Tiny Town of Paradise, CA Where it All Started For Me, Erased by Camp Fire!

[Coach Steve]

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past week, you've undoubtedly heard and seen video clips about the Camp Fire that erased the town of Paradise, CA. I went to high school there and my folks have lived there since 1978. Like 90% of the other residents of the town, they lost everything. The images and stories of those who made it out are absolutely surreal. Unfortunately, many weren't so lucky and perished in the fast moving inferno that obliterated the town in just under 9 hours.

After high school, I stayed in Paradise for another year before moving away to go to college. It was during that year that I went to work at a tiny, single bay shop called Speed's Car Care. Prior to that, I'd never heard the word "detail" as it pertains to this industry. I had no experience, other than taking care of my family's cars and trucks but, the owner, Robert Speed, gave me a shot and took me under his wing. He taught me everything there was to know about detailing at the time and he was a ball buster! Perfectionist doesn't even come close to describing his expectations. His methods bordered on psychotic, I swear to God! He wasn't abusive and he paid really well, but in return, he demanded your very best efforts and a flawless product with no room for errors or do-overs.

By the time I decided to move away, I had become proficient at paint correction and every facet of detailing. Everything was done with a rotary. MF's, DA's, and the multitude of products available to us today didn't exist. There was rubbing compound (that I swear had chunks of pumice stone in it), polish (that was slightly less grittier), and paste wax. This was from 1981-82. Terry cloth towels, cloth diapers, and chamois were what we used for wiping. I can't remember the brand of the polishers, but they were stainless steel or chrome and soooo heavy! Ahhhh, good times!

I don't know what happened to Mr. Speed and his shop but the knowledge and training he gave me planted the seed that eventually led me to doing it full time and loving what I get to do when I get out of bed each morning.

It breaks my heart to see the destruction of the place where I got my feet wet in this business, and it makes me even sadder to see my 80+ year old parents homeless and facing a seemingly impossible uphill battle to once again have something they can call home.

Just felt like sharing my story. Thanks for reading.

[machz]

Thoughts and prayers to those that live there and have lost everything. I was just there in the spring and it's a beautiful area and a shame the fire has caused so much devestation. I was on face time with my son last night who lives in Yuba and it looked like heavy fog in his back yard from the smoke.

[Setec Astronomy]

It is surreal and a type of fire those of us in other parts of the country find difficult to fathom; the tv vids look like something out of a Rock movie rather than real life. I remember once driving in CA and some of the hills were brown/green, some were brown/black...after a while I realized the black ones had been burned.

I'm sorry you've lost your home town and your parents have lost their home; at least they're safe. Let us know if there is anything we can do.

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Steve, thanks for sharing your story. The loss of life and devastation has been utterly tragic. Watching the video's of those who made it out at the last second driving down the roads was horrifying. Then to think of the hundreds unaccounted for. I'm glad your family made it out and you know where they are. Hopefully they can make it this way throughout the holidays.

On NPR they spoke with the town officials and the word "rebuild" is out of the question at this point. For those not aware, that is how bad it is.
Our thoughts and prayers to your family and the thousands of others affected.

[jdgamble]

Crazy man. I’m in Danville, so we are still covered in smoke. Just a tragic situation. I hope your folks are hanging in there.


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[Farmallluvr]

I feel so bad for those who lived there,I live outside a small farming community of about 200 people in the town and everybody knows everybody and when someone has something bad happen like a housefire the whole community pitches in.

I can't imagine the helpless feeling when the WHOLE community is gone as well,,prayers sent from Michigan

[RTexasF]

It is indeed a terrible terrible tragedy. No doubt you are at wits end trying to help your folks. Prayers are offered for all of you.

[DMW]

That's really a shame. We took a family vacation to Disneyland in September so we drove from Phoenix to Anaheim, and then afterwards drove up through Hollywood and to the Moorpark/Thousand Oaks area to see family. I remember noticing how brown and dry everything looked and thinking that it looked like the whole place would burn it if somebody lit a match. Coming from AZ, I'm used to brown, but it actually looked worse there. I'm sorry to hear about your parents.

[fly07sti]

Steve, I feel for ya man. I live in the East Bay and I’m 160 miles away and the air quality has been horrible as jdgamble has said. My two young daughters both have coughs and runny noses and the only time my oldest goes outside is to and from school. I used to go to cool April nights in Redding when I was in my 20’s and met many people from Paradise.
So sorry for your parents losing there home. Maybe a trip to Arizona to be with there son might help???

[SWETM]

It has been on the news in Sweden too. And the videos and interviews from there is heart breaking. The size and power from the forrest fires is scary. Can't imagine how it is to be in it or have connections to the place. Hope your parents get the support and what they need around them in this horrible time. And that they can find a home soon to settle down. People tend to be helping out in the surroundings of a tragic thing like this.

