Signs of gratitude, literally, adorn the Fresno County mountain town of Shaver Lake, population 500 plus a collection of cabins, restaurants and real estate offices.
Outside of Bob's Market, the message is: “Thank you, Creek Fire Heroes,” adjacent to a photo of firefighters.
The town today is an island of green pines, surrounded by charred hills and the burnt remains of trees. Yet the signs of gratitude, while well-deserved, could also rightly extend to a mostly unheralded group of workers who labored in advance of flames bearing down on the area from the raging Creek Fire.
That fire started on Sept. 4, 2020, the Friday before Labor Day. After a hot, dry summer, all it took was a spark in a steep, overgrown canyon to ignite what turned into an explosive blaze.