Middletown Residents Make Bittersweet Return One Week After Valley Fire Tore Through

MIDDLETOWN (CBS13) — After nearly a week of getting by with just the bare essentials and items they could fit in the trunk of their car, hundreds of Middletown residents were allowed back into their neighborhoods on Saturday.

Mandatory evacuation orders in Middletown were lifted at noon on Saturday, one week after the devastating fire tore through the town.

"Am I going to miss the stuff I had? Yeah. But it's only stuff," said Fletcher Thornton.

A week-long game of hurry-up-and-wait has given way to a heartbreaking reality for dozens of Middletown residents.

"I just bawled. I just cried," he said.

Kathie Pennell says she spent the last five days holding her breath at a Lake County evacuation center. News that her home had survived the flames almost seemed too good to be true.

"I cried so hard," she said. "It was just all of that relief and all of that emotion just—when you're surviving, you know, you just hold everything in and walk around and try and deal with it and the relief was just incredible."

For others like Victoria Gates, the coming days will focus on sifting through the ashy remains of her life that burned as she was celebrating her birthday.

"I grabbed the two clean laundry baskets that I had just done but hadn't folded and I figured, that's what we wear so I might as well grab that," she said.

With the toughest days now behind them, the community remains proud, resilient and focused on rebuilding the homes the Valley Fire ripped away.

"We'll all rebuild," Thornton said. "And give each other a hug and cry a little bit and we'll get busy building."

Evacuation orders will be lifted at noon on Sunday for Hidden Valley Lake, Jerusalem Grade, Grange Road and Butts Canyon Road.