♪♪ (Wind and pensive music) (Birds and flute music) (Wind and pensive music) (Crickets and pensive music) (Wind and building pensive music) (Synth hit and wind ambiance) (Synth hit and cars slowly driving) (Building pensive music and sound of cloth flapping) (Building pensive music and wind ambiance) (Big synth and piano hit and echo chamber noises) (Morning bird and wind ambiance) (Country guitar picking) (Donald Gene Chriswell) What constitutes a community?

Especially concerning Paradise?

In my mind, I mean it's pretty clear to me it was about the people.

I can just tell you this was the friendliest place I've ever seen.

This was a town that, you couldn't conduct a transaction without a conversation.

There was no such thing as walking into a store, putting down your money, and walking out.

You had to talk about something - with the clerk, or with somebody in line it was that kind of a place.

It was very folksy.

(Hawk cry) The second thing was just the beauty.

(Mike Findlay) The deer would come through, the wild turkeys would come through.

Wildflowers would come up in the spring.

and it's a nice, comfortable place for us to live.

(Guitar picking music) (Flag flapping in wind) (Newscaster) The red flag warning still in place through 7 am tomorrow morning... (Eerie music begins) Gusty north winds, low humidity, very dry fuels, all big factors.

Even one of these, alone would be a problem for fire danger, all three together - extremely concerning.

(Leaves rustling and wind) (Hawk screeching) That morning my wife went out to get the newspaper and she said, "You need to come out here and look at the sky."

(Eerie violin music) (Josh Gallagher) We were sitting at the breakfast counter my daughter saw a small pillar of smoke rising in the distance.

We didn't think anything of it because there'd been other fires that had occurred.

I thought, oh no...

I thought please - maybe it was a wall of fog because occasionally, to the south, you'll see a wall of fog say, over Yuba City.

At that point, I was getting the kids out to go to school, and as we're walking out to the car, the phone's ringing and it's the school calling to let us know that school's been cancelled that day because of fire in the area.

And that was 7:45 in the morning.

(Eerie music and wind) (Eerie music and flag flapping) So we came back in and turned the news on and they said that the fire had broken out in Pulga which was about 25 miles from where we lived.

So we didn't panic right away.

We thought, well, that's 25 miles - they'll be on it pretty quick.

(TV static) (TV announcer) Covering northern California.

You're watching Action News Now, Breaking News.

(News anchor) To bring you up to speed, in case you are just joining us, we are in continuing coverage now of what is being called the Camp Fire.

This broke out this morning at about 6 a.m.

It's being called the Camp Fire because it broke out at Camp Creek road near Highway 70.

And at this point, that fire quickly grew to some a thousand acres in a short amount of time.

I took my kids to school and I came here into my office I was here about 5 minutes and I knew the situation was growing worse.

Because it just kept getting darker and the smoke kept getting thicker.

(Michaeol Findlay) About an hour after that, our power went down.

And we never got an evacuation notice.

And so we sat and waited for a little bit - we had packed our suitcases just in case, she said, "You know, this is getting serious."

So I went outside and looked.

The sky had turned completely brown.

So I said, "Yeah, we gotta go."

I went under our home to get a suitcase to pack some things in case we needed to leave.

It was in that moment I felt like God just whisper to me "You're leaving now."

And I went from we're not going to have to evacuate to we have to leave right now.

I went upstairs and I said, "We have to go now."

We grabbed as many things as we could piled into our min-van, helped our neighbors as we were leaving, and then started making our way down the hill.

(Charles Brooks) We could hear the ash falling from the sky and bouncing off the roof and bouncing off the car.

It sounded like heavy rain.

And then a four inch long burnt stick fell out of the sky right in front of my feet.

And at that point, I knew it was time to leave.

(Cars on freeway) Chico police actually are blocking this intersection off because they have turned all of this into one lane to get as many people out of Paradise as possible.

Several people have been stopping here talking to us asking us what is going on but as well, the people that are coming through here are shouting that there was smoke everywhere there was fire everywhere as they were trying to get out.

(Linda Watkins-Bennett) I rushed into work, I turned on the television, and things just exploded so fast that day.

That's why it was so deadly.

With the winds, the location really couldn't have been worse, and the path that the fire took.

(Eerie synth music) The latest reports we have is that the fire is approximately 8,000 acres.

