“Later, in 1979, we incorporated as a city of distinction, but not for the usual reasons.” “The family lines of some people I grew up with stretch back to the Gold Rush era in the 1860s,” he said. So, with the crop gone, we won’t grow another.”Īmong the displaced was Anthony Campa, a 40-year resident of what he described as “a mountain town like no other.” “Here’s the thing: It takes about 10 years to grow a Christmas tree,” she added. “We tried to defend them with garden hoses, but it wasn’t enough.” “We lost 10,000 Christmas trees that were 2 to 10 years old,” Benoit said. Joe McNally and his wife, Anne Benoit, were struggling to come to terms with losses of everything they owned on 20 acres of Paradise: two houses, a barn, a garage, a stable and a Christmas tree farm. “The majority of the people need to know if they have a home or not,” she said. Nancy Zastrow found evidence online that the health center down the road from their home had not burned, but their neighbor’s house had. The three have an offer to stay with relatives near San Francisco, but want to wait and see if their home is still standing first. “If I got anything more than that, which I did, I was really lucky.” “If I got off the hill the way God made me, I was lucky,” Nancy Zastrow said.
They had abandoned their home on the south side of Paradise on Thursday and were able to collect a handful of possessions beforehand. The board was filled, so sheets of yellow notebook paper with more names were taped to the sides.įor the past two nights, Gerald Zastrow, 82, his wife, Nancy, 70, and her sister Terri Myers, 80, slept in small cots in the shelter. Just inside, a white dry-erase board had rows of names of the missing. Paradise is gone.”Īt Neighborhood Church in Chico, a large evacuation center, dozens lined up outside at tents set up by insurance companies, while inside the Red Cross was registering people. “We not only lost our home,” she said Saturday. Sue Brown said she didn’t expect the gravity of what’s happened to sink in until they were able to return to their property. Three years ago, the Browns moved into a three-bedroom one-story home in Paradise where they planned to spend their retirement. The couple is now volunteering at the Elks Lodge in Chico, one of many evacuation centers in the area, which helps keep their minds busy. Before they knew the fire was coming, Sidney had taken off his wedding ring because his fingers were swollen. Sue Brown said she and her husband, Sidney, had a half-hour’s warning before they were forced to leave their home and most of their possessions behind. As he talked, flakes of white ash fell on his uniform as strong winds continued to sweep across the nearby burning ridges.Īuthorities are recovering bodies “with as much dignity as we can afford them,” he said.
“There were people who weren’t able to get out,” Honea said from a makeshift command post at Butte College, which had been closed Thursday. Honea said they could not immediately be identified because they were burned so badly. Others were found outside their cars and homes. The bodies of five people were discovered on Edgewood Lane in vehicles overtaken by the fire. Cars abandoned by fleeing motorists who found themselves unable to escape lay crumpled in the roadways, their tires melted.
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