Paradise wildfire survivors share lessons learned 

The older couple were really prepared. I'm proud of them

I was in boot camp for the navy whenever I heard about the fire back home. To this day, everyone still talks about it. Im just fortunate that my family's home wasn't lost.

We lost everything in this fire. I hadn’t seen this before. Thank you. Well done.

I live in Ventura county CA, born and raised, Army veteran, and I can tell you I was never more terrified than I was that year. We had fires burning through Thousand Oaks and Malibu, me and my dad actually got trapped on the highway for 6 hours when they shut it down, we watched the flames hop the highway and burn up the mountain. Never been more terrified, wildfire is in my opinion the scariest natural disaster, and I’ve survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and still, wildfires scare me the most.

This was VERY insightful. It got me thinking about my current location at the base of a mountain where I had just purchased my very first home. Several years ago we had a massive fire that devastated the Gatlinburg Tennessee area. Every time I hear about a fire, that’s immediately where my mind goes to. My heart breaks for these families that lost everything. On one hand being able to hear firsthand accounts of what people went through and how they look at things differently is priceless. But on the other hand, I hope that no one has to go through that type of experience.

Thank you for creating this. My girl friend at the time was on that road. Her description of it was absolutely terrifying.

Thank you for the video. My Grandparents used to live in Paradise and our family still have fond memories of Paradise. My Grandparents passed away well before the fire but we do remember how beautiful it was there. I occasionally go onto Google maps to see how Paradise is recovering but there are still hundreds of empty lots there. It’s so sad that so many people lost their lives and the wonderful and beautiful town of Paradise was destroyed by fire. I loved hearing from the survivors. God bless them all. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about the people that were lost there. I’m going to pass this video on to my sister tomorrow so she can watch it too. I’ve seen another video of the aftermath of the fire from the air. The pilot knew how the fire moved through Paradise and he flew over the entire area. Very sad to watch it too. We were originally from Walnut Creek and San Francisco.

An absolute masterpiece; learning experience, insight, preparation meeting reality.. 👏 Bravo, Señor, Bravo. The PBS Frontline documentary "Fire in Paradise" did a great job, but this provides another view.

Hey guys this was simply great. Very well done and it just shows us how much you guys care to get us all thinking about these type of situations. We can't thank you enough. Just excellent.

You guys should do an episode on the Almeda fire that took place here in southern oregon. It has been labeled a “wild fire” but all of it was set by individuals trying to cause panic. But speak to the first responders, and citizens. Everyone els from local to state government have tried to change the story of what happened and where the fire reached.

2018, I saw this everyday from Yuba City and Marysville. 20 miles away and the smoke was still thick to see well here. Keep in mind this was only a couple years from the threat of the Oroville dam failure. On the Oroville threat, it was a 4 hour drive to Grass Valley 20 miles away. We camped in the Nevada County Fairgrounds the next week. For the Paradise fire and the Camp Fire we were safe. I have yet to go back to Paradise.

Where is the part about "do regular burns"?

We have friends who just, in the last 2 months, completed the rebuilding of their home after the fire. We live in an area very similar to Paradise and take precautions/planning in case we have a fire. Our daughter, who lives 3 miles from us, had to evacuate 2 years ago for a fire in their canyon. The video was very well done.

My best friend parents lost everything in this fire just glad they survived and got outta there before it got to bad to get out

I have a buddy that went thru that fire and was completely unprepared.

I was not affected directly by this fire, but I have many friends that were. I live outside Sacramento. In the valley, the smoke was so bad that I could only see about 5 houses down my block. I worked at KMCC and the air traffic was stalled because the planes could not see farther than 800 feet.

Meanwhile the east coast gets unprecedented amounts of rain and thunderstorms

One of my childhood best friends lost her home... everything in that fire. She almost died. PG&E is so irresponsible and California allows it. We had a small house fire last year and it was so traumatic I still tear up thinking about it.

