I suppose it is human nature for the curious to personally want to inspect a disaster scene.

I learned that lesson at a young age whenever my mother, the daughter of a U.S. Forest Service district supervisor and the sister of a U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, always wanted to chase down the local fire engines to see what had just burned.

However, I am disturbed when I hear reports that dozens of Shasta County property owners evacuated from fires in the Igo and Ono areas threatened by wildland fires last week were sneaking around law enforcement checkpoints. Some were observed trespassing across private property and using ATVs and four-wheel-drive vehicles to traverse little-known trails in an effort to get back to their homes in spite of the dangers that called for the mandatory evacuations in the first place.

At one point during the evacuation, there were so many ATVs and 4X4s on one stretch of “evacuated” roadway that fire vehicles were temporarily blocked from reaching a fire hot spot, fire officials reported.

“We understand that they want to get back in. Who wouldn’t want to get back in?” stated Mike Chuchel, unit chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Shasta-Trinity Unit headquartered in Redding. “But if they have evacuated and they choose to go back in, then they have to bear some of the responsibility if we have to divert equipment and resources away from protecting structures to saving lives.”

Chuchel’s main concern is always for the safety of his firefighters as well as the general public. It is understandable that he takes it personally when the irresponsible and illegal actions of a few distract him and his team members from the big picture decisions.

“We can’t change human behavior. We can ask, we can beg and we can plead that people leave the areas that are in danger and let us do our job without interference. But we can’t change people’s behavior. People just aren’t thinking rationally when they go back in to evacuated areas.”

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, whose deputies have the primary responsibility of enforcing any mandatory evacuations, is also frustrated by the behavior on the part of some of the public who go back in to evacuated areas.

“The people who repopulate an evacuated area are causing a danger to themselves as well as to firefighters who have to shift their priorities, positions and tactics to a lifesaving mode rather than a structure protection mode,” Bosenko noted.

That is why those who are caught by law enforcement officials in an evacuated area are charged with criminal activity.

“Our resources are stretched very thin just doing normal patrols and marijuana eradications. Whenever we have wildland fires, there is a huge amount of overtime and additional costs for meals, canceled days off and other expense items,” Bosenko explained. “All of this can create a huge deficit in our budget that all taxpayers end up paying.”

Therefore, to all those who are experiencing mandatory evacuations or who might in the future, please re-consider satisfying your own curiosity and stay well out of the way of law enforcement and firefighters who are responding to these emergencies. Let the trained professionals do their jobs.

And rest assured that the authorities will allow you back in to your homes once it is determined safe for all.