Two days after walls of flames devoured the entire Sierra foothills town of Paradise in minutes, three firefighters set about surveying the damage Saturday so they could report back to evacuees they’d grown up with on what they’d seen.
Capt. Alejandro Saise, firefighter A.J. Mount and engineer Phil Rose had little good news to share.
Saise, 45, shook his head in sadness as he took in the scorched, smoking landscape. It was a vast patchwork of ash piles, mangled metal and skeletal pines more than 100 feet tall in a once thriving neighborhood of retirees and young families.
“There’s no easy way to say it,” Saise said. “I’ve texted, ‘Sorry, brother, but it’s gone,’ at least 30 times in the last 48 hours.”
“We’ve only found one house standing out of 20 we visited today,” he added.
The news only got worse Saturday as people tried to understand the scope of the tragedy.
The bodies of an additional 14 people killed by the Camp fire were discovered Saturday, bringing the blaze’s death toll to 23. Scores of people were still missing...
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1 comment:
This is a terrible tragedy! The loss of life is unacceptable. But despite all of this I wonder if the town ever thought about the possibility of this happening? Below the town was a burned over area (assumed from Google Earth) which was full of flash fuels typical of the California coastal ecology. Flash fuels can be easily managed IF that is what is under consideration. I know the authority of the town probably didn't extend beyond the city limits, but even then it should have been possible to have some fire-proofed areas in place. This is probably not an end to this type of tragedy where a fast moving fire engulfs an entire town. Perhaps this can spur other towns to think about protecting their populations before this happens again.
May God bring rest to the souls of those who have died in these fires and comfort those who have lost loved ones!
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