Lessons learned starting @16:12 Summary of lessons given by survivors paraphrased below: - Don't leave your portable gasoline containers on your vehicle because when your vehicle catches fire, it will burn more. - Don't let your fuel tank get below half full. - Don't park your main vehicle next to your home because it can catch fire if your home catches fire. - Trickle charge the battery to your lesser used vehicle so that you can start it in an emergency and move it. Scott, former Sheriff, lost his Land Cruiser which he considered a viable escape vehicle since he let the battery discharge. - Have an off-road vehicle that can run over small trees. - Find a big parking lot and sit in the middle of it.

Dam good info.

Damn, I was so interested in their stories. I got pissed when the video quickly finished ;)

Fires are tough calls as they vary per fire and every area requires different plans. If ever unsure, then always be safe and evacuate. There are several cases of towns that have multiple good escape routes where the fire was stopped before but the embers caught many house that were undefended on fire while where the man stayed, him and neighbors were able to save the surrounding houses. However, you have to be prepared before with plans to be sure that you can get out if things change and your escaping will not cause problems for the official response teams. This one seemed intense enough with the winds that I would have left with the family early on.

Wow 😳

I've fought wildfires for ten seasons 18-28 years old FFT1/Type 2 no restrictions Sawyer Squad Boss on a 20 man Type 2 IA crew

Amazing. God bless all these people. I pray people are more conscious of thro cigarettes out their window or building fires during poor environment circumstances.

You know, and I pause as I think about this, when you are a kid and you listen to your parents say something and you think "ok" and you just blow it off? The problem is, what you so casually blow off as a kid was wisdom that came from experiences that you don't imagine will ever affect you. My dad used to make us mow the weeds back away from all our buildings every summer. If there was a bad year and we couldn't cut the hay, he would go cut it down. For winters we carried blankets and emergency gear. There were many things like this and as a kid we didn't treat them for what they were, wisdom. I look back now and realize why we should have taken those things more seriously. A lot of the realization started coming clear when we started talking more and he mentioned things that had happened in the past. I think a lot of the reason we have poor outcomes from some events is because we start thinking "Yea that happened but it was long ago and today nothing like that would ever happen." But in reality, the clock is ticking. It's simply a matter of time.

I was in Alaska Fighting the Shovel Creek fire when this fire was raging

*You could protect yourself on an underground shelter*

1st Patriots!!!

This was my stomping grounds in the early 90's. Chico High and Fairview HS. Yea I was a bad apple back then, but Ive turned it around. Really upset at what PG&E was allowed to get away with, and are continuing to do today. Lot of very good people died and lost everything up there. But it wasn't all their fault, Politicians decided to ban underbrush control burns which led to this mess combined with the lack of PG&E Maintenace. Small loving community with some drug issues, but they work hard and treat each other with respect for the most part. I was up there every weekend visiting family in Magalia and I can't bring myself to go back.

Messing with the algorithm

#1 lesson, don't live in a shit state with a government that doesn't care about you or the environment enough to take basic precautions. Lived in a california a long time... these fires aren't a surprise to anyone who knows anything.

Lots of retired LEOs up there....

This hit a lot of my family. Fortunately I was able to help a lot of them. The only real prep was GTFO now since the State and city refused basic fire protections such as a municipal fire break around towns and fire breaks put in for private property would result in fines if you removed to mineral soil. It didnt help the municipal water company didnt have working back up power when they shut the grid down. Lost most access to water to make a fight of it right there. There was only 4 ways off the mountain and the major evac threat was 150 foot trees that would catch fire and fall across the roads smashing everything and blocking traffic. I was working that morning on the other end of the country when my Mom called me saying its really dark outside. I though WTF its mid day back east the sun should be up, so I walked off my jobsite and got out my computer. I had been preaching this threat to everyone for decades so I was ready on my end even though I was across the country. I got onto a live CalFire dispatch feed on radio reference to listen what was going on. There hadnt been any emergency notifications at that point. My blood turned cold not a minute into this I hear a call that Feather River Hospital less than a mile away was on fire. I told my Mom right there, drop everything and just leