San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
‘ Soul tired’ 2 years after Paradise fire
Some are back for good; others can’t recreate what was lost
PARADISE, Butte County — This is the only place Charles Brooks feels truly grounded.
On a recent afternoon, he stood in his nearly rebuilt house and gazed over ridges that were blanketed with trees before California’s deadliest fire destroyed his town. After two years of living in Chico, he hopes to finish the project and return to Paradise with his family by the new year.
If fire roars out of the canyon below his home again, Brooks is prepared. From his bedroom window, he pointed out the pool — his backup safety plan. In case of an evacuation, he’ll turn on a new sprinkler system — one that runs off a gas motor and is connected to a hydrant separate from the city’s water supply — and leave.
“You can’t live in the wildlandurban interface anywhere in California now and not expect there to be a risk,” said Brooks, who runs the nonprofit Rebuild Paradise Foundation and has lived in the town since 2004. He’s convinced fire prevention efforts will make future disasters smaller in scale and Paradise “a safer community.”
Two years have passed since the Camp Fire ripped through Paradise and the neighboring communities of Butte Creek, Magalia and Concow in Butte County. In just six hours on Nov. 8, 2018, the blaze burned 95% of the town’s buildings and eventually killed 85 people. Nearly 19,000 structures, including around 14,000 homes, were destroyed.
The fire, sparked by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. electrical equipment, added to the company’s woes. This year, the company pleaded guilty to 85
felony charges, including 84 involuntary manslaughter counts. PG& E filed for bankruptcy protection a few months after the Camp Fire and ultimately reached a $ 13.5 billion settlement with fire victims. The first funds are expected to be paid out as early as Thanksgiving.
The Camp Fire’s stunning speed trapped a community with few evacuation routes and prompted a conversation about where it’s safe to live in California, especially as climate change makes fires more ferocious. State and local officials pushed for more fireresistant building standards and scrambled to bar insurance companies from dropping the policies of homeowners in highrisk zones.
In Paradise, residents with means and motivation have returned to rebuild, dreaming of revitalizing the community that they say the fire has knit together. Others left because they couldn’t afford — or bear — to stay. Many are still in limbo.
As of this week, 440 singlefamily homes and 70 units in multifamily buildings have been rebuilt, only a fraction of what was lost. Members of roughly 500 households are living in RVs on burned properties. An estimated 5,000 people now live in Paradise, once home to 27,000. There have been some wins this year: Debris removal was completed, contaminated water was cleared for drinking and the town opened the Building Resiliency Center to help residents. But recovery is unsteady, and many challenges remain.
Paradise residents faced a pandemic, PG& E power shutoffs and a historic fire season this year. When the massive North Complex blaze surged toward town in September, trauma resurfaced. Many who thought the Camp Fire was a onceinalifetime blaze realized big fires could now happen every season, and some aren’t sure they can handle the fear.
“Seeing a fire that was as intense or more intense happening two years later, I think, really brought people back to, well maybe this is the new normal,” Town Manager Kevin Phillips said. “We really need to make sure people feel safe up here.”
Two years later, Paradise is a mix of progress and reminders of destruction. On a bluesky day last week, temporary trailers and new homes, some half built, dotted the rolling hills. Construction trucks rumbled past the restored Skyway Antique Mall and a new Taco Bell. A rusted car sat beside an abandoned, smokeblackened gas station.
The construction industry can barely keep up with the demand, made worse after the pandemic disrupted global supply chains, driving up material prices. The town and nonprofit organizations are working to build badly needed lowincome housing, and next year will receive $ 55 million from the federal government to aid in the effort.
‘ People say it will never be the same, and they’re right, it will never be the same. It will be better.’
Pam Hartley
Paradise Community Village, a 36unit affordable housing development operated by nonprofit Community Housing Improvement Program, broke ground in August. Nearly 200 businesses are now open as well, but operating in a halfruined town has been a struggle for many.
Glenn and Jody Hartley, who bought Joy Lyn’s Candies from Glenn’s parents a month before the Camp Fire destroyed it, finally opened Oct. 1 in a new location, a refurbished building that’s 2,000 square feet smaller because of a shortfall in the insurance payout.
“It felt like a weight was lifted,” Jody Hartley said as she bagged piles of chocolate beer brittle inside the shop.
Facing slow and expensive renovations, she and her husband, who have two children, wondered whether to start over somewhere else, but felt rooted in the community. So they bought a home in Paradise that was still standing after theirs burned. Glenn’s parents, Bill and Pam Hartley, built a home on a new property, because they didn’t feel safe rebuilding on their old one. They plan to move in Dec. 1.
“People say it will never be the same, and they’re right, it will never be the same. It will be better,” Pam Hartley said. “To stay is not for the faint of heart. Not that we want to put blame or shame on anyone who decides not to stay. I get it. Sometimes I question it, but we are staying.”
Other residents haven’t yet been able to rebuild — and wonder whether it will ever be