As the biggest fire of the season raged through northern California on Saturday, Stephen Murray wasn’t taking any chances.
The Paradise resident loaded up his vehicle and prepared to flee with his wife and children. Almost six years after the Camp fire destroyed his hometown and killed 85 people, the community was under an evacuation warning due to the Park fire, which had scorched nearly 350,000 acres.
“It’s got us all riled up,” said Murray, who became a local hero after he helped evacuate a mobile home park during the 2018 fire.
“Last night laying my head down, I remember people died the day of the fire because they went to bed and never woke up so I went to bed with nightmares. The PTSD is horrible.”
Officials put the entire town under an evacuation warning because of the threat of the Park fire. The blaze started on Wednesday in nearby Chico, a college town of 110,000 people, when a man who has since been arrested allegedly sent his burning car down down an embankment in the city’s Upper Bidwell Park.
Amid hot and windy conditions, the fire exploded, consuming miles and miles of tinder-dry vegetation and homes in rural foothill communities. In just three days, the fire has grown to nearly 350,000 acres (141,640 hectares) with no containment as the flames have repeatedly jumped over containment lines.
The California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) reported Saturday morning that 134 structures had been destroyed – primarily in Cohasset, a town of fewer than 400 people in Butte county – while 4,200 buildings are still under threat and nearly 2,500 firefighting personnel are battling the fire. The blaze moved so quickly that many residents in Cohasset were forced to shelter in place, and authorities looked at calling in the national guard to help perform rescues.
Kory Honea, the Butte county sheriff, urged communities in the area to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, citing the extreme fire behavior. “You have to be ready to go,” he said on Thursday. “This county has seen time and time again where people have waited too long and they have lost their lives.”
In Paradise, which is slowly rebuilding after the Camp fire, and nearby Magalia, residents have anxiously watched this latest fire unfold, saddened for communities now experiencing what they have and fearful for their own homes.
Then on Friday, authorities put all of Paradise under an evacuation warning.
For Murray, who returned to the area with his family after the Camp fire and has fought to revitalize Paradise, the blaze has stirred past trauma.
“My five-year-old wants to move away. My wife basically hyperventilates and can’t breathe because she’s afraid she’s gonna burn up,” Murray said.
While the risk to Paradise is not imminent and the fire has continued burning in the opposite direction, Murray decided to head out of the area for a few days until it felt safe to return.
Most of his friends also are leaving for the time being. But some have lost everything once and plan to stay and fight the fire themselves if it comes to it – something Murray says he cannot do.
“I’ve lost everything and I don’t care to stay and watch my town burn again,” Murray said. “I’ve got a family to watch out for.“
Iris Natividad, who lost her home and her partner, Andrew Downer, in the 2018 fire, has been watching the fire from her home in Chico. At night, Chico residents have been able to watch the walls of flames eat through the hillsides.
“All the memories, all those feelings, come back. You’re heightened,” she said.
But because of that, people in Paradise are prepared, she said. They are taking the warnings seriously and many are getting out early.
Still, the uncertainty is difficult, Murray said.
“It’s hard. It’s hard to not know. Is this the end of it? We just need to be done with the fires,” he said. “We never thought it was gonna happen again.”