Home Care In Colfax, CA

And then there was one.

The Colfax Falcons expected to make a run to the CIF state basketball championships at Golden 1 Center, but they never dared consider they would be the only Sacramento-area team competing on the season’s final weekend.

Of the 30 regional girls and boys programs that entered the CIF Northern California tournament, the Colfax girls now stand alone. Seeded third in Division III and without the services of their second-leading scorer, Colfax relied on depth, desire and a lot of free throws to beat No. 9 Caruthers of Fresno County 53-52 on Tuesday night at Ron Pucci Pavilion on its snow-covered campus.

A full house saw Colfax win its 22nd consecutive game in improving to a school-record best 34-2. But to do so, the Falcons had to hold off scoring sensation Morgan Triguiero’s four 3-pointers and 24 points. The Blue Raiders of the Central Section finished 27-8.

Juliette James, a 5-foot-11 sophomore post, led Colfax with 16 points, including making 8 of 10 free throws. Senior forward and team captain Maycee Heimann scored 13, including two free throws for a 50-47 lead with just over a minute to go, following a steal and drive to the basket.

Steady senior floor leader Gabriella Biitner made a free throw to Colfax up 51-47. Lauryln Massic, who scored all nine of her points in the second half, made two free throws with 7.1 seconds remaining to make it 53-49. Moments later, the Falcons were celebrating their fourth NorCal championship, all since 1983.

That Colfax won again without prolific guard Kaia Diederichs speaks of the program’s depth. The sophomore multi-sport star went down with a hamstring injury in a CIF NorCal soccer championship on Saturday, having scored 48 goals on the season. She had 28 points in her team’s Sac-Joaquin Section championship basketball victory over Riverbank at Golden 1 Center on Feb. 24, the program’s 12th such banner.

“That’s the beauty of it — this whole ride has been with a lot of sacrifice,” Colfax coach Rexanne Simpton said. “We have players who keep stepping up, and the kids are realizing what it takes to be a champion. And the girls love the school spirit. They feed on that.”

In short, this is a tradition-rich program that dates back more than 40 years. Colfax opened in 1959. It remains old school and cool school with a gym that opened in 2004 and still sparkles.

Heimann’s mother, Michelle (Cornell) Heimann, was on the 1992 Colfax team that had the previous school record of 33 wins, under coach Jim Ryan. Longtime Colfax Record and Gold Country Media reporter Mike Ray, now retired, said Michelle Heimann is “a spitting image of her daughter, a 5-10 swing player, tough defender, long arms.”

Maycee Heimann’s father, Justin, also played sports at Colfax in the early 1990s and is the school’s athletic director. This is the sort of common theme that connects the generations at this proud school.

The first player coach Simpton embraced after the victory was Biitner, the 5-3 senior guard.

“She’s the backbone of our team,” the coach said. “She runs the show for us. She scores when we need her to, makes great plays, just does it all, a coach’s dream. She gets the game of basketball, and she’s got the softest heart.”

In what has been a long tradition, Colfax players raced over to perform the school fight song with students that packed that side of the bleachers, everyone in white. Then the team took a team photo with the championship plaque and everyone clutching medals, posing in front of that rooting section.

Valley Christian of Roseville was the only other area team still alive entering the week. The third-seeded Lions lost 110-84 at top-seeded San Francisco Waldorf in the NorCal D-VI regional final, capping a season in which VCA won the program’s first section championship under longtime coach Brad Gunter Jr., whose team was led this season by junior guard Chase Clary.

D-VI programs do not advance past the NorCal final round, but all other divisions do. This includes Colfax. The Falcons will play Southern California Regional champion Los Osos of Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County at 2 p.m. Friday at Golden 1 Center.

The Grizzlies (28-5) come from a campus of nearly 3,000 students. Colfax has 660 students but has shown it can compete with anyone. The striking difference in enrollment is tied to the CIF’s “competitive-equity” state-playoff model in which enrollment does not outweigh the strength of a program, based on scheduling and championship success.

Before competitive equity came into play in 2018, regional playoff games were often lopsided. They have since mostly been games to the wire. Colfax lives for that sort of thing.

