Placerville businesses grateful for progress made on Pay Fire

PLACERVILLE - As crews make progress on the Pay Fire in El Dorado County , local downtown businesses said they feel lucky the situation wasn't much worse.

"It's like a reoccurring nightmare all over again," Alfred Griffin, owner of the Placerville Public House, said.

Griffin said after witnessing the devastation of the Caldor Fire, seeing a fire less than two miles from his business set off alarm bells.

"Immediately you kind of tense up and start wondering is this the next Caldor Fire? The next King Fire or Paradise or whatever," Griffin said.

Down the street sits the Cary House Hotel which has become a hub for evacuees in El Dorado County during fire season.

"We sell out but I like to hold rooms for people who are being evacuated just in case," Tracey Zenor, Front Desk Associate at the Cary House Hotel, said.

Zenor said the hotel also completely sold out on Saturday due to the Pay Fire.

She said even though it sounds like some progress has been made, it's hard not the think of the worst-case scenario.

"That's what I was thinking with all the sirens and the smoke and the all the phone calls for evacuees," Zenor said.

Despite the Cary House selling out, Griffin said it was just a normal, busy Saturday for the Placerville Public House.

Jesse Simmons is a manager at Rocker Oysterfeller's on Main Street and said they didn't see a huge uptick in business either.

"We did get some people that came in and they had evacuated and needed to use the restroom or they came in and ate because they lost power, we had a lot of that, people losing power around us," Simmons said.

All said they're grateful for the progress made and that it hasn't turned out much worse.

"Our main concern yesterday when I had my bartenders and everyone reach out is that everyone keep safe, do what they had to do. Keeping the business open is not a huge priority in the eye of safety," Griffin said.

You can find the latest containment numbers and evacuation orders online .