SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As the flames closed in on tiny Berry Creek in the Sierra Nevada foothills early Wednesday, Misty Spires and her boyfriend hooked a fire hose to a hydrant in a desperate attempt to defend their homes and the town's only laundromat.They gave up around 4 a.m.
when propane tanks began exploding and they were dodging embers “as big as my feet,” she said. But traffic was snarled on the two-lane bridge leading out of town, forcing Spires and others to turn around and drive down a sandbar to escape the flames.She helped another man load his motorcycle on the back of her pickup truck before sprinting to safety. “It was like a war zone, like standing in the breath of hell,” she said.For the second time in two years, fire has.