It moved from the Concow into the town of Paradise.

The whole town of Paradise is under evacuation.

This is our - what we've trained for, what we've been afraid of.

I've worked here over 22 plus years in Butte County, People who've worked before me we've always been afraid that a fire's gonna impact the town and unfortunately, it seems to be the case this time.

I think the first moment we realized this is serious is when we got to the intersection of Skyway and Elliot because everything just went dark.

There were people running around, we could see cars coming down Skyway.

And we thought, yeah, this is, this is serious.

But I think even at that point we thought, we're going to come back in the afternoon everything is going to be okay because the fire seemed to be far away.

It's just we thought, the smoke is just coming at us right now.

When we started to see structures burning, right near us, right on either side of the car, I think I even said to my wife I said, "This is not good.

This is significant."

(Eerie music) The latest number we have is 18,000 acres.

And acting California governor Gavin Newsome he has declared a state of emergency for Butte County.

(Fire crackling) As we were leaving though we noticed a spot fire flared up right next to our home.

We knew that that spot fire was probably going to take our house.

And in the end, it did.

As we were going down the hill that day, it was gridlock and it was slow.

We were trying to stay as calm as we could for our three kids in the car, 9, 6, and 3.

Saying a lot of silent prayers to ourselves.

And staying calm.

(Driver) Horrific.

Just horrific.

Never seen anything like it.

Hell, even the guard rails are on fire.

God bless everybody.

(Crows cawing in wind) During the evacuation was a little tough.

Having two young kids in the car asking a ton of questions and trying to remain calm and being in gridlock is challenging... For the most part, I was able to be calm.

Seeing a fire popping up in neighborhoods on your exit path and seeing fire where there shouldnt be fire it's just hard to describe.

You kinda don't believe it at first and then it's almost overwhelmin to see it all and stuff that you're used to looking one way doesn't look that way anymore.

(Sad piano music begins) (Metal striking wood plank) (High pressure gas escaping) (High pressure water) (Roaring fire and creaking wood) We were told to evacuate at about 9:30 and by 10 o' clock, it was done.

Oh, it's done.

I know my house is gone.

(Reporter) How do you feel right now?

What's going through your mind?

Uh, not good.

Everything I've worked for is done.

(Crackling fire) (Truck idling) The graveity of it rolled out slowly beyond that when about a week and a half later we found out that our house was gone.

And then uh, then we started to hear about how thousands of people it had happened to them too.

It wasn't like there was a single event that told us that this was a significant event.

It happened in kind of a rolling fashion.

But by the time the news started reporting on the number of houses that were lost, businesses, some people losing both their house and their businesses, that's when it really hit us.

(Piano music ends) You are watching continuous coverage of the Camp Fire burning in Butte County.

Within the last hour, hour and a half, we have learned that the fire has now burned 100,000 acres.

It is now 20 percent contained, up 15 percent from yesterday.

At least 9 people have now died, and the fire has burned more than 6,400 homes making it the most destructive fire since statistics have been taken.

(Linda Watkins-Bennett) I think the role Action News Now played was very critical.

And it was basically to deliver life-saving information.

As the fire unfolded, People had a hard time reaching someone with information about what was happening.

And so we immediately went on the air live and also online, and also through our app, and as we were able to gather information from authorities, and from viewers, calling in and sharing what they knew, we put it out as quickly as we could confirm it, and as quickly as possible.

(Faint sirens) (Linda Watkins-Bennett) A couple drove through Paradise on the Skyway as they headed to Chico.

And they had some pretty dramatic video showing some of the places that did go up in flames.

And we're going to share that video with you now.

(Driver) The Sanctuary is gone.

(Passenger) Oh no... No, the Sanctuary is still there.

(Driver) Oh, you guys are - God bless you!

It's our church!

(Firefighters) Thank you.

(Driver) I was baptized here in 1955!

Save it!

(Firefighters) We're doing our best.

(Slow piano music begins) (Reporter) The remains of 13 more people as Allen just mentioned, were found overnight.

10 in Paradise, 3 in Concow.

This brings the total number of deaths to 42 making the Camp Fire the deadliest and most destructive wildland fire in California's history.

(Fire crackling) Through my role as a therapist, and as a former employee over at Chico State, they invited me to be kind of a drop-in center for any students or employees who wanted to come in and just talk to a therapist.

