Chronicle staff photographer Gabrielle Lurie is the bridge between our fire world and “normal” life. I never would’ve been able to manage the transitions without her. Thank you for weathering more firestorms and flat tires, murder hotels and dirt roads than either one of us should ever have had to endure. (Maybe someday we’ll meet the Kardashians.)
J. D. Morris was first my interpreter when it came to the intricacies of PG&E, and then he was just my friend. Thank you for so patiently explaining the difference between a distribution line and a transmission line. Trisha Thadani was my best friend, period. I’m not sure what I would have done without our “bitch and bike” sessions or our dreamy summer road trip through Oregon with “Van Man.” Though our relationship ultimately didn’t survive this book, I remain grateful to Alex Campbell, who cooked me shrimp scampi when I forgot to eat and consoled me through every bout of depression over the dying Joshua trees. I only wish I could have been home with you more often. And it was my dearest and oldest friend, John Handel, who convinced me on a warm summer afternoon at Indian Rock Park in Berkeley—smoke from the Pawnee Fire unfurling in the summer sky—that this book was worth writing. Thank you for believing in me.
To the rest of my dear, neglected friends: Thank you for your warmth and understanding. In particular: Jordan Hendricks and Ulyssa Mello; Bre Herrmann and Brendan Foley; Noah Berger; Marie-Louise Brunet; Tania Ermak; Kevin Fagan; King Kaufman; Erin Mansur; Shayanne Martin; Cahner Olson; Stuart Palley; Sofi Pechner; and Otis R. Taylor, Jr. Thank you also to the Brick House in Yuba City—the halfway point on my long drives from San Francisco to Paradise—for the coffee and homemade blueberry scones. And to my therapist, Renee, who gave me back my mind. She has taught me that even my compassion has its limits—and that resiliency is the secret to healing. (She also always kept my favorite kind of tea in stock; thank you, Renee.)
Most of all, to my family: my aunt/second mom Margaret, my godparents, Bill and Gretchen, my parents, Steve and Rose, and my brother, Daniel (who once came to visit me in San Francisco and got dragged all the way to Oroville for a story). They are my blue skies after weeks of smothering gray. My sweet father always told me that my words are worth hearing, that people want to read them, and that if I work hard enough, I can make anything happen: I love you more than anything else on this earth, Daddy.
NOTES
KONKOW LEGEND
The Konkow legend that is scattered through the book is drawn from A. G. Tassin, “The Con-Cow Indians,” Overland Monthly, vol. 4, no. 19 (1884), pp. 7–9, quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/ahj1472.2-04.019/13.
CHAPTER 1: DAWN AT JARBO GAP
Interviews: Meteorologist Jan Null; Cal Fire captains Matt McKenzie and Mike Kennefic; Cal Fire firefighters Jared Mack and Dakota McGinnis; Butte County district attorney Mike Ramsey; Scooters Café owners Dan and Bonnie Salmon.
only 0.88 inches of precipitation: Jan Null, National Weather Service meteorologist, in discussion with the author, April 18, 2019.
Only 2 to 3 percent of the wildfires: Victoria Christiansen, Forest Service interim chief, “Opportunities to Improve the Wildland Fire System” (Keynote address, Fire Continuum Conference, University of Montana, Missoula, May 21, 2018), fs.usda.gov/speeches/opportunities-improve-wildland-fire-system.
when high fire risk was forecast: At the time, PG&E was de-energizing some distribution lines when humidity fell below 20 percent, with sustained winds at 25 mph and gusts above 45 mph. “Public Safety Power Shutoff Event,” Emergency Preparedness, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, accessed May 22, 2020, pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/public-safety-event.page.
It registered winds blowing at 32 mph: RAWS USA Climate Archive, Jarbo Gap Remoted Automated Weather Station Data, Monthly Summary for November 2018, accessed May 22, 2020, raws.dri.edu/cgi-bin/rawMAIN.pl?caCJAR.
humidity plummeted to 23 percent: RAWS USA Climate Archive.
It was forecast to hit 5 percent: According to the Storm Prediction Center, relative humidity was expected to drop as low as 5 to 15 percent in the Sacramento Valley. By comparison, the Sahara has an average relative humidity of 25 percent.
