The flames may have destroyed Holly Lightner’s home, but she’s grateful that she still has South Lake.
The 62-year-old former nurse has lived in the hamlet of retirees and low-income families near the southern shore of Lake Isabella since 1986. South Lake, she said, is the kind of place where the grocer lets those short on cash buy their food with an IOU, not wanting anyone to go hungry.
"You can only find that in a small town like ours, I guess," she said, chuckling. "That's us, that's South Lake."
Yet among the tight-knit community, with a few hundred residents just 45 miles northeast of Bakersfield, frustration and anger are flaring as they face the grim reality presented by the Erskine fire, which has killed at least two people. At more than 70 square miles, the blaze is the state’s largest and it has leveled 200 structures, making it the most destructive wildfire this year. In South Lake, more than 100 trailers and houses were burned in a 1-square-mile area.
Convinced that protecting wealthier communities was the priority of first responders, angry South Lake residents pressed officials on Monday to explain at a community meeting why firefighters didn’t save more of the town.