’30 years of memories and possessions, all gone’: Corral fire victims lose home

By Michelle Bandur

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    SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, California (KCRA) — Black, burned hillsides circle the San Joaquin County neighborhood caught in the Corral Fire.

Kirn Gill got his family to safety and then returned home to protect his house, as well as his neighbors’ property.

“We couldn’t leave, no one could come in,” Gill said. “It’s been wild. The fires were insane, with 200-foot flames, and smoke everywhere. I couldn’t breathe.”

Gill, who is using a crutch and recovering from foot surgery, said he turned on his sprinklers and grabbed a garden hose, watching the fire burn his neighbors’ home, jumping Bernard Road and heading his way.

“The embers jumped over to the juniper trees and lit those up. I had my garden hose going and all the embers that were flying up over to my property, I was putting them out with a garden hose,” Gill said.

He kept his home safe, but he watched the flames engulf his neighbor’s home. The Curtiss family has lived there for 30 years. The owners are 75 and 84 years old.

They evacuated with two dogs and a pet turtle.

“They had about 10-to-15 minutes from the time the officer knocked on the door to tell them to get out of the house and grabbed the dogs, the turtle and a little bit of clothes and left,” said Travis Curtiss, their son. “As you can see, the house is completely destroyed.”

CalFire crews were still on the scene Sunday evening, watching for hot spots and burned trees to fall.

“It was a very sad thing to see everything burning up, yards burning up, and unfortunately, our neighbor right there lost their whole entire house,” said Curtiss.

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