It's had so many different effects on people.

Maybe this is common in natural disasters, but frankly, there's no precedent for an event like this.

There's no wildfire that's been quite like this that almost literally wiped out a town.

So there is quite a range of how people responded to the fire.

(Crows cawing) (Reporter) And a lot of people out there lot of folks out there camped out in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Sleeping through the night.

It was 46 degrees on our thermometer.

I know it's really cold out there and it's a little breezy.

And to think that these folks are having to spend the night in a tent on top of losing their home, is just devastating.

(Guitar picking music) We're here at Wal-Mart in Chico, we're trying to help the survivors from the Camp Fire.

You honestly see how strong your community really is when you go through something this devastating.

And it's devastating.

But the beauty is, that people come together and they're helping each other.

And that's amazing.

(Guitar music) (Maggie Missere Crowder) He woke up before me in the morning and he had the TV on and he had heard on the news that there was a little fir but it was only like 10 acres.

Within a half an hour later, it was out of control The fire was just going crazy.

So we didn't hear nothing about evacuations because it was in Paradise.

Then our pastor text him.

Pastor Todd Hagen.

(Michael) Yeah.

(Maggie) He text him and said, "You know that there's a fire out there, Michael."

And that we were going to have to evacuate.

And other than that, we wouldn't have known that we had to evacuate.

There were no warnings from fire departments or nothing.

I'm from Placerville, California and the fire broke out Thursday morning, 6:30 or so.

And I didn't hear about it until Friday morning.

And I tried calling my family and there was noone picking up.

I wasn't sure.

And the way that the news was protraying it was pretty devastating.

So I left work a little early on Friday and started my search for my family.

We started getting like, "What are we going to do?"

We gotta find somewhere to go.

We don't know where all our church members went.

And so we went into Wal-Mart to see if we could buy a tent and no tents.

Got a hold of Rachael Woolf from Channel 13 News out of Sacramento, and she braed the fire.

Went up there and found them and they was on the De Sabla reservoir wall - or the dam wall if you will.

So as we were coming out there was a pastor there and he had a buggy full of tents.

(Michael) He's the one who supplied most of the people here.

(Maggie) He just ought them all himself.

And so he helped... (Michael) Gave us this one here.

And plus everything else that we hav they gave us.

God, it was just great.

I found my family.

I'm blessed.

There's a lot of other people who didn't find their families.

I've talked to them.

I feel for them.

I know what it feels like.

But I'm lucky.

(Maggie) I'm just trying to keep him strong and we go day to day.

(Michael) It's hard.

It's really hard.

(Maggie) It does feel like a movie.

It doesn't feel real.

(Distant voices and cars) When the tragedy happened, we realized God had put us in a unique position because our church structre was still standing.

It was the second largest structure that's still standing in Paradise.

As we were thinking through how we could best help the community during this time, we realized that we could put on a community event.

The first community event in Paradise since the tragedy happened.

And I gotta say to you people on the Ridge, you're a beautiful sight.

You're a beautiful sight out of the ashes united together today.

(Applause) We have today over 4,000 people coming up to Paradise many for thier first time.

It's their first big event, exciting, positive thing they're seeing up here in Paradise.

We have My Pillow giving out there's 10,000 pillows here.

We have Panera Bread over 4,000 meals they've been cooking all night long for us.

Stockings, gifts from all over the state and the country.

(Wind) (Muhammad Hussain) We set up a account with Bank of America.

For the Camp Fire Victim Relief Fund.

And the committee, we met here, and decided that The money which we are getting it would be separate from our Islamic Center Chico accounts.

We don't mix up these two.

And we will make sure that every dollar which comes goes to the right person.

(Rasha Seleh) We've been aiding people with food, clothing, we've been letting them use the showers.

We've had food trucks since the event happened since the evacuation happened for three days.

(Josh Gallagher) The reason we did it is bcause we heard from FEMA That if you want to see your city rebuilt, the main thing that you need are your schools and your churches to get back up and going as soon as possible.

Because it's in those two areas that people find community they find belonging, and hope.

What we are doing is to help the people out who are in need.

(Rasha Seleh) I'm doing it because whatever happened there happened for a reason.

And whatever is happening here is happening for a reason.

And we have to help each other and stand together.

I lost hope before this fire really with people in general.

