‘We fled the flames before our home was destroyed’
Yorkshireman describes ordeal in wildfire escape
AS THE first victims of the US wildfires are named by the authorities, a Yorkshireman has told how he escaped his Californian home with his family when flames took hold at unprecedented speed.
Ben Colbeck, his American wife Jessica, 30, their six-monthold baby daughter Penelope and the family dog piled into the car with only the clothes they were wearing just minutes before their home in the town of Paradise was burned to the ground.
He said the warning systems and news channels simply couldn’t keep up with the pace of the unfolding disaster which has devastated the area since Thursday. Mr Colbeck, 29, who was born in Thirsk and also lived in York before emigrating eight years ago, said: “We usually get two warnings. One is start packing and one is just leave. Failing that, police come along the street with speakers. This spread so fast that none of that happened.
“We usually get up at 6am or 7am but we had slept in because the sky was totally black. When we woke up my phone was blowing up with texts. We put the news on for updates but it was not quick enough.”
The musician and teacher said he was still calm when he went outside to turn the gas off, which is normal practice during wildfires, but realised the severity of the situation when the sky was “raining ash” and it was singeing his hair.
He said: “Cars were bolting down the street and I thought we have to go now. I got my wife, kid and my dog and got in the car.”
As the near-30,000 other residents of the town fled along mountain roads, traffic was backed up and he said friends just 10 minutes behind him were driving through flames as they made their escape.
The family drove for two-anda-half hours to the safety of a relative’s house in the town of Truckee, Nevada.
Residents have been given online maps for each of the houses in Paradise and Mr Colbeck found out earlier this week that everything they had, including the music studio attached to his house where he worked, has been razed to the ground.
Ben’s sister Emily Lopez Morino has since started a funding campaign to help the family rebuild their lives.
The target of £10,000 has reached almost £9,000 within a few days.
Mr Colbeck added: “The first day or two we were in a daze. We were so lucky to get out and there are people in a lot worse situation than us, but now is the worst because it is day-to-day and we don’t have a plan.”
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea’s office has now identified four of the victims of the fires and publicly named three.
Ernest Foss, a 63-year-old musician who once taught lessons, Carl Wiley, 77, who refurbished tyres for Michelin, and Jesus Fernandez, aged 48 and known as Zeus, who was described as a loving father and loyal friend, were identified as being among 48 people who perished in the blaze.
The search for the dead was making use of portable devices that can identify someone’s genetic material in a couple of hours, rather than days or weeks, which were used following 9/11.
Cars bolted down the street and I thought ‘we have to go now’. Ben Colbeck, a Yorkshireman living in the Californian town of Paradise.