Redding, California — It was a birthday 71-year-old Sharon Stapleton of Shasta will never forget.
"I will never repeat it, I hope," she said.
Stapleton was one of countless residents forced to evacuate their homes early Thursday morning as the Carr Fire exploded with swift and stunning force.
It was frightening, she said.
She and her husband, Ken were fast asleep when their two dogs "threw a fit" after law enforcement officials came to the door of their Rock Creek Road home around 3 a.m. and told them to evacuate.
They didn't have to be told twice, she said.
"There was no thinking about it," she said, adding she and her husband, Ken, quickly loaded up their Jeep and their motor home with what they could get their hands on.
"I grabbed a pillow, two T-shirts, a pair of pants, shoes, my purse and a few meds," she said.
She and her husband also grabbed their two dogs, Lilly and Allie, as well as some dog food and a small safe with important papers. Then they left.
But she wished she had remembered one other item.
"I didn't bring my make-up," she said.
Although there was never any doubt she and her husband would evacuate after getting the alarm, she said, some of her neighbors stayed put, hoping to ride out the firestorm.
For her, she spent much of her 71st birthday sitting on a folding chair on the grassy lawn outside the Sunset Plaza shopping center, trying to get any information she could about the status of their rented A-framed house from her neighbors and others.
"We thought earlier our house was OK, but now we don't know" as she gazed in the direction of Shasta. "It doesn't sound good."
Stapleton said she and her husband had planned to leave their home for about a month in the next week or so due to a remodeling project and they have been busy trying to get everything ready for their pending departure.
But they hadn't counted on the Carr Fire spoiling their plans.
"It's just been a bad, chaotic week," she said, adding she had also intended earlier to visit the Department of Motor Vehicles so she could take her driving test, which was placed on hold.
If unable to return home to their home anytime soon, Stapleton and her husband will stay in their motor home at their daughter's home in Anderson.
Like Stapleton, DeAnna Gorisek, 57, was trying to learn the fate of her Muletown Road residence.
But she wasn't learning much information due to the fast-changing nature of the fire and the turmoil it's created.
In a scene that was repeated by many, Gorisek and her husband, Jim, were sleeping when a neighbor came to their residence around 4 a.m., saying they needed to evacuate.
That was followed by fire department officials driving through the neighborhood and honking their horns to wake up residents also going house-to-house and knocking on doors.
It was pitch black, she said, but the smell from the smoke, as well as a strong wind, was nearly overwhelming.
"The wind was whipping through,' she said. "It just whooshes down through the canyon there."
She and husband quickly left, she said, adding she only took a change of clothes with her.
"It was hurry up and go," she said.
Gorisek and her husband, who are both long-haul truck drivers and who plan to stay with their son in Redding if they can't soon return home, are often on the road, she said.
But she was thankful they were both home at the time of the fire.
That's because it would have been maddening to be hundreds of miles away from home with having no idea about the status of the fire.
A Bella Vista native, Gorisek said she and her husband have lived in Shasta for about two years, but she's long been aware that the area is prone to fires.
Her aunt has lived in an remote section of Shasta that is especially susceptible to fire for more than 50 years, she said.
"It is so dangerous back there," she added.
While many residents clearly ignored the mandatory evacuation order, the American Red Cross evacuation shelter in the gymnasium at Shasta High School was busy early Thursday afternoon.
Rose Nobili, the shelter's day supervisor, said the evacuation shelter had seen about 100 people off and on throughout the day with 40 signed up to spend the night.
Among them were 90-year-old Mary Lake and Lois Barnes, 76, neighbors at the Frontier Hills Mobile Home Park in Shasta.
They, as well as the entire mobile home park, were evacuated around 3 a.m.
"Very scary," Lake said, but she and Barnes both believe the mobile home park was saved from the fire.
And they also both said the Red Cross staff and volunteers have been exceptionally nice.
"They sure have served us wonderfully," said Barnes. "They have just been great."
Still, Barnes said, they are anxious to return home, adding she is worried about her pet cat, which she was unable to snare after it hid as she was evacuated.
"We're hoping and praying we can ho home," she said.