They were prepped for flames, but the fire came too fast. They couldn't outrun it
LAKE BERRYESSA, Calif. - A week ago, Mary Hintemeyer stood in the oak grove that surrounded her Northern California home and looked out at where a fire was burning a few ridges away, unsure of its threat.
Normally, there is no cellphone signal in these parched hills that form the basin for Lake Berryessa, a reservoir that runs 15 miles across Napa County's Vaca Mountains. But that evening, she was able to reach her oldest child, Robert McNeal, who lives 13 miles away in the closest town, Winters. He told her to get out.
As they spoke, she turned back toward the mobile home where she lived with her disabled boyfriend, Leo McDermott and his son, Thomas. Behind it, on the ridge that loomed above her, she saw smoke - another fire coming out of nearby Wragg Canyon,
