As the sun set, flames continued to burn into the night as firefighters put out hot spots from the Shaver Fire in Shaver Lake.
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Homes tucked away along Musick Creek Road in the mountains were left covered in retardant. Countless dead trees were coated with it too.
But it was the smoke seen off in the distance that had some of the town's residents questioning how bad it would get.
"It got pretty scary, we were raining ash," resident Jane Carpenter said.
She lives about a mile from where it started.
"It was like, 'Uh oh, we've had fires before,' but this was the first to move to close to my home," Carpenter said.
Firefighters battling wildfire in Shaver Lake area, forward progress stopped, officials say
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And as she watched it inch even closer - only one thing came to mind.
"What do I pack, I mean I called my husband and said what do I take with us, what do we have to have?" she said.
While she grabbed a few pictures and electronics, crews in the sky and on the ground worked aggressively to get the fire controlled. Cal Fire says the forward progress of the fire has been stopped and it is currently 15 percent contained.
"We have a helicopter out at Millerton Fire Station, and for us being able to use those resources here in a timely manner, it helps out tremendously," Capt. Jeremiah Wittwer with Cal Fire said.
And what also helped out was one family. They brought more than 20 pizzas and dozens of cookies for the men and women on the frontline.
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"These guys need attention just like we do, the thanks that you give these people, it means a lot to them," resident Warner Dozier said.
It's an act of kindness that touched one firefighter who is risking his life to protect the people in this community.
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Shaver Fire information
Size: 9 acres, 25 percent contained
Evacuations: Mandatory evacuations in the Music Creek area.