Coile's home off of East End Road near the Basargin Road turnoff was one of the first structures reported burned. Still shaken by his loss, he didn't want to say much Thursday afternoon. Coile stayed at his home until Wednesday night and left when the fire got within 100 yards.

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky Ron Miller of Caribou Family Restaurant helps prepare 100 brown bag meals for firefighters.

Thursday, he was in town staying with friends. When asked if he needed help from the Red Cross, Coile said, "I've lived here 30 years. I'll take care of myself."

Natalia Ivanov and her family wondered Tuesday if they should evacuate their Falls Creek home, but then the fire died down and it looked like everything would be OK. Wednesday, the scenario had changed, At 5 p.m. Alaska State Troopers were at Ivanov's door, announcing the growing fire made the situation anything but OK.

"It was like, 'quick, quick, quick,'" Ivanov said of the hour she, her husband and their six children had to pack belongings and convoy with about 10 other families out of the area.

Garbage bags were quickly filled with belongings.

"We just grabbed at everything. The older kids were big enough to pack for themselves," Ivanov said.

Chickens were released from the pen. Cats were left to fend for themselves. With flames already licking at both sides of the road, there wasn't time to do more. An escort safely led them out of the area, away from their home. In Homer, other family members opened their door, offering shelter for the displaced families.

Ivanov's husband and his brothers were able to make their way back to their homes about noon today and verified that everything looked intact.

"Thank God it didn't touch our houses," she said, hoping she and her children will be able to return to their home soon. "But you never know what a fire will do."

While waiting to return home, Ivanov worried about friends and family living in the Voznesenka, Razdolna and Kachemak Selo areas. According to Donna Peterson, supt. for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, classes in schools in those villages were cancelled as of this morning. More than 250 students are enrolled in schools at the end of East End Road -- 50 at Razdolna, 110 at Voznesenka and 93 at Kachemak Selo.

"We have teachers in that area and are getting pretty good information when they can get through and give us information on what's happening," Peterson said. "I do have one person from the district going in with an emergency team this afternoon to take a look at structures in the area. We haven't heard there's anything wrong with the schools, but we need to go in and see what's actually happening."

Near Mile 20 East End Road this afternoon, Jan Flora and Chris Rainwater sat tight, ready to defend their home on Snowshoe Lake. Forestry helicopters have been using the lake for bucket runs. Their house has the lake and swamps on three sides, and dry timber and grass behind them. Flora had set up a suction dredge and was going to try to borrow hose lines from State Forestry firefighters. She and Rainwater also have a small bulldozer to cut fire breaks.

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky Homer High School shares its space with the Red Cross Thursday as an emergency shelter for fire evacuees is established in the gym.

Flora said she'd seen a neighbor's outhouse burned and another neighbor's banya. The fire has hit some structures and then skipped buildings next door, she said.

"It's rolling right down into Falls Creek Canyon," Flora said. "It's really weird -- it's running in little strips," she added.

The fire ran up her driveway, but didn't hit her house, she said.

"I've got yellow shirts in the driveway hosing down those hot spots," she said of State Forestry crews.

Flora had been in Homer Wednesday and returned that night, getting through a roadblock near Mile 16.

"The smoke was so thick, if I didn't know the road by heart, I wouldn't have been able to drive. It was zero visibility," she said. "It was incredible. There was live fire on both sides of the road."

At Homer High School, today could have been any day of the week with students attending classes. However, the building was doing double-duty, sharing its space with a five-member team of Red Cross personnel from Soldotna.

"It's an emergency situation and everybody gets to work together," Peterson said.

A sign-up table was in place in the school's entryway. A floor-to-ceiling curtain divided the gym into two areas, with one providing space for 70 cots and blankets in case evacuated residents needed shelter. In addition to a place to sleep, the school-shelter also offered a kitchen and showers.

"We got here about 7 p.m. (Wednesday) and have had two hours of sleep," said Jaci LaDoux, of the time needed to get the shelter ready in case it's needed.

At one point, Frank Keener of the Red Cross said he had his cell phone at one ear, LaDoux's phone at his other ear, and HHS personnel alerting him to another call on a school phone.

"People are calling, wanting to help," Keener said. "One lady said she could take people's pets. Another women said she'd fix a pot of soup."

As today's noon crowd enjoyed lunch at Caribou Family Restaurant, the kitchen crew was quickly shifting gears in response to a called-in request from the Division of Forestry.

"We just got an order for 100 sack lunches that need to be delivered by 6 p.m.," owner Sally Johnson said of meals for firefighting personnel.

Brown paper bags were opened, loaves of bread were set out and lunchmeat was sliced. Into each sack went two sandwiches, a bag of chips, some pudding, a fruit cup, some fresh fruit, and, for added energy, some cookies and chocolate candy.

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky Frank Keener, left, Jaci LaDoux and Dan Devereux of the Red Cross in Soldotna set up a fire evacuee emergency shelter in the Homer High School gym.

The fire is believed to have started Tuesday afternoon by a downed power line on property owned by Doug and Natasha Schade.

"It started about a quarter mile from here," Natasha Schade said. "We weren't the first one to report it, but we were one of the first ones. My husband was the first one on scene with a dozer."

Like most of Homer, the Schades are using wind direction as a gauge for the fire's direction.

"We've got cows and horses, but with the wind the way it is, it's blowing away form us," she said, adding that family living in the area also have brought their animals to the Schades' for safekeeping.

When it comes to safety for herself and her family, Schade is keeping her eye on her new guests.

"When the smoke jumpers that are camped on my lawn pack up and leave, then we'll go," she said, laughing.

Rainwater and Flora were prepared to defend their home as long as they can.

"If we have to run for it, we're each going to grab our favorite gun, our cat and our dog and go," Flora said.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com. Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.