Girls

Open Division

No. 2 Mitty 86, No. 5 Salesian 49

State championship game

Mitty vs. Etiwanda, Saturday, 6 p.m.

Division I

No. 2 Oakland Tech 82, No. 1 St. Mary’s 71

State championship game

Oakland Tech vs. Santiago, Friday, 6 p.m.

Division II

Central 62, Pleasant Valley 51

State championship game

Central vs. Bonita Vista, Saturday, 2 p.m.

Division III

No. 3 Colfax 53, No. 9 Caruthers 52

State championship game

Colfax vs. Los Osos, Friday, 2 p.m.

Division IV

San Domenico 42, Menlo School 39

State championship game

San Domenico vs. Shallhevet, Friday, 10 a.m.

Division V

No. 3 Bret Harte 58, No. 1 Fall River 47

State championship game

Bret Harte vs. Marina, Friday, 10 a.m.

Division VI

No. 3 Weed at No. 1 Cornerstone Christian, March 8

? All CIF state finals are at Golden 1 Center

Open Division

No. 3 St. Joseph 72, No. 1 Modesto Christian 58

State championship game

St. Joseph vs. Harvard-Westlake, Saturday, 8 p.m.

Division I

No. 9 Granada 60, No. 6 Salesian 47

State championship game

Granada vs. Sherman Oaks, Friday, 8 p.m.

Division II

No. 6 Memorial 67, No. 5 Vanden 61

State championship game

Memorial vs. Pacifica Christian

Division III

No. 9 Oakland 77, No. 3 Oakland Tech 61

State championship game

Oakland vs. Buena, Friday, 4 p.m.

Division IV

No. 10 Half Moon Bay 71, No. 5 Chico 59

State championship game

Half Moon Bay vs. Valencia, Saturday, noon

Division V

No. 5 Sierra 47, No. 3 Ripon Christian 41

State championship game

Sierra vs. Lynwood, Friday, noon

Division VI

No. 1 San Francisco Waldorf 110, Valley Christian 84

Season over

? All state finals at Golden 1 Center

This story was originally published March 8, 2023, 4:00 AM.

COLFAX, Calif. (KCRA) —

In his first full day on the job, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two executive orders making it easier for California to procure equipment and resources to fight wildfires.

Newsom said he’s committing $1 billion in new revenue over the next five years to buy more helicopters, planes and new technology to fight wildfires.

“A hundred-plus new fire cameras, infrared cameras, which will be strategically deployed,” Newsom said. He’s also allocating money for “new remote sensoring technology, we are going to put more investment in retrofitting the C-130s .”

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Gov. Newsom pledges millions for fire management and $16M for earthquake early warning system. pic.twitter.com/zmMrq8YfCq

— Mike Luery (@KCRALuery) January 8, 2019

In November, Newsom toured the burn zone of the Camp Fire in Paradise with President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, he sent the president a letter, demanding federal funds for managing trees and vegetation on U.S. Forest Service land.

"With all due respect, (the federal government has) cut their budget by $2 billion in the last few years to make sure that land is healthier,” Newsom said. “Yet, we're being attacked for not doing our part, when in fact last year 49 percent of the work we did in our forests was in their jurisdiction.”

The plan is to protect rural communities like Colfax, where residents are always concerned about wildfires.

Recommended

Cal Fire wants to create more fuel breaks in forest land and thin out vegetation before it grows too thick.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Cal Fire discusses upcoming fuel break projects for the north fork of the American River, in advance of governor Gavin Newsom‘s arrival. pic.twitter.com/tX2j5YoaAo

— Mike Luery (@KCRALuery) January 8, 2019

At Main Street Pizza in downtown Colfax, restaurant owner Lee Shahin said the biggest concern rural residents have is the lack of affordable fire coverage.

“A lot of people here are losing their homeowners insurance, which has become a big problem,” Shahin said. “Some companies have gone out of business and some of that is directly related to the Camp Fire and some companies have chosen not to renew policies."

