After the blaze

Disaster | Eighteen months since the deadly Harris fire, San Diego faith-based groups and volunteers find one thing left unscorched: Need | Lynn Vincent

Zuma Press/NewsCom

DULZURA, Calif.—City folk sometimes wonder why anyone would live way out here in the sticks where it snows in the winter, broils in the summer, and often burns —literally—in between. But sitting here on a hay bale with Elsie Campbell, looking out over the valley at the foot of Echo Mountain, the answer becomes clear: It's a little helping of heaven.

Low knolls and rolling hills form a cozy ring around the Campbells' land, which is still green this time of year and dotted here and there with flowers, early hints of spring. Overhead, a cerulean sky arcs over the valley like the lid on a candy dish. I hold still and marvel at the quiet: not a hint of city din. In fact, it's a good bet most San Diego County residents don't know that out here is, well, out here.