy, so I emailed her. I was finally able to talk to her at 6:30, and I told her that I was going to call the sheriff to get her. When I called the sheriff, they informed me that they were too busy handling evacuees to check on her, but they would go when they could.

'I called again after 10:00, only to be told the same thing. It was then that I learned of the number to Cal Fire. When I called them, they promised they would get out to her and asked me to call back in 30 minutes for an update. When I called back I was informed again that they were not able to get her, but they reassured me that she was probably fine.

'As far as they knew the fire had not reached that far up in Anderson Springs yet.'

PEGGY ROSE CONTINUED to read Hittson's post as well as she could while crying.

'Today (Sunday) I was in contact with her daughter, and she had been told by Cal Fire that they could not confirm if they had gotten her out or not, but to check the local evacuation centers.'

Hittson wrote that she and a companion visited the evacuation centers in Kelseyville 'and no one had any record of her. All day I tried to find a way to get up to her, but we were stopped at Highway 29 and told that we were not allowed to go in that direction.

'We tried back roads ... I tried calling Cal Fire an uncountable amount of times through the day, but the line just rang and rang. I stayed in communication with her daughter all day, and at approximately 5:30 (p.m.) today (Sunday), Barbara's neighbor was able to go up and see that the entire house was gone ...'

'Through Facebook, we learned that a friend of ours was trying to get through her (McWilliams') driveway, and literally watched as her house burned with her inside.

'I really don't even know why I'm sharing all of this, except I feel like the ball was dropped somewhere, and I feel like although I did everything I could, she could have been saved.

'I really just cannot believe that this is happening. This is such a nightmare.'

MINUTES EARLIER, the mood at the disaster-shelter table was willfully optimistic. Now we were in tears over the story of an exceptional woman's death in the Anderson Springs home from which she had no hope of escaping alone.

'I had such a good talk with her a week ago,' Pataki said. Rose noted that among McWilliams' interests and talents, she played the accordion and had agreed to give her lessons.

'She was a beautiful lady,' Rose said.

Reliant on a walker and wheelchair because of the MS, McWilliams had traveled the world and become a practicing Buddhist. Despite her disability, she planned to travel to India this fall.

Her three distraught neighbors at the table in Calistoga said Anderson Springs has been a place full of engaged, artistic, interesting people. Pataki has lived in the rural settlement the longest of the three, 20 years.

As much as she's loved the place, she said it's too soon for her to decide if she will stay there. She and neighbors Irwin and Rose said they've heard that few of the community's 200-some homes still stand, so until they're cleared to return to Anderson Springs they won't know the state of their houses and belongings, or how exactly they'll feel about the devastation of their neighborhood.

'We're not just missing our houses,' said Rose. 'We're missing the trees and the birds and the squirrels.'

Injected Pataki with a shake of her head, 'I just thought about our woodpeckers.'

She said though she can't yet say whether she will want to remain in Anderson Springs, she would appreciate prayers for her and everyone in Lake County who waits to go home and to see what if anything remains.

'That's the power of the miracle,' Pataki said.

For complete wildfire coverage go to: www.pressdemocrat.com/wildfire

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.