Those who lost everything in wildfire remain thankful
Volunteers help, step up to ensure turkey, pie available
CHICO, Calif. — Hannah Crenshaw hosts a Thanksgiving dinner each year, cooking turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes — her favorite — for up to 15 guests at her home in Magalia.
It wasn’t an option this year.
Her house burned down in the Nov. 8 wildfire that tore through the town of Paradise and surrounding communities, including Magalia.
Instead, she spent Thanksgiving with her husband’s family in nearby Durham.
“It doesn’t really feel like Thanksgiving,” she said. “But Thanksgiving’s my favorite holiday. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for this year with everything going on.
At least 83 people died in the fire and hundreds are considered missing.
The fire destroyed more than 13,500 single-family homes, 275 multifamily structures and more than 500 businesses, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
It won’t be a normal Thanksgiving for any of those families, but businesses and hundreds of volunteers stepped up to ensure turkey, potatoes and pie were available — a small slice of comfort.
Thousands of residents who lost their homes or their loved ones in a Northern California wildfire will spend Thanksgiving in unexpected situations and with unfamiliar faces.
The World Central Kitchen, a Washington, D.C.- based nonprofit, teamed with Chico-based Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., the local university and the town of Paradise to provide 15,000 meals Thursday.
Scores of others opened their homes to strangers who lost everything.
Paradise Mayor Jody Jones said the community meals will be “a respite from the frantic activity of trying to put our lives back”together and our town back together.”
Rachael Anderson hosted a displaced mom and daughter at her home in Redding, about 90 minutes from Paradise. Anderson knows what it’s like to live in a community devastated by flames — a massive wildfire swept through Redding last summer.
She didn’t lose her home. But she wanted to share it with others in need. She was joined by Athenia Dunham and her 15-year-old daughter, Natalie.
“They’ve lost their home, their traditions, whatever it is that they do. I just want to give them a little piece of home,” Anderson said. “That’s what Thanksgiving’s about; it’s not just about your blood family — it’s about giving thanks and helping each other.”
Joann Barr was at one of the community dinners hosted by the brewery and World Central Kitchen, held on the California State University campus in Chico. Normally she’d cook at home. She did not lose her house but has been under evacuation orders for days.
“It’s sad, but there’s plenty of things to be thankful for,” she said. “I’m thankful for the shelter I was able to go to, now the motel that I’m in — everything I have, basically.”
Meanwhile, rain is hampering teams searching for remains of people in rubble left by the fire in Paradise.
Richard Ventura of Or- Kameron Davis and Nick Daily eat a Thanksgiving meal with their daughter Marley Daily during a community celebration at California State University at Chico. ange County’s FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team said Thursday the rainy, windy, cold conditions are making the search process “miserable.”
His team has 27 people involved in the effort.
Ventura said the rain “clumps things together” while making the terrain soggy and harder for workers to see and move.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday that the fire is 90 percent contained two weeks after it started. Officials said the rain, which started Wednesday, helped in the fight against the deadliest blaze in California in the past century.
Still, the cleanup facing Butte County’s mountain towns is monumental in size but probably won’t start for weeks.
“It is a historic, almost biblical disaster,” said California state Sen. Jim Nielsen, a Republican who represents Paradise and has toured the destruction left in the fire’s wake.
“We have so many souls unaccounted for, Nielsen said.
A spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said state officials will start removing hazardous waste from the burn area “beginning next week.”
“This will take several months,” Eric Lamoureux said. “That ash is still toxic.”
There was a bit of good news this week: Butte County officials said all students will be able to return to school Dec. 3.
“We’re on it,” said Mary Sakuma, of the Butte County office of education.