A couple Merc reporters compiled a nice story on folks whose land is mostly ashes these days because of the fire in and around Henry Coe State Park.

Twenty-four hours later, their weekend getaway was gone. The massive Lick fire, which appears to have started on a neighbor’s property, swept along the middle fork of Coyote Creek and destroyed Locurto’s cabin and a friend’s Jeep they had left behind. By Friday night, the blaze was 45 percent contained and had consumed 37,660 acres of brush and timber in and around Northern California’s largest state park.


“Most people don’t even know what’s up here,” said San Jose resident Steven Matranga, 59, who returned Friday to the land his family has owned for generations, “but every fiber of my body is tied into this place.”


Here’s a slide show
of a guy whose property got scorched.