A new look at damage, rescues from Courtney Fire

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The clean-up continues after the devastating Courtney Fire in Madera County. The recovery is just beginning as we get a unique new look at the fire's path.

Video shot with a drone-mounted camera clearly shows the fire's direct path. The flames Cal Fire says were directed by strong winds and overly dry brush thanks to the drought.

A photographer who grew up in Bass Lake Heights launched his drone camera above the neighborhood partially demolished by the fire last week. The footage captures the fire's direct path through the area, marked by a line of burned pine trees.

The photographer is Jeff Aiello. The home he grew up in burned down, so did his aunt's home, almost with her in it.

"My aunt is 97 now, and she didn't hear the calls for evacuation," Aiello said. "She didn't know there was a fire burning. They figured out that she was still in the house. And Cal Fire went in there and, from what I was told, literally picked up like a sack of potatoes, threw her in the fire truck and got out of there literally minutes before the flames engulfed her house."

Just a few bricks and piles of ash are all that's left of that home, like the more than 30 others destroyed.

Aiello says when he finally realized how powerful the video is he knew he had to share it. "We need to get the word out and get these people help," he said. "That's really why

when I came back and I saw the footage I thought it's not that much but I can put a clip, a video together so we get people talking about it so we don't forget those folks."

Madera County Supervisors are helping displaced home owners by clearing the red tape and creating a task force to expedite the slow rebuilding process.

Property owners will also be allowed to live on their land in an RV until they can rebuild.

"We're going to be dealing with this," Aiello said. "That's not the last fire that's going to hit a populated area."

Cal Fire says because the flames were carried by high winds and burned in an area with steep topography the fire didn't fan out but burned in a direct path up into Bass Lake Heights.

A battalion chief said he can't stress enough the importance of mitigation and caution because of the extreme drought conditions all over the state.