Hunters Valley family loses decades-old home to Detwiler Fire

Robin Falany, his wife and 90-year-old mother were some of the first to evacuate their home from the Detwiler fire in Mariposa County this week.

Falany, 63, was outside moving the sprinklers around his home Sunday afternoon when he spotted the fire.

“I looked up and saw it within minutes of when it started,” he said. “I called my neighbor who lives up on the peak, and he said he heard a lot of gun fire that morning.”

Falany immediately called 911 and began loading up his vehicle to evacuate Hunters Valley Ranch, his family’s ranch since the 1970s where a white stucco hacienda-style home with a red tile roof sits. Falany called the residence “quite the show piece.”

“We left behind one stallion and about 50 laying hens,” he said. “This wasn’t something new to us. We’ve seen it many times. We’ve been through this 10 or 15 times over the years. But the fire has always stopped before it got to us.”

Not this time.

While eating lunch at the Miners Inn in Mariposa, Falany received a picture of his hacienda home burned to the ground.

“When one thing goes, another comes along,” he said.

Now, he’s staying with family in Modesto and seeking out as much information as possible about the fire and resources available.

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Hunters Valley family loses decades-old home to Detwiler Fire."