Until this fire, you wouldn't have known that there was anything wrong or that there was a difference.

You should see the people that are coming together.

It's phenomenal!

(Ethereal music fades) This is a set of golf clubs my father gave me.

I can see them sticking out here, so, (chuckles) not much left.

Well, when I look at where our office and library was that's a really deep hole in terms of the sadness that this whole thing has brought about.

You know, our family, my wife and I have invested a lot of time and energy into our educations.

I had books that my father had given me that were first edition books.

When we first got up here, we could see books, we could see the pages.

But if you touched them just like the old mummy movies they'd just fall apart.

(Chuckles) Which was kind of strange.

(Sad music and grass rustling) Looking around here and the trees and the setting it still feels like the same place.

But when you look at this devastation it's really the memories that are here.

And we own those memories.

We can keep those.

They're valuable to us.

But no, it doesn't seem like the home that we had because it isn't.

It's pretty much gone.

(Music ends) (Crows cawing in wind) Being on your property in the aftermath of the fire for me, is a complete mixed bag of emotions.

Sometimes, I just want to get to work I want to put my head down, I want to clean stuff up, and I want to get it out of the way.

Because I don't want to see it anymore.

But I can't do that.

I'm not allowed to.

It has to be a professional contractor that comes in and does that work.

Other times I can stand in the backyard with my back to the debris pile, and I can see the future I can see being in our kitchen someday.

I can see being on the back deck enjoying everything that I love about this area.

And those are times when I feel really good.

Seeing the debris, you realize how much work's ahead of you.

But not seeing the debris, you realize what that future's going to be if you put in that hard work.

(Bird sounds) (Ian McDonald) There are people on the incident management team for the fire who have been to many, many of the largest fires that have ever been fought, and many of those people have said that they've never seen anything like this.

(Don Henkins) Almost every indigenous culture that I'm aware of that has a relationship with fire talks about a first fire story.

That first fire story talks about a big fire that's devastating that burns the world over.

And then there's usually a secon story that follows that that talks about people learning to use fire.

What we're seeing today in terms of changes in fire in the landscape, the severity, the scale, the loss of human lives the devastation, when I see fires like this, it takes me back to that idea of the first fire stories.

That if you don't take care of the landscape, big fires are going to happen.

(Wind and traffic noise) (Students talking) (Shovel through debris) (Bill Hartley) What's happening here today is that we are trying to see if there are any artifacts that survived the fire.

That we can restore, or at least keep to put on display in the new museum.

The students from Chico State University, the Anthropology Department, have come along to help us today collect artifacts.

And I think it's a great opportunity for them.

It's kind like gold mining.

You find something that survived.

Eureka!

I found it!

You know.

It's kind of an interesting dig.

And so we're going to try to figure out a way to Put under cover those things that need to be preserved in a warehous or building, or however, archived.

And then the others, we'll figure out some kind of interesting display and uses for them.

So we're in the middle of a lot of wreckage right now but there are good things in this wreckage so we're going to try to save it.

(Mark Thorp) Well, amidst the devastation I'm kinda mixed.

I'm feeling optimistic that we'll find collectible items within the burn, but generally speaking, I'm still in that fog of the trauma associated with the event.

Only a little over 100 days ago.

What we're really going to be focusing on: telling the story.

And that's through a testimonial process of survivors of Paradise, but then also through the artifacts that we can collect.

And putting some provenance behind them.

(Piano music swells) I moved to Paradise when I was 6 years old and lived there until I was 18 when I went away to University.

I don't believe that it will be the same community that it was but seeing the history of Paradise over the years, it's a community that's ever evolving.

The first time I came up to the town of Paradise, I did feel a total sense of hope.

I felt like I could see the beau in the midst of all of the trage It is still a beautiful town.

And I can't wait to get back up here and live here myself because this is defintely home to me.

We're going to be here through the recovery, and we look forward to seeing what the town's going to become.

And the changes that it takes, the new people that we don't even know yet that are going to move here and have an influence on what it's going to be and how it's going to help shape the community.

(Violin music crescendoes) A lot of people are going to move away.

A lot have moved away but the ability to maintain that sense of community and rebuild that sense of community is going to be pretty neat.

(Fire Chief) For those of us that did not lose our lives, we are considering ourselves survivors and we will come back from the ashes.

(Violin music fades) (Piano music begins) ♪♪