Volunteer's helping feed and taking care of firefighters and evacuees of Cedar Fire

PORTERVILLE, Calif. (KFSN) -- California's highest priority fire continues to burn in southern Tulare County. It started as a small vegetation fire before blowing up to 21,000 acres.

"I was trying to get there today to water the chickens and feed the cats, but I couldn't get there. It was too dangerous, too dangerous," said Greg Boshears, Evacuee.

Boshears' home is standing in the path of destruction as the Cedar Fire continues to push north. He and his family packed what they could into a trailer. For the past week, the Glennville Rodeo Grounds have been his home, fellow evacuees are his new neighbors, and the volunteers are the unsung heroes.

"They have been just wonderful. They have fed us three meals a day, working up to a week now and I know it's gotta be becoming a burden," said Boshears.

The Greenhorn Mountain Veterans Association have been providing more than just food. Many volunteers have donated water, pillows, and toothpaste to firefighters now into their second week here.

"We started out we just had food left over from the rodeo we recently had. So, we were just pulling whatever we had, gettin creative with recipes to figure out what to feed these folks," said Bret Rogers, Commander Greenhorn Mountain Veterans Association.

Crews said the conditions have been less than ideal.

"It started in a really bad area. There is a lot of thick fuels and lot of dead fuel due to the beetle kill," said Nathan Thompson, PIO U.S. Forest Service.

The fires have already damaged several summer homes and hundreds more are still at risk.

"This check mark is dozer line. For the past few days, they've been doing a lot of dozer line work in here around structures, around homes," said Thompson.

Rather than wait for outside resources to help, these volunteers said they're doing what they do best-- relying on themselves to help pull their neighbors through. Volunteers said they anticipate being there until mid to late September. That is when firefighters anticipate they will have the fire fully contained. Again, containment is currently at 10-percent.