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Emma Lujan checks a money bag that she found Monday at her gutted motorcycle business. She and her husband say their building was a $1 million loss. AUBURN ? As Emma Lujan stood before the charred ruins of her Auburn motorcycle business on Monday, she willed herself to think more of salvation and less about devastation. "On the bright side, we got all the bikes out," she said. Lujan recounted a remarkable tale of quick-acting neighbors just off Highway 49 who bulldozed their way into the flames licking at C&E Auburn Victor-Twin on Sunday and forklifted to safety 20 Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Among the used bikes Lujan sells are valuable vintage models, such as a rare 1936 Harley-Davidson, nicknamed "the Knucklehead" because of its engine shape. In the wildfire that started Sunday, 63 homes and three businesses were destroyed by flames that raced through the wooded northern edge of Auburn. Three other homes and six other businesses were damaged. In spite of firefighters battling the blaze, flames roared through the two-story business Lujan has owned since 1991, leaving her with a burnt skeleton of twisted metal. Lujan, 52, and her husband, Carlo, figure their two-story building was worth at least $1 million. The losses would have been far worse had their neighbors not commandeered a forklift and carried their motorcycles to a nearby shed. Business owners are typically fewer in number than residential victims of wildfires, but their losses can quickly add up into the millions, particularly if they are underinsured or uninsured. Businesses that are never physically touched by fire can still be hurt if they lose customers due to closures or other circumstances stemming from a blaze, said Alex Contreras, spokesman for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Assistance. The SBA, which helps residential and business victims who are either uninsured or underinsured, approved about $3.6 million in disaster loans to 43 homeowners in the 2007 Angora fire at Lake Tahoe. An additional $1 million was loaned to 11 businesses. In one of the worst disasters in the state, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the SBA made $2.5 billion in loans to 98,878 homeowners or renters. An additonal $1.6 billion was loaned to 25,384 businesses. Businesses can get as much as $2 million each in low-interest loans to cover real estate, equipment and "economic injury," Contreras said. Lujan, who has insurance, inspected the ruins of her business just off Highway 49 Monday. She said she's sure she will rebuild. Under sunny skies, a burnt odor still lingered around the hollow shell of the spot where her showroom used to be. Lujan found a roll of pennies melted into a copper cylinder. She said she had put $5,000 in cash in a fire-resistant bag ? but left it unzipped. Next door, Keri Roeder owns Yamasaki Nursery, which survived the fire. Roeder's husband held the flames at bay with a borrowed fire hose and an irrigation system that ran constantly. Without the couple's dogged efforts, there would be no nursery, Roeder said Monday. She watched Sunday as firefighters fought to save Lujan's business from winds that eventually defeated them, she said. "It was very surreal. I could feel the heat and see the flames," she said. Roeder's nursery and landscape service sits on just under an acre of land. The fire reached a garden area that featured some unusual bamboo and edible plantings, such as grapes and citrus. "But compared to my next-door neighbors, we're pretty blessed," said Roeder, 36. Her main foreman, though, the father of five, lost his home in the fire. On Monday, Roeder was fielding community efforts to help him as she dealt with her own insurance brokers. She was also struck by friends and strangers who came by to lend a hand in the small mountain community. "This is a tragedy that is going to pull us all together," she said.