Life goes on amid ruins
Small group of survivors defies orders and will stick it out in blackened landscape
Brad Weldon lost his home to fire when he was a kid, so when a deadly wildland blaze came roaring toward his ranch house in the pines where he lives with his 89-year-old blind mother, he wasn’t going to let disaster strike twice.
Weldon and his mother’s caregiver, armed only with a garden hose and buckets, successfully fought the flames for 24 hours. At times, they had to lie down in the dirt to “avoid burning up” as 60 mph (97 kph) winds drove flames through the forest.
Having saved his home in Paradise, Weldon’s not leaving what he now calls the “hell zone.”
“If they take me out of here, it will be at gunpoint,” Weldon said. “My mom says they’ll have to beat her ass, too. She ain’t going without a fight.”
Weldon is among a small group of fire survivors who have defied orders to leave and decided to stick it out in the blackened and smouldering landscape. Flames levelled the town of Paradise, which is about 140 miles (225 kilometres) north of San Francisco, and much of the surrounding area, killing at least 77 people and destroying more than 10,500 homes.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said he didn’t know how many people were living in the evacuation zones.
Deputies who encounter someone in the area will confirm they live there, but won’t
necessarily take other action.
“We’re not dragging them out,” he said.
“If some guy stayed at his house, I’m not going to arrest him if he’s not creating some kind of problem. I’m trying to treat people with respect and compassion.”
Honea said he was hesitant to spread that message because it might encourage people to ignore evacuation orders, which can create problems even if they survive the initial danger. He said deputies have encountered people who stayed behind and ran out of food.
It’s an audacious endeavour to stay behind in the smoky ruins with all the challenges that remain: There’s no power, no public water supply and there’s nowhere nearby to get supplies. Residents who leave to get groceries, drinking water or fuel for generators, aren’t allowed to return.
The fire continues to burn and the sheriff has said there’s no timeline for when people will be allowed back in the area because the scope of the destruction is unprecedented.
Patrick Knuthson, who managed to save his large metal
workshop that has a small apartment inside, said he’s not planning to leave and has plenty of food and fuel to provide electricity to his living space and to pump water from his well.
Knuthson has appointed himself as a guardian in his neck of the woods on the outskirts of Paradise where only two of 22 houses remained standing on his road. He has spray painted a sign saying “Looters will be shot!!”
“I got my neighbourhood locked down,” Knuthson said. “We’re all armed. We’ll ask questions later.”