Scorched, but still standing - Independence, Calif., lost some homes and its reservoir in the Inyo fire, but most residents are counting themselves blessed.

But residents of Independence, a town along the eastern side of the Sierra about a 225-mile drive north of Los Angeles, breathed a sigh of relief last week when their hometown avoided destruction.

"God was looking down on us," said Jimi Goff, the manager of a market attached to a gas station near the center of town. "Mother Nature was [angry], but the big guy in the sky -- he took care of her."

The fire spared most of the mile-long town and its outskirts, where just under 600 people live along 395, the roadway east of the Sierra Nevada that Southern Californians rely on to get to Mammoth and Lake Tahoe. Many of the several hundred homes -- most with trim lawns and fresh paint -- were built half a century ago.

Like many others, Goff came here with his family for a vacation and decided to stay.

"You don't have to lock your doors. Everyone knows everyone," said Goff, who moved from Torrance about nine years ago. The only downside is that everyone wants to know "everybody's business," he said with a smile.

Many residents had to be evacuated July 7, and not everyone was lucky. Six houses and 27 outbuildings -- mostly barns or sheds -- were destroyed, with the hardest hit area near Oak Creek Campground, which was also destroyed, said Nancy Upham, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

United Airlines pilot Don Bright, 52, lost a cabin built by the original homesteader in the 1870s. The cabin, caulked with mud, had square nails and a roof made from the remains of 5-gallon metal coffee cans. Also gone was his father's machine shop and its priceless tools dating to the early 20th century -- metal lathes, a milling machine, harnesses, tractor parts and hay mowing equipment.

"I don't know how we can ever begin to replace it," he said while standing atop several inches of soft black ash.

"It looks like we suffered a nuclear war," said Bright, who moved here from Orange County when he was 12. But he was thankful that his home was spared.

Betty Biros, 39, lost her home, which was built in the 1930s. All that remained were four chimneys surrounding a sea of ash in which the crumpled remains of a stove sat near a burnt page of a recipe book.