8, 2018, the blaze burned 95% of the town’s buildings and eventually killed 85 people. Two years have passed since the Camp Fire ripped through Paradise and the neighboring communities of Butte Creek, Magalia and Concow in Butte County. He’s convinced fire prevention efforts will make future disasters smaller in scale and Paradise “a safer community.” “You can’t live in the wildland-urban interface anywhere in California now and not expect there to be a risk,” said Brooks, who runs the nonprofit Rebuild Paradise Foundation and has lived in the town since 2004. In case of an evacuation, he’ll turn on a new sprinkler system - one that runs off a gas motor and is connected to a hydrant separate from the city’s water supply - and leave. From his bedroom window, he pointed out the pool - his backup safety plan. If fire roars out of the canyon below his home again, Brooks is prepared. After two years of living in Chico, he hopes to finish the project and return to Paradise with his family by the new year. On a recent afternoon, he stood in his nearly rebuilt house and gazed over ridges that were blanketed with trees before California’s deadliest fire destroyed his town. PARADISE, Butte County - This is the only place Charles Brooks feels truly grounded. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 7 of7Ī home under construction on Greenwood Drive in Paradise. Piles of trees burned by the 2018 Camp Fire sit on an empty lot near Maxwell Drive in Paradise. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 6 of7 Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of7Ĭharles Brooks, executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation, speaks at a community meeting. “It feels like a lifetime sometimes,” Pam says. Their old home burned in the blaze two years ago, and they rebuilt in a new location.
Pam and Bill Hartley at their new property in Paradise. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of7 Trees are silhouetted at sunset on on an empty lot near Skyway Road in Paradise. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of7 Will, 12, laughs as his father, Glenn Hartley, mother Jody Hartley, and sister Haley, 14, smudge chocolate on his face at the candy store they run in Paradise. Photos by Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of7 They bought a house that had escaped the fire and have reopened the family candy store (left), where Will, 12, laughs as his father, Glenn Hartley, smudges chocolate off his face, with mother Jody Hartley and sister Haley, 14.
Their son and daughter-in-law also lost their home and stayed. Pam and Bill Hartley (above) will move into the new home they built in Paradise on Dec.