Paradise remembers deadly fire

People were asked to pause for 85 seconds at 11:08 a.m.

PARADISE, Calif. — Paradise paused on Friday.

One year after the most devastating wildfire in California history mostly destroyed the town, local officials asked people to pause for 85 seconds beginning at 11:08 a.m. — one second for every person who was killed.

Hundreds of people packed the parking lot of a former bank building on Friday to stop and remember.

It was one of several events local officials have planned to commemorate Nov. 8, 2018, when a terrifying blaze blew through the town and prompted a panicked evacuation that forced some people to abandon their cars as the fire closed in on gridlocked roads.

Christina Taft fled that day. But her mother, Victoria, did not and was killed in the fire. Taft said it’s been a difficult year and she’s had trouble finding housing. She’s living in San Jose with a friend she met after the fire, where she finally found a job that starts on Monday.

Taft said she plans to return to Paradise this weekend to visit friends. She’s told her story many times to media outlets, including being featured recently in a PBS documentary.

“I didn’t watch it,” she said. “I just can’t even really look at fire that much.”

While Friday’s events will remember that day, Paradise Mayor Jody Jones said she wants the community to “celebrate the progress we’ve made, and look to the future and what we can become.” “We were never lost,” she said. Paradise Town Councilman Michael Zuccolillo urged the crowd Friday to have hope, noting the sounds of rebuilding have replaced those of debris removal.