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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, November 11,2018 3A
‘Nothing here’ in Paradise
Homes still burning as 14 more bodies found, bringing death toll from wildfires to 23
NOAH BERGER I Associated Press
Abandoned cars line Pearson Road in Paradise, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 10.
‘We knew Paradise was a prime target
for forest fire over the years. We’ve had
’em come right up to the city limits —
oh yeah — but nothing like this.’
Jan MacGregor, Resident of Paradise
Fire burns modest homes,
Malibu mansions in SoCal
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS,
DON THOMPSON
AND PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press
PARADISE — The air
thick with smoke from a
ferocious wildfire that was
still burning homes Saturday,
residents who stayed behind
to try to save their property
or who managed to get back
to their neighborhoods in this
Northern California town
found cars incinerated and
homes reduced to rubble.
People surveyed the dam
age and struggled to cope
with what they had lost.
Entire neighborhoods were
leveled and the business dis
trict was destroyed by a blaze
that threatened to explode
again with the same fury that
largely incinerated the foot
hill town.
Butte County Sheriff Kory
Honea said Saturday 14 addi
tional bodies were found,
bringing the death toll from
the blaze to 23. He said an
additional search and rescue
team was being brought in to
search for remains.
The flames burned down
more than 6,700 buildings,
almost all of them homes,
making it California’s most
destructive wildfire since
record-keeping began. There
were 35 people still missing.
Sheriff’s deputies recov
ered human remains from
at least five homes as they
went house-to-house in Para
dise looking for the missing.
It was unclear if the remains
were in addition to the nine
fatalities reported by the
Butte County Sheriff’s Office.
More firefighters headed
to the area Saturday, with
wind gusts of up to 50 miles
per hour expected, raising
the risk of conditions simi
lar to when the fire started
Thursday, said Alex Hoon
with the National Weather
Service. The blaze grew to
156 square miles, but crews
made gains and it was par
tially contained, officials said.
People sidestepped metal
that melted off cars and Jet-
Skis and donned masks as
they surveyed ravaged neigh
borhoods despite an evacua
tion order for all of Paradise,
a town of 27,000 founded in
the 1800s. Some cried when
they saw nothing was left.
Jan MacGregor, 81, got
back to his small two-bed-
room home in Paradise with
the help of his firefighter
grandson. He found his home
leveled — a large metal safe
and some pipe work from his
septic system the only recog
nizable traces. The safe was
punctured with bullet holes
from guns inside that went
off in the scorching heat.
He has lived in Paradise
for nearly 80 years, moving
there in 1939 when he said
the town had just 3,000 peo
ple and was nicknamed Pov
erty Ridge. The fire was not
a complete surprise, he said.
“We knew Paradise was
a prime target for forest
fire over the years,” he said.
“We’ve had 'em come right
up to the city limits — oh
yeah — but nothing like this,”
he said.
MacGregor said he proba
bly wouldn’t rebuild: “I have
nothing here to go back to.”
Homes and other build
ings were still burning, and
fire crews were trying to
extinguish those blazes, said
Scott McLean, a captain with
the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection.
Officials warned firefighters
to wear their helmets and be
careful of falling trees.
Abandoned, charred vehi
cles cluttered the main thor
oughfare, evidence of the
panicked evacuation as the
wildfire tore through Thurs
day. The dead were found
mostly inside their cars or
outside vehicles and homes.
Five of the dead panicked
when they couldn’t escape by
car because their route was
cut off by a wall of fire, said
Gabriel Fallon, who rode out
the blaze with his parents to
care for the horses, cows and
livestock on their 10-acre
farm in Paradise.
The group turned the other
way and dashed down the
street until it turned into dirt
and passed the Fallons’ farm,
he said. One of the drivers
stopped and asked Fallon if
the direction they were going
would lead them to safety.
Fallon said he shook his head
as the fire roared closer.
The motorists parked at
the end of the road. On Satur
day, the charred shells of the
five cars remained where
they had been parked.
Fallon went back to his
property, where he, and his
parents and their animals
weathered the fire with a
garden hose. The fire con
sumed their home, but left
the barn intact.
“I was scared as hell,” said
Fallon, 42. “I didn’t know if I
was going to die.”
His mother, Cathy Fallon,
tries not to think of what she
lost when her house burned
to the ground. Two dogs and
nine cats died. She also lost
her great-grandmother’s
mandolin and end table.
“I just can’t think about
it,” she said, beginning to
cry. “The thing that hurts the
most is that I lost my cats.”
Elinor “Jeannie” Wil
liams, 86, was not among
the nine victims of the blaze
but died as she waited to be
airlifted from an evacuated
hospital where she was being
treated for a head injury.
She was dying, and the
family expected to lose her
in a few days, said her step
daughter, Lisa. Still, her
death has been hard on her
84-year-old father, Robert,
who also may have lost his
home, she said.
“He’s lost, he’s confused,
he’s trying to hang in there,”
she said. “It’s hitting him
hard. Everything is gone,
including his wife.”
Two destructive wildfires
also burned in Southern
California , tearing through
Malibu mansions and work
ing-class suburban homes
and killing two people.
State officials put the total
number of people forced
from their homes by Cali
fornia’s fires at more than
200,000. Evacuation orders
included the entire city of
Malibu that is home to some
of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
President Donald Trump
issued an emergency dec
laration providing federal
funding for fires on both ends
of the state. He later threat
ened to withhold payments
to California, claiming its for
est management is “so poor.”
Trump tweeted Saturday
that “there is no reason for
these massive, deadly and
costly fires in California.”
Trump said “billions of dol
lars are given each year, with
so many lives lost, all because
of gross mismanagement of
the forests. Remedy now, or
no more Fed payments!”
California Governor-elect
Gavin Newsom responded
on Twitter that this was “not
a time for partisanship.”
“This is a time for coordi
nating relief and response
and lifting those in need up,”
he said.
Trump took a more empa-
thetic tone later in the day,
tweeting sympathies for fire
fighters, people who have
fled their homes and the
families of those killed by the
flames.
MALIBU — Two peo
ple were found dead as a
pair of wildfires stretched
from inland canyons to the
Pacific in Southern Cali
fornia on Saturday, leaving
people sifting through the
remains of both mansions
and modest homes for any
thing they had left.
The two bodies were
found severely burned
inside a car on a long resi
dential driveway in Mal
ibu, Los Angeles County
sheriff’s Chief John Bene
dict said. The home is on a
winding stretch of Mulhol-
land Highway with steep
panoramic views, where
on Saturday the roadway
was littered with rocks,
a few large boulders and
fallen power lines, some of
them still on fire. Most of
the surrounding structures
were leveled.
The deaths brings to
25 the number of people
killed in the state’s wild
fires in the past few days,
with 23 found dead in
a Northern California
wildfire.
Firefighters have
saved thousands of
homes despite working
in “extreme, tough fire
conditions that they said
they have never seen in
their life,” Los Angeles
County Fire Chief Daryl
Osby said.
Those vicious condi
tions on Friday night gave
way to calm Saturday, with
winds reduced to breezes.
No new growth was
reported on the larger of
the two fires, which stands
at 109 square miles, and
firefighters now have the
blaze 5 percent contained.
Progress also came
against the smaller fire,
prompting Ventura County
officials to allow people in
a handful of communities
to return to their homes.
Hundreds of thousands
across the region remain
under evacuation orders,
and could stay that way
for days as winds pick up
again.
Osby said losses to
homes were significant
but did not say how many
had burned. Officials said
earlier that 150 houses had
been destroyed and the
number would rise.
Fire burned in famously
ritzy coastal spots like Mal
ibu , where Lady Gaga,
Kim Kardashian West,
Guillermo del Toro and
Martin Sheen were among
those forced out of their
homes amid a citywide
evacuation order.
Associated Press
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in observance of Thanksgiving.
RINGO H.W. CHIU I Associated Press
Alexander Tobolsky, right, and his girl friend Dina Arias,
return to his home burned out by the fire in Malibu,
Calif., Saturday, Nov. 10.
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