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

In rural areas like Colfax, residents tell us it’s difficult to get insurance for wildfires, as many companies have stopped providing coverage. We’ll talk to Gov. Newsom about that when he arrives in Colfax later today. pic.twitter.com/w5fBWuQvXH

— Mike Luery (@KCRALuery) January 8, 2019

Colfax resident Mindee McGuire said her insurance company canceled her policy last June.

“They canceled with just a returned check,” McGuire said. “That's it.”

When asked why, McGuire said, “There was no reason."

Cindy Hegenauer experienced troubles too when her insurance company shut down after the Camp Fire.

“I had the Merced (Insurance) that went out of business,” Hegenauer said. “I called, I’d say, 20 to 30 insurance companies and nobody would insure me and it's something you've got to have.”

KCRA 3 asked Newsom to address the lack of affordable wildfire insurance for many rural residents.

Newsom said he’s very aware of the problem and working to identify a solution that will help rural residents find affordable fire coverage.

A semitruck hauling 40,000 pounds of chocolate caught fire early Monday morning, causing delays on Interstate 80 West past Colfax, California.

Caltrans wrote on social media that lane 2 was closed as crews worked toward cleaning up spilled chocolate on I-80 West. Jeremy Linder, a Caltrans District 3 spokesperson, told SFGATE that as of 12:45 p.m., maintenance crews had cleaned up the chocolate. Around 1:20 p.m., the agency wrote that all lanes were open.

“Crews were offloading the trailer after the original incident this morning when they had to call CAL FIRE back out to the scene,” Linder said via email. “The chocolate was placed in a large pile off the roadway and didn’t begin to melt until the sun started shining through.”

Crews also cleared out debris from the fire and dumped the spilled chocolate into a large dump truck before it was hauled away. Linder could not provide additional information regarding where the chocolate was headed or the brand.

A spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol Gold Run Area told SFGATE that the big rig caught fire around 4:15 a.m. on the narrow stretch of I-80 West near Carpenter Road in Colfax. The highway where the truck caught fire has two lanes on each side of the freeway.

According to CHP, Cal Fire and Placer County Fire Department firefighters were dispatched and successfully put out the fire at 4:50 a.m. KXTV reported that “the truck had overheated its breaks and detached the truck from the trailer which caused it to catch fire.”

Cal Fire shared on Facebook that no injuries were reported and that there was no damage to wildlife in the area.

It’s not the first time I-80 has been covered in sweets. In June, a crash on the highway caused a traffic jam when a semitruck spilled sugar onto the freeway near Richmond.

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This story is no longer being updated. Find Friday updates on the River Fire here.

Updated August 5, 7:40 p.m.

Watch the Aug. 5, 8 a.m. briefing from Cal Fire.

Evacuation orders for thousands of people, including for the city of Colfax, remain in place Thursday for a wildfire burning in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The River Fire, which ignited just after 3:30 p.m. according to video footage from a nearby PG&E tower camera, has now grown to more than 2,600 acres and is 15% contained. At least 76 structures have been destroyed, while two residents and one firefighter have been injured, according to Cal Fire.

It has been nearly 24 hours since the River Fire broke out at the Bear River Campground in Colfax. Our firefighters have been working around the clock to battle this blaze. This is what it looks like behind the fire lines. pic.twitter.com/017S9LV6VQ

— Placer County (@PlacerCA) August 5, 2021

The Placer County’s Sheriff Office has ordered evacuations for residents of Colfax, a small city just off Interstate 80 approximately 20 minutes north of Auburn. There are several road closures, including Highway 174 at I-80 near Colfax. (You can find the latest fire incident and evacuation information for Placer County here and Nevada County here.)

Colfax, with a population of just over 2,000 people, is considered a “high fire risk” city, according to Cal Fire. There are more than 5,200 residents in Placer and Nevada counties under either evacuation orders or warnings due to the fire as of Thursday morning. Approximately 3,400 structures are threatened.

Cal Fire Incident Commander Jim Hudson said Thursday morning that he doesn’t anticipate that evacuees will be able to return to their homes today.

“It'll be reassessed this evening, but right now with conditions that we have, it's not safe to put residents back in their homes at this time,” he said on Insight.

Bill and Sandy Gray evacuated from their home north of Colfax and are staying in a camper with their dogs, though they had to let their 36 chickens out of their coop and left their turtles since they couldn’t find them all.

While they’ve lived in the area for seven years, they said it was their first time evacuating. The Grays knew about fire being a potential threat and have irrigated around their four acres, put a gravel path around their house and got a generator in case the water went out.

“We anticipated some of this, but there’s still ashes falling down,” Bill Gray said. “But I’ve seen, you know, in the Paradise Fire, people who say ‘At least we have our lives and each other.’ That's the most important thing.”

I spoke to Bill and Sandy Gray, who evac’d from their home north of Colfax. They’re staying in a camper.Their home appears to be safe, though potentially in the fire’s path if the winds pick up.“We got the dogs. We got ourselves,” Bill said. “The important things.” #RiverFire pic.twitter.com/uaSDFVVcTo

— Scott Rodd (@SRodd_CPR) August 5, 2021

Dave Jefferis lives in Chicago Park near Grass Valley and stayed despite an evacuation order to try and protect his home and those of his neighbors.

"I was coming home from work and seeing this plume of smoke and I couldn't get home fast enough," he said. "It's been a long time since I've seen a fire like this. This is terrible."

That included rescuing an American flag from a neighbor's home before it burned.

"There was no fire trucks here at that time," Jefferis said. "So my son and I just did the respectful, responsible thing, took the flag down and gave it to the neighbor for safekeeping."

The Sacramento National Weather Service office has issued a “red flag warning” for the region through Thursday evening, with a forecast of winds and dry fire conditions, a warning from this morning.

Hudson with Cal Fire said Thursday morning that the fire is currently burning north towards Rollins Lake. While he said that overnight fire activity subsided due to cooler temperatures and a less-significant wind reversal, he is concerned about today’s weather patterns.

“The key will be today, as winds start to surface in the early afternoon, being prepared for that by having a fire line established, which we’re currently working on, and having a contingency line out ahead of the fire,” he said.

Cal Fire has aerial firefighting units above the fire today and had water-dropping helicopters fly over the area as of yesterday and overnight, Hudson said.

Noam Aharon was out of town when his girlfriend texted him about their neighborhood evacuating. But his home in Deerwood Place, next to Bear River, is “clicks away” from the River Fire.

He saw a massive column of smoke up from the nearby canyon, visible as he started going down Woodbury Road.

“Honestly, I expected the worst — I expected my street to be already blocked,” he said. “But thank God it went from us, toward [the] north, but the helicopters will pick up water like...two minutes walking from my house.”

Aharon has lived in California for 13 years, but said up until 5 or 6 years ago, he didn’t see conditions in the area being as bad.

Last year, over 4 million acres — the most on record in the state — burned. This year’s wildfire season is shaping up to be just as severe, if not worse. The amount of acres burned from Jan. 1 to Aug. 4 this year is almost double what it was during the same time period last year, according to Cal Fire data.

“Living here, it’s like playing Bingo: When will my house be burned?” Aharon said. “I mean, knock on wood. I hope our house in our neighborhood is okay, but it hit us as a town, as a community.”

Earlier today, the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District and the Nevada, Plumas and Sierra County Departments of Public Health issued a joint Air Quality Health Advisory as a result of the wildfires, with the poor air quality expected to last as long as the Dixie and River Fires are active.

Immunocompromised people, the elderly, children, pregnant women and those with asthma or weak lungs are particularly vulnerable to impaired lung function, coughing and chest pain.

Sacramento County residents are advised to stay indoors Friday due to air quality from smoke.

Bear River and Nevada Union high schools are temporary evacuation points, and the Nevada County Fairgrounds will serve as an animal shelter. Folks inquiring about their animals’ safety can contact Placer County Animal Control.

The Auburn Veterans Hall is no longer an operational temporary evacuation shelter, but the Heritage Inn, Hyatt Place, Holiday Inn Express & Suites and Home2 Suites by Hilton in Roseville have all confirmed vacancy to welcome River Fire evacuees.

River Fire Resources

This fire started August 4 at around 3:30 p.m. near Milk Ranch Road and Bear River Campground Road, north of Applegate. As of 3:03 p.m. August 5, evacuations are in place in Placer and Nevada counties, including the city of Colfax.

