HEMET, Calif. — The sound of exploding propane tanks filled Avery Canyon on Monday afternoon as flames from the Fairview fire gnawed at a grassy ridge near Jeremy Fields’ ranch home.
A sheriff’s deputy called out with a loudspeaker, urging Fields and his family to evacuate. He and his wife, Gladys Nicomedez, gathered what they could — insurance papers, some clothes, their son’s inhalers and medication — before gunning it down Gibbel Road, the only way into and out of their hillside neighborhood.
The family was among the last to leave the canyon. They would learn later that the fast-moving fire had overcome their neighbors, killing them both.
