Good morning! It’s such a lovely day so far but you never know. In the paper we’ve been reading about the fire in Paradise five years ago that destroyed most of the town (Nov. 8, 2018). It’s about 25 miles east of my house. I drove up there a couple of days ago. It’s sobering. This week they devoted the paper to remembering that infamous day.
I remember it well.
I was in Capay that morning with my father. We looked to the east and saw the great cloud of gray rising in the deep blue sky. Dad said, “I don’t think that’s a cloud.” He turned on the TV news, and then we knew it was happening. I drove to Chico shortly thereafter. It was eerie. The sky was dark. People were already heading out of town. I picked up Dad’s medications near the Chico mall and then drove over to my home to get my computer.
The sky was filled with ash.
It was dark. I took note that people were hunkering down. Emergency vehicles were parked, one right after the other on the north end of town. It was weird. Glorianne was working. I called her. She said people were going outside, some on the roof, to watch for what they could see. We talked about what she should do. It was unsettling. The sky was getting darker. Something terrible was happening.
I needed to get back to Dad.
I crossed over Highway 32, not far from where it heads up towards Forest Ranch. Cars were coming down the mountain, back to back, inch by inch. The Skyway had most but not all. It was crazy. I drove around the town to enter the roadway west of Chico. I inched my way on the road, through Hamilton City, over to Capay. It took at least double the amount of time. That’s a memory you don’t forget.
It was a ferocious day.
Now it’s a memory of ‘The Day Paradise Burned’ up. For many months the former town was in a state of settling: the people losses, home losses, removing the burned trees, cleaning and sorting. The E-R Newspaper kept us abreast of what many people were facing. They were hanging out, moving away, taking inventory, using a store building to give out things they needed. Chico, my home town, was the key place in finding a way through the onslaught of situations the people faced.
Since that day, here’s what’s happened.
- Some people from Paradise moved away to out-of-state places or to new places.
- Many had to find new jobs wherever they could find them.
- The memory of the fire is a terribly hard, harsh, horrible one.
- Everyone helped each other, to cope, sharing their stuff, doing for others.
- We learned to give without getting, to care while sharing, to help those who needed help.
The residual benefits stay with us.
I’ve learned a few things as a result of the fire. You can’t always count on things that you think are good standards. Some people are horrid but most care and will give what is needed at the time it is needed. I think every day is worth thanking God for: for His care, nutrition, those who help, and so forth. We should thank God for every single day that He gives to us. He is so good to us, way more than we may realize.
