The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)

Deadly fire leveled town in less than a day

- By Gillian Flaccus, Don Thompson and Paul Elias

The air thick with smoke from a ferocious wildfire that was still burning homes Saturday, residents who stayed behind to try to save their property or who managed to get back to their neighborho­ods in Northern California found cars incinerate­d and homes reduced to rubble.

People surveyed the damage and struggled to cope with what they had lost. Entire neighborho­ods were leveled and the business district was destroyed by a blaze that threatened to explode again with the same fury that largely incinerate­d the foothill town of Paradise and killed at least nine people.

The flames burned down more than 6,700 buildings, almost all of them homes, making it California’s most destructiv­e wildfire since record-keeping began. There were 35 people still missing.

More firefighte­rs headed to the area Saturday, with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour expected, raising the risk of conditions similar to those when the fire started Thursday, said Alex Hoon with the National Weather Service. The blaze grew to 156 square miles (404 square kilometers), but crews made gains and it was partially contained, officials said.

People sidesteppe­d metal that melted off cars and Jet-Skis and donned masks as they surveyed ravaged neighborho­ods despite an evacuation order for all of Paradise, a town of 27,000 founded in the 1800s. Some cried when they saw nothing was left.

Jan MacGregor, 81, got back to his small two-bedroom home in Paradise with the help of his firefighte­r grandson. He found his home leveled — a large metal safe and some pipe work from his septic system the only recognizab­le traces. The safe was punctured with bullet holes from guns inside that went off in the scorching heat.

He’s lived in Paradise for 80 years, moving there in 1939 when he said the town had just 3,000 people and was nicknamed Poverty Ridge. The fire was not a complete surprise, he said.

“We knew Paradise was a prime target for forest fire over the years,” he said. “We’ve had ‘em come right up to the city limits — oh yeah — but nothing like this,” he said.

MacGregor said he probably would not rebuild: “I have nothing here to go back to.”

Homes and other buildings in Paradise were still burning, and fire crews were trying to extinguish those blazes, said Scott McLean, a captain with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Officials warned firefighte­rs to wear their helmets and be careful of falling trees.

Abandoned, charred vehicles cluttered the main thoroughfa­re, evidence of the panicked evacuation as the wildfire tore through Thursday. The dead were found mostly inside their cars or and outside vehicles and homes.

Five of the dead panicked when they couldn’t escape by car because their route was cut off by a wall of fire, according to Gabriel Fallon, who rode out the blaze with his parents to care for the horses, cows and livestock on their 10-acre farm in Paradise.

The group turned the other way and dashed down the paved street until it turned into dirt and passed the Fallons’ farm, he said. One of the drivers stopped and asked Fallon if the direction they were going would lead them to safety. Fallon said he shook his head as the fire roared closer.

The motorists parked at the end of the road. On Saturday, the charred shells of the five cars remained where they had been parked.

 ?? NOAH BERGER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? A burned pick-up truck rests on Pearson Rd. after the wildfire burned through Paradise on Saturday. Not much is left in Paradise after a ferocious wildfire roared through the Northern California town as residents fled and entire neighborho­ods are leveled.
NOAH BERGER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A burned pick-up truck rests on Pearson Rd. after the wildfire burned through Paradise on Saturday. Not much is left in Paradise after a ferocious wildfire roared through the Northern California town as residents fled and entire neighborho­ods are leveled.

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