Counties: Placer and Nevada

Where to Get Information:

Acreage and Containment

As of 7 p.m. on August 5, this fire was 15% contained and had burned 2,600 acres.

Evacuations

Here’s where you can find the latest information on evacuations:

Sgt. Kevin Griffiths joined us at the command post to explain the current evacuations in Placer County, define what the different color zones represent, and why we are making some zones a mandatory evacuation and some are evacuation warnings. #RiverFire pic.twitter.com/8RBwsm2wGL

— Placer Sheriff (@PlacerSheriff) August 5, 2021

Scott Rodd contributed to this report

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Though the surge of Omicron cases will likely still be “sharp and potentially painful,” Ukiah emergency room physician Drew Colfax said Tuesday that he believes the latest variant of Covid-19 will also finally loosen the virus’ grip on the world.

“I think the knight in shining armor, the thing that’s going to bring this to a close, is in fact Omicron,” said Colfax, who has been working in the emergency room at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley during the past two years of the pandemic.

To explain how Omicron will likely bring us to the end of the worst of the pandemic, Colfax told Alicia Bales during their latest Local Coronavirus Update on KZYX&Z Mendocino County Public Radio that, “We are a nation right now that is about 65 percent fully vaccinated, and we are a nation of some 50 million confirmed Covid cases, so we have a lot of coronavirus immunity at this point, though not the 85- to 90 percent that you need for herd immunity.

“But Omicron washing over us at the tune of a half million cases a day is going to get us, I think very quickly, to that herd immunity stage,” Colfax continued. “And it’s going to do it in the least painful way I could hope for: Which is to say, that so far, at least, (Omicron) has been shown to be a much more benign strain (of coronavirus) than Delta or even Alpha. So yes, people are going to get sick, and yes, hospital numbers are going to go way up, and yes, some areas might even lose capacity, but not the way we would have seen two years ago, or even a year ago.

“I think this is going to be the surge that puts us over the hump for this pandemic,” he said. “And then, we unfortunately, we just slouch toward an endemic, and then we have Covid with us.”

“Do you think boosters are going to become a regular thing that we will have to do?” asked Bales, and Colfax said it was “quite possible.”

As for the Omicron peak currently, Colfax said it will be “short and sharp and potentially painful, and the peak for California has moved; some people are thinking it might peak as soon as the 9th or 10th (of January). But oddly, somewhat surprisingly, we’re not seeing a massive surge yet in this county. I’m seeing a lot of Omicron, and a lot of Covid, to be sure, and much more than I was a couple of months ago. But it’s not the mad numbers; we’re just not seeing the 100 cases a day in the county that some jurisdictions are seeing. Yet again, another oddity of Covid.”

He pointed out that one of the reasons for lower than expected case numbers could be the use of home tests: “I think a lot of people are getting tested at home and they are not ending up in any sort of government tally. Whether that’s what I’m seeing in this county or not, it’s hard to say.”

As of Jan. 4, Colfax said the county was “adding about 15 cases a day, which is not great, it’s a lot. And I’m seeing a lot of kids in the ER with Covid, that’s a daily occurrence now. They’re fine, they’re not critically ill, but they have Covid.”

As far as hospitalizations, Colfax said that as of Monday there were nine people hospitalized with Covid in Mendocino County, two of whom needed the Intensive Care Unit. He described “nine as not a small number in any small county to be sure, but after two years we’ve certainly learned how to manage that.

“And I actually am quite impressed with how well things have functioned in this county under the strain,” Colfax said. “We really held together in a remarkably good way. Now, 105 deaths is a lot of deaths, to be sure, and a lot of that could have been prevented if we had a more organized national response. But, locally, the health centers have really stood in the front lines of this for two years now, delivering care to the residents of this county in a way that’s been remarkable.

“And that reflects the fact that these are people living in this community, and working in this community to keep this community safe, and that reflects the fact that we are a small, cohesive community,” he said. “And the same goes for the hospital. We’ve been under the threat of being overwhelmed for two years, and we have managed it well. None of the hospitals has fallen apart or gone into crisis mode.”