Hope from the bottom of my heart that they can get control over the forrest fires soon. And the people that has lost their homes or has been affected of it in some way gets the help they need. And they find as many as possible alive that is missing.
I think of all that going through this horrible forrest fires and is affected of it. And have in my thoughts that all is going to be as good as it can be for them.

Regards
Tony

[DBAILEY]

Just looked at Paradise, CA on Google Earth. That's a bigger town than what I had thought based on the news reports. 90% of that is a lot of destruction.

[UncleDavy]

I am so sorry for the anguish your parents are suffering right now Coach. The Sierra Nevadas are usually so beautiful and heavenly. It is hard to believe that everyone is going through hell right now. We make frequent trips to Lake Tahoe and often ran into people from Paradise and surrounding areas.

[fly07sti]

Just to give some people an idea of how big this fire is, even 160 miles away the air is thick. This picture was taken at my day job an hour ago (11:30 am)
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181115/3d3ddcbf93ec1ad78afc20c987e1b71c.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181115/8ef721fd23858c2cc8806ae923448e5f.jpg


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[Coach Steve]

Steve, thanks for sharing your story. The loss of life and devastation has been utterly tragic. Watching the video's of those who made it out at the last second driving down the roads was horrifying. Then to think of the hundreds unaccounted for. I'm glad your family made it out and you know where they are. Hopefully they can make it this way throughout the holidays.

On NPR they spoke with the town officials and the word "rebuild" is out of the question at this point. For those not aware, that is how bad it is.
Our thoughts and prayers to your family and the thousands of others affected.Thanks, Paul. Words like "apocalyptic" "war zone" Hell on Earth".... they seem so cliche but in this case, I honestly don't think they adequately describe and convey the sheer devastation and destruction that took place there. The thing that made it so horrific was the wind driving the flames through the super dry area which ultimately became like jet fuel propelling the blaze forward and generating heat that melted everything that wouldn't actually catch fire, steel, aluminum, etc. Areas that weren't even in the direct path of the fire spontaneously erupted into flames due to the sheer heat.

One video I watched was shot by a guy starting from the time he got in his truck until he ultimately gets past the gridlock and away to safety. It's shot in real time and is 20 mins. long. At the beginning of the video, you can see smoke in the sky overhead but visibility isn't affected and flames are visible off in the distance and are rather spotty. 10 mins. into the video, visibility is reduced to near zero and everything on both sides of the road are completely engulfed with branches falling onto the roadway as he and other vehicles are racing in their attempts to avoid certain death.

Rebuilding is not something that can even be discussed right now. Infrastructure is nonexistent. The reservoir that serves the town is empty. Power may not be restored to anything that remained for months. Forestry personnel will have months if not years of work ahead of them removing trees that are in danger of falling - some of these Ponderosa pines are over 150' tall. Cleaning up this large an area and making it livable again will take unknown amounts of time.

My parents were a week away form heading out on the road in their RV for a few months so they had been packing their day to day stuff in their trailer ahead of their departure date which would have been today. My mom grabbed what she could in 30 mins. and threw it in the trailer while my dad got the truck hooked up and ready to leave. Their property is on Skyway, the main road in and out of town. They live at the north end of town. When they got to the end of their driveway, traffic was already backed up that far . Flames were now at their property line and they could see their shed had already caught fire. No one would let them into traffic. Everyone was panicking. About 5 mins into this wait for someone to let them in, a Forestry truck that was heading north toward the fire, saw what was happening and stopped traffic long enough for them to pull out and get on their way. Had it not been for that forest ranger, their story quite possibly might not have had as happy of an ending.

They're one of the lucky ones. They have a roof over their heads that belongs to them, they have most of their day to day stuff and they'll be fine until a more permanent plan is made. We have family that live nearby that have already come got them and one of my cousins drove their rig to my aunt's house that has plenty of room to park it.


Crazy man. I’m in Danville, so we are still covered in smoke. Just a tragic situation. I hope your folks are hanging in there.


Sent from my iPhone using AGOnlineWe moved from Dublin to Paradise.


It is indeed a terrible terrible tragedy. No doubt you are at wits end trying to help your folks. Prayers are offered for all of you.Thanks Rick. my folks are being well cared for by members of my enormous Mormon family. They're going to be fine.


Just looked at Paradise, CA on Google Earth. That's a bigger town than what I had thought based on the news reports. 90% of that is a lot of destruction.It is. To give some perspective, the town covers about 85,000 acres which equates to almost 133 sq. miles, all of which burned in just over 9 hours.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

[Vegas Transplant]

It breaks my heart to see the destruction of the place where I got my feet wet in this business, and it makes me even sadder to see my 80+ year old parents homeless and facing a seemingly impossible uphill battle to once again have something they can call home.

Just felt like sharing my story. Thanks for reading.
Beautiful thread starter on such a sad event
People of that age have a resilience that other Generations have no awareness of.
Thanks for the motivation.