5 years after California's deadliest wildfire, survivors forge different paths toward recovery
Paradise is still recovering five years after a wildfire destroyed most of the northern California town
PARADISE, Calif. — On the day Paradise burned, Gwen Nordgren stopped her car just long enough to rescue a young woman escaping by foot.
By that time on Nov. 8, 2018, the sky was black even though the sun had been up for hours. Both sides of the street were on fire as Nordgren grabbed the woman’s hand.
“Have you lived a good life?” she asked. The woman said she had.
“So have I,” said Nordgren, the president of the Paradise Lutheran Church council. “We’re going to say the Our Father and we’re going to drive like hell.”
Nordgren has told that story countless times in the five years since the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history nearly erased a quiet community in the Sierra Nevada foothills. There are thousands more stories like it, each one providing a new frame for one of the worst wildfires in U.S. history.
Five years later, some — like Nordgren — are sharing their stories freely and managing their post-traumatic stress enough to return to Paradise to help make something new. Others, like Shari Bernacette, are still haunted by their memories — including witnessing the flames consume a couple fleeing, one pushing the other in a wheelchair.
“We still can’t sleep well. We toss and turn all night,” said Bernacette, who moved with her husband to Yuma, Arizona, to escape the risk of future wildfires. The couple lives in a used RV purchased with their insurance money. “We will never live amongst the trees again.”
Today, Paradise has a population of just under 10,000, or less than half of the 26,000 people who lived there before the blaze. The Camp Fire destroyed about 11,000 homes, which amounted to
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