"The two Butte Creek Canyon-based firefighters didn’t yet know if their homes were safe, but they had to stop.
They walked Friday out onto the northern abutment of the Honey Run Covered Bridge and looked down at the wreckage lying in the creek.
“Oh man, Tom,” said Bob Frecolli. And then he and Tom McAdams just stared for a few moments, like they’d lost a friend.
he two and their water tender had been on the fire lines in Butte Valley and Concow since the Camp Fire broke out Thursday, and they were back in the canyon for the first time in more than a day.
Three other firefighters who stopped by the bridge Friday were among those who had been in the canyon Thursday evening. They said the fire had raced down the ridge to the south so fast that everyone staged in the canyon to fight the flames was ordered to move to safety. They declined to identify themselves.
All that was standing Friday of the old bridge were the pillars that had lifted the bridge above the creek, and they were leaning. The corrugated metal from the roof lay in the creek among cables, hardware, and still smoldering bits of wood.
The bridge was built in 1886, back when Honey Run Road was built as the first road between Chico and Paradise. It was used for vehicle traffic until 1965, when a truck crashed into the southern span and damaged it.
A new bridge was built upstream, and the county had planned to destroy the old one, but residents rebelled and formed the Honey Run Covered Bridge Association to take possession of it and maintain it.
McAdams said when the Humboldt Fire burned though the canyon in 2008, the canyon firefighters told their bosses if it came down to saving their nearby Fire Station 26 or the bridge, to save the bridge. Both were saved as it turned out, when a tanker came in low and blanketed the area with retardant.
They weren’t yet sure if the fire station had been saved this time.
They then noticed the caretaker’s home had also burned. “He was the best caretaker the bridge ever had.”
Frecolli retrieved some caution tape from the truck, and marked the edges of the abutment. “You can’t replace this stuff,” he said.
Then they drove off to see what else had been lost." (
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