Covering 1,636 square miles: U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, 2010, census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/buttecountycalifornia,chicocitycalifornia,US/LND110210#LND110210.
flames had ravaged the foothills 103 times: “Butte County Office of Emergency Management Local Hazard Mitigation Plan,” Appendix H, Table H-2, Oroville, CA, October 2019, accessed May 26, 2020, buttecounty.net/Portals/19/LHMP/2019/LHMPUpdateAppendicesOnly.pdf?ver=2019-11-13-130507-400.
the Poe Fire, in 2001: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Butte Unit, “Butte County Community Wildfire Protection Plan 2015–2020,” updated Nov. 3, 2015, accessed May 26, 2020, p. 7, buttecounty.net/Portals/14/Evac%20Maps/2015_Countywide_CWPP_FINAL.pdf.
the Butte Lightning Complex and Humboldt fires: Ibid.
His outpost was perched on a knob of land: “Station 36: Jarbo Gap,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, last modified 2013, accessed May 22, 2020, buttecounty.net/fire/FireFacilities/FireStations/Station36.
Two captains—he was one of them: The other captain was Mike Kennefic. Mike Kennefic in discussion with the author, January 15, 2019.
trying to impress McKenzie: The men described McKenzie as approachable, someone who clearly knew what he was doing but didn’t carry himself with arrogance. He was widely described as having “the demeanor of a cowboy.” Jared Mack, Cal Fire firefighter at Station 36, in discussion with the author, July 2, 2019; Dakota McGinnis, Cal Fire firefighter at Station 36, in discussion with the author, July 3, 2019.
Scooters Café, a family-owned restaurant: Dan Salmon opened Scooters Café in 1998 after purchasing and renovating an abandoned minimart on 41 acres of land near the Feather River. His wife, Bonnie, joined the business a few years later. “It’s the wild, wild West,” she said of the area. “We have bears and mountain lions and outlaws and in-laws. When I moved here from Florida, it wasn’t the California I thought it would be.” In 2019, Dan and Bonnie retired and sold the restaurant to an Oroville couple. Scooters Café is now Jake’s Burgers. Dan and Bonnie Salmon, co-owners of Scooters Café, in discussion with the author, August 16, 2019.
a stone lodge turned into a diner: The stone lodge is the historic Rock House Diner, which was built in 1937 with locally sourced rock as well as an apple-green mineral known as vesuvianite jade. In 2018, the Camp Fire gutted the diner. Even its iconic cowboy sign was destroyed.
a market with two gas pumps: Canyon Lakes Market, known as the Dome Store for its distinctive shape.
80 percent of the county’s crime: Butte County Sheriff’s Office, “Meth Facts,” accessed May 22, 2020, buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner/methfacts.
The fridge was stocked with fresh groceries: Contrary to popular belief, the food firefighters eat at their stations isn’t purchased with taxpayer dollars. They pool their money to buy groceries every week. Captain Matt McKenzie wanted me to make sure everyone knew that.
THE FIRE: PREVAILING WINDS
Interviews: Meteorologists Neil Lareau, Jan Null, Rob Elvington, and Alex Hoon; climate scientists Daniel Swain and Daniel McEvoy.
It had been more than seven months: Jan Null, 2019.
the state’s historic drought: National Integrated Drought Information System, “California Is No Stranger to Dry Conditions, but the Drought from 2011–2017 Was Exceptional,” 2017, drought.gov/drought/california-no-stranger-dry-conditions-drought-2011-2017-was-exceptional.
the fourth warmest in California: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, “Climate at a Glance,” January 2018 to October 2018, accessed May 26, 2020, ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/statewide/time-series/4/tavg/10/1/20
18-2018?base_prd=true&begbaseyear=1901&endbaseyear=2000.
five years of chart-topping heat: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, “State of the Climate: National Climate Report for Annual 2018, January 2019,” ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201813.
July was five degrees warmer: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, “Climate at a Glance: Statewide Time Series,” published March 2019, accessed March 30, 2019, ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/statewide/rankings/4/tavg/201807#1. Jason Samenow, “On Fire: July Was California’s Hottest Month Ever Recorded,” Washington Post, August 9, 2018, washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/08/09/on-fire-july-was-californias-hottest-month-ever-recorded/.
was at 74 percent for a common evergreen shrub: “Informational Summary Report of Serious or Near Serious CAL FIRE Injuries, Illnesses and Accidents,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Oroville, CA, November 8, 2018, p. 4. This information is available by public records request. See fire.ca.gov/programs/fire-protection/reports/.
The historical average during November was 93 percent: “Informational Summary Report,” p. 4.
broke records all summer: Daniel McEvoy, assistant research professor, climatology, Western Regional Climate Center, in discussion with the author, March 12, 2019.
CHAPTER 2: ALL ITS NAME IMPLIES
Interviews: Rachelle and Chris Sanders; Mayor Jody Jones; former mayors Steve “Woody” Culleton and Alan White; Town Manager Lauren Gill; former town managers Chuck Rough and Donna Mattheis; Town Council members Michael Zuccolillo, Melissa Schuster, Scott Lotter, and Steve Crowder; former Town Council member Dona Gavagan Dausey; Chamber of Commerce director Monica Nolan; Paradise Irrigation District manager Kevin Phillips; Paradise Recreation and Park District manager Dan Efseaff; assistant town manager Marc Mattox; Town Clerk Dina Volenski; Butte County supervisor Doug Teeter; former Butte County supervisor Jane Dolan; historian Don Criswell; Paradise Post editor Rick Silva; Paradise Unified School District superintendent Michelle John; Paradise Police chief Eric Reinbold and lieutenant Anthony Borgman; Butte County Fire Safe Council director Calli-Jane Deanda; Paradise Ridge Fire Safe Council chairman Phil John; Northern California Ballet owner Trudi Angel; Kevin McKay.
The average Paradise resident was fifty years old: This was the median age. U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, 2018.
roughly 26,500 residents: U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts.
a fifteen-bed sanatorium in 1950: “History: Our Heritage,” Adventist Health Feather River, accessed November 9, 2018. adventisthealth.org/feather-river/about-us/history/.
only thirty-one thousand infants had been born: Leslie Gail Gillham was the first infant born at Feather River hospital, on November 12, 1968. She received gifts from the hospital administrator and chaplain, and all personal expenses were waived for her family. As of 2 p.m. on October 19, 2018, 31,807 babies had been born in the Birth Day Place. Breanna Bork, executive director at Feather River Health Foundation, email message to the author, April 11, 2019.
daffodils bloomed along the roadsides: The Paradise Garden Club started the “Daffodils Across the Ridge” project after the 2008 wildfires as a way to liven up the dreary landscape. Daffodils are considered “the flower of hope.” Volunteers planted more than five thousand bulbs at the Paradise library, Bille Park, Aquatic Park, Terry Ashe Recreation Center, and public schools and churches that first year—and many more since then. As of November 2018, 162,000 daffodils had been planted in Paradise. Because the remaining bulbs were lost in the Camp Fire, the Garden Club planted twelve hundred white hyacinths in 2019. They’re arranged in the shape of arrows pointing into Paradise on three thoroughfares: the Skyway and Pentz and Clark roads.
losing by 250 votes: Trevor Warner, “Council Members Speak on Zuccolillo Removal,” Paradise Post, March 13, 2015. paradisepost.com/2015/03/13/council-members-speak-on-zuccolillo-removal/.
It had been there for forty-six years: “Chamber in Action,” Paradise Rising Resource Guide, 2019–2020, accessed May 26, 2020, p. 94, issuu.com/paradiseridgebusinessjournal/docs/final_e6b19dbbc20267.
May you find Paradise to be: The iconic sign was located on the Skyway below Paradise. Contractor Charles M. Todd designed and built it in June 1969 at a cost of $3,635.52 for materials and labor. Diamond International donated the five train trestle timbers used for the wooden sign face. The fir trestles came from a historic section of railroad built in 1914 near Ramsey Bar along the West Branch Feather River. The 12-foot halo was made from two metal saw blades salvaged for $40. Construction was finished in 1972. The sign was moved a decade later when the Skyway was widened to four lanes. “The town has changed,” Todd said of the September 1982 move. “But like the sign, Paradise still lives up to its name.”
This time he won: Rick Silva, “Bolin, Zuccolillo and Schuster Win Seats,” Paradise Post, November 9, 2016. paradisepost.com/2016/11/09/update-bolin-zuccolillo-and-schuster-win-seats/.
and opened his own landscaping company: Chris named his company Premium Landscape Services.
Paradise spread across a wide ridge: Town of Paradise, California, “About Paradise,” accessed November 9, 2018, townofparadise.com/index.php/visitors/about-paradise.
an unincorporated village of 11,500 people: U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, 2018.
After the Gold Rush thrust California into statehood: The historian Kevin Starr writes that the Gold Rush established the “founding patterns, the DNA code, of American California.” This is key to understanding how the Town of Paradise came to be. Kevin Starr, “Striking It Rich: The Establishment of an American State,” in California: A History (New York: Modern Library, 2007), pp. 80–100.
In 1863, the 461 surviving Konkows were marched: The California cavalry marched the Konkows from Chico. Tragically, hundreds of people were abandoned on the road. Round Valley Reservation supervisor James Short wrote: “About 150 sick Indians were scattered along the trail for 50 miles…dying at a rate of 2 or 3 per day. They had nothing to eat…and the wild hogs were eating them up either before or after they were dead.” In 1996, members of the Round Valley tribes began re-creating the walk, turning a sordid moment in history into a story of resilience and healing. Benjamin Madley, “The Civil War in California and Its Aftermath,” in An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), pp. 319–20.
a man named William Leonard: Robert Colby, “Introduction,” in Images of America: Paradise (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2006), p. 7.
more than $150 million worth of gold was unearthed: Lois McDonald, “A Wealth of Minerals and Water: Mining on the Ridge,” in The Golden Ridge: A History of Paradise and Beyond (Paradise: Paradise Fact and Folklore, 1981), p. 12.
The most valuable find was a 54-pound nugget: Ibid., p. 12.
remembered a visiting miner: The miner was Granville Stuart. He arrived from Iowa as a youth and settled near Magalia in 1852. Clyde A. Milner II and Carol A. O’Connor, “Moving West,” in As Big as the West: The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 22.
as far east as Denver: Colby, “Introduction,” p. 10.
residents passed a $350,000 bond: “Urban Water Management Plan 2015,” Paradise Irrigation District, accessed November 20, 2018, pidwater.com/docs/about-your-water/water-supply/357-pid-uwmp-2015/file.
a home sold for $205: The local sawmill cut 9,000 to 10,000 board feet daily for new homes. The demand was so high that at Crego Sawmill, the sawdust heap towered three stories high. Colleen Sharp Muto, “The Crego Mill of Optimo,” Tales of the Paradise Ridge, vol. 22, no. 1, June 1981, PAM 22020, California Historical Society, p. 5.
a 1940s Chamber of Commerce brochure: The full excerpt from the brochure reads: �
��All roads in Paradise lead to some point of scenic beauty; some inspiring mountain picture; some beautiful blossoming or bearing orchard; some entrancing trout stream; some attractive home and garden; some picnic spot where native birds and little animals give a continuous opera of Nature’s song and story. Come lose yourself in Paradise a while and learn what living really is…. Presenting you an opportunity for a more healthful, more complete and more enjoyable life in an ideally natural environment,” Paradise Chamber of Commerce, ca. 1940s, PAM 5342, California Historical Society.
the population more than doubled: Paradise became popular among retirees, with real estate brokers and agents advertising the community to an older demographic. In 1962, the population was 11,000. Two decades later, it was 22,000. James E. Alley, “The Paradise Irrigation District,” Tales of the Paradise Ridge, vol. 3, no. 1, June 1962, PAM 22020, California Historical Society, p. 11.
applied for a permit to open the first ballet studio: Trudi Angel, owner of Northern California Ballet, in discussion with the author, January 8, 2019.
280 miles of additional private roads: Paradise has eighty-five miles of paved public roads. There were few sidewalks, the town’s General Plan notes, because of “the desire of the community to maintain the rural character of the town.” This also meant that construction of private roads was scattershot. For example, the minimum allowable street width standard is 20 feet, but in Paradise, it was 16 feet—despite an urgent need for fire access. Town of Paradise, 1994 General Plan, vol. 1, pp. 130–36.
from 3.3 million in 1919 to 39.4 million in 2018: Ibid.
The median property value in Paradise was $205,500: Ibid.
more than a thousand full-sized American flags: “Parade of Flags,” Town of Paradise, California, accessed November 9, 2018, townofparadise.com/index.php/visitors/community-events/9-uncategorised/101-parade-of-flags [inactive].
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