Las Cruces native recounts his escape from California fire
After losing his home in Paradise, J.C. Ortiz is grateful to be alive
LAS CRUCES — Thanksgiving is known as a time for counting blessings. And Las Cruces native J.C. Ortiz says, after having safely evacuated from a burning California city, he’s feeling especially grateful this year.
Ortiz recently returned to Las Cruces, where his parents live, to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.
The relative peacefulness, calm — and clean air — of southern New Mexico were a sharp contrast to the ruins and smoke-filled atmosphere of his current home city, Paradise, Calif. In November, the small community was devastated by the Camp Fire, which killed dozens of people and left a trail of scorched homes in its wake — Ortiz’s included.
Fleeing a fire
Ortiz joined his family for a much-beloved Thanksgiving Day football game at Zia Middle School. Just two weeks earlier, on Nov. 8, he and his girlfriend, as well as a friend of theirs who happened to be staying the night, were fleeing their home in Paradise under life-threatening circumstances.
As Ortiz recounted, he’d called his workplace — Ortiz commuted each day to a job in Chico — to let them know he might be late to work because of the fire. But the severity of the situation soon escalated. He heard a noise that sounded like raindrops falling.
“I’d never seen anything like that before,” he said. “It was chunks of embers coming down on the driveway.”
Ortiz, his girlfriend and their friend were able to drive all of their vehicles from the property. Ortiz was also able to evacuate his cat.
“We didn’t make it out with much,” he said.
A safe haven in Chico
J.C. Ortiz’s home, purchased in 2013, happened to be located near an outlet road that took them straight to safety in Chico. Ortiz attributes their survival partly to that fact. They didn’t have to make their way through Paradise proper or on roads clogged with other vehicles.
“We didn’t have to go through the town,” he said.
Also, Ortiz said, they heeded public warnings to evacuate.
The city of Chico was inundated with people fleeing the fire. Ortiz said that friends are letting him and his girlfriend stay with them. And that many residents are opening their doors to strangers.
Las Crucen Grace Martinez, a cousin of Ortiz’s, said she and other family members were “devastated” upon hearing the news that a fire was burning in Paradise. She said she immediately called Ortiz’s parents, Carlos and Mary-Lou Ortiz, to find out how he’d fared.
Fortunately, his parents had received a call from Ortiz and were able to tell Martinez their son had survived the fire, but had lost his home.
“It was a relief, but our prayers were with him at the time,” Martinez said.
Ortiz said he’s fortunate enough to still have a job, because his company is located in Chico. But numerous other people not only lost homes, but also jobs, because businesses went up in flames.
Over the years, Ortiz had been renovating his house and working on it “to make it what I wanted.” The home had a beautiful canyon view. And plenty of trees.
“It was definitely my sanctuary at the end of the day,” he said.
He’s hoping to eventually rebuild his house. But he has a lot of uncertainties to contend with before then. Rental units and for-sale homes in Chico have been snatched up by evacuees. And questions remain about how much of Paradise’s infrastructure, such as pipes and electrical lines, was damaged by the fire. They would have to be re-built.
“The timeline for us and, unfortunately, for a lot of other people, is kind of up in the air,” he said.
Las Cruces is where Ortiz was born and raised. And he said this city will “always be my home.” But, since 2002, Paradise was his home-away-from-home. And it’s difficult, he said, to see the scale of destruction and death that occurred.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around,” he said. “There are people who lost close loved ones.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Ortiz said there has been an outpouring of wellwishes and offers of help. His friends, for instance, are letting him live at their home. Other people are giving away donated gift cards and supplies to displaced Paradise residents.
“It’s been overwhelming,” he said.
As Ortiz was set to fly back to Sacramento and make his way back to Chico, he was focusing not on the material possessions he lost or the uncertainty ahead, but on the fact that he and his girlfriend were fortunate enough to escape.
“Right now,” he said, “we’re counting our blessings.”