Complicated Miracles: Life in Paradise a Year After the Camp Fire
Last year in November, the Camp Fire hit Katherine Sorich’s ’05 hometown like a tidal wave, displacing 52,000 people and laying waste to 14,000 residences, but her house wasn’t one of them.
Posted on August 9, 2019 by College Communications in Alumni Stories, Featured.
A version of this article, featuring Katherine Sorich ’05 and four other Gordon alumni, appears in the fall 2019 issue of STILLPOINT magazine under the title “Good Samaritans in the Burn Zone.”
Through almost every window in her house, Katherine Sorich ’05 can see hard hats loading melted debris into dump trucks. Debris that used to belong to her neighbors whose empty lots are now sectioned off with yellow caution tape. Apart from the old man who comes by from time to time on his ATV, the Soriches are the only ones on this stretch of Paradise.
Last year in November, the Camp Fire hit Sorich’s hometown like a tidal wave, displacing 52,000 people and laying waste to 14,000 residences, but her house wasn’t one of them.
Then it felt appropriate to use the m-word. Miracle. When Sorich returned to Paradise for the first time after a harrowing escape from the fire, hardly anything remained. Her mountain town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, once lush with lofty California oaks, was now an apocalyptic landscape where brick chimneys stood up out of the rubble like gravestones.
[caption id="attachment_6790" align="aligncenter" width="900"]
Chimney photos courtesy of Aaron Ryan[/caption]
The Camp Fire had burned up the staircase eight feet from Sorich’s front door along with the two sheds behind the house. It had damaged everything within a 20-foot radius, and came close enough to the house to make the paint bubble. So, why then would it suddenly turn around?
Satellite view of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018. Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory.[/caption]
But wishful thinking hasn’t kept them from playing an active role in their hometown’s recovery. They’ve been in this since day one, since the moment Scott put on his Butte County deputy sheriff uniform and got the cross-traffic moving on a deadlocked side street, saving hundreds of people from burning up in their cars.
It’s possible none of that would have happened had Sorich not been on that deadlocked side street, two toddlers in tow, and informed Scott that she and everyone else on Nunneley Rd. were stuck.
It started with helping people escape Paradise, and now it’s helping them to return.
Their church, Paradise Evangelical Free Church (PEFC), is one of three that are still convening in Paradise, and the Soriches are a part of a core group of 35 people who are committed to the church’s new vision.
“We’re treating it like a church plant with lots of community outreach,” says Sorich.
In recent months, PEFC has retrofitted their church building to accommodate 50-plus volunteers on a daily basis. That includes a commercial kitchen (still in progress), a shower building and 48 new bunks beds. Currently, they are one of two churches in Butte County that are housing and feeding Camp Fire recovery volunteers. In partnership with PEFC, volunteers can build tiny houses for Camp Fire survivors who cannot afford to rebuild their former homes, assist the Butte County Fire Safety Council with removing brush and debris, distribute clean water and survey new residents to help determine arising needs.
[caption id="attachment_6793" align="alignleft" width="900"]
If the Camp Fire had taken place in Boston, the burn zone would cover this area. Interactive map courtesy of NBC News, the U.S. Geological Survey, and OpenStreetMap contributors.[/caption]
While the reminders of the Camp Fire are still everywhere—in the water, in the soil and in the air—with each passing month they fade a little. They get further away. Before, it only took Sorich eight steps from her front door to step on something that had been charred by the fire. Now, it takes 20.
“That’s life here almost a year later,” says Sorich.
Like other complicated miracles, such as the parting of the Red Sea, there is a lengthy period of wandering that follows. Although the people of Paradise are not wandering in a physical sense, they are waiting for their lives to feel normal again. With enough help, it won’t take 40 years.
For those who are interested, there are a few ways to take part in Paradise’s recovery. If you’d like to volunteer or bring a service team to the burn zone, you can reach out to Chad Fransen ’94, Chico-area pastor and member of the Camp Fire Long-term Recovery Group, at [email protected]. For those who cannot make a trip out to Paradise, you can still give financially to the Camp Fire Pastors Response Team.
Header image courtesy of Lori Eckhart. Mural by Shane Grammer.
Dangerous ripple effects
After being back in Paradise for five months, it’s getting harder for Sorich and her husband to see their situation as miraculous. Their miracle landed them back in a ghost town that’s not really safe or comfortable for anyone. “You might say we’re stuck with a house up here,” says Sorich. “People feel like we’re the lucky ones, but we are sort of feeling left behind. It’s hard waiting for Paradise to be built up again.” The schools they were planning to send their three children to have burned down. The soil in their neighborhood is being tested for asbestos. And the jury is still out as to whether the water is safe to drink. State officials have tested the water lines and have identified which parts of town are free of benzene, a chemical that puts people at risk for developing blood cancers like leukemia. But, scientists and engineers are saying that the testing protocols are not stringent enough—and that Paradise residents don’t have enough information to know if their water is harmless or not. Paradise has become a place where exposing yourself to dangerous chemicals is as easy as taking a breath. Toxic dust, full of contaminates that were once tucked safely away under kitchen sinks and on garage shelves, can kicked up into the air by a gust of wind, a passing dump truck or a pair of hazmat workers moving debris.The hard work of healing
Sorich and her husband, Scott, are grateful to have a home, but it’s hard for them not to imagine what life would have been like if they had been forced to move elsewhere—where their kids could play in the park and go to a good school, where they could enjoy the company of their neighbors, where they wouldn’t have to worry about breathing in heavy metals during a walk to the mailbox. [caption id="attachment_6792" align="aligncenter" width="800"]Share
- Share on Facebook
- Share on X (Formerly Twitter)
- Share on LinkedIn
- Share on Email
-
Copy Link
-
Share Link
Categories
Categories
Archives
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014