My home town has been destroyed by fire and I have nobody to talk to about it, so I'll do it here. That's the nice thing about a blog I suppose, you can talk to it like an old friend sitting across the table from you, but it still doesn't meet the criteria of the human connection. Oh well.
I was relocated to Paradise, CA from Visalia, CA by my family around 1960. We arrived with a large trailer that even included my pigeons strapped on the side in cages, and moved into a house north of town that belonged to my stepdad Paul's sister.
I entered Paradise High as a freshman mid-year and joined the track team. Three years later I was riding with the coach and three other top guys down to Sacramento for a state meet. We placed third. I acted in local plays and was hired by the Chamber of Commerce along with a couple others to walk around town and sing Christmas carols. I was a star first baseman on the Babe Ruth team.
I was sitting in class when they announced the assassination of JFK over the intercom. They sent us home and as I walked alone down the railroad tracks my view of the world changed and it impacted my later life decisions profoundly.
Paradise was my home town and I even briefly thought about it as a possible destination for retirement. As I worked on chores around my little place today I was grateful to be here now, and not there, but it it angers me that the news I'm watching isn't covering it like I think they should. An entire city has been wiped out and people have died, probably more than the recent bar shooting and the synagogue shooting combined. Very sad...
Saturday morning update:
- Pacific Gas & Electric Co. notified state regulators that one of its high-voltage power lines located near where the fire began had malfunctioned shortly before the first flames were reported.
- Officials said at least nine people died and more than 6,700 homes and commercial buildings were lost — making it the most destructive fire to property in state history.
- Paradise Vice Mayor Greg Bolin said that early reports from fire officials suggested that 80 to 90% of the town had burned. Bolin, who lost his home, said: “The town is gone.”
Sunday morning update:
- Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Saturday 14 additional bodies were found, bringing the death toll to 23. The victims have not been identified. There are 110 outstanding reports of missing people.
Monday morning update:
- The fire has burned more than 111,000 acres and is 25 percent contained. Its death toll of 29 now equals that of the Griffith Park Fire in 1933, the deadliest wildfire on record in California. At least 228 people are still missing,.
Thursday morning update:
- 56 dead, 130 missing, 8800 homes lost...
Thursday evening update:
- 63 dead. People who remain unaccounted for increased by more than 500, to 631. 52,000 have been displaced.
Friday morning thoughts:
- Jerry Brown vetoed the bipartisan wildlife management bill 1463 in 2016, despite being passed by the Legislature, 75-0 in the Assembly and 39-0 in the Senate, which would have required electrical lines to go underground.
- Obama-era regulations introduced excessive layers of bureaucracy that blocked proper forest management and increased environmentalist litigation and costs—a result of far too many radical environmentalists, bureaucrats, Leftist politicians and judicial activists who would rather let forests burn, than let anyone thin out overgrown trees or let professional loggers harvest usable timber left from beetle infestation, or selectively cut timber.
- California fires produce as much pollution in 2 days as all the state’s cars do in a year.
Amazing article Here.
Second Tuesday morning update:
- 151,272 acres burned, 79 fatalities confirmed, 699 unaccounted for and 15,573 structures destroyed (11,713 residences, 472 commercial and 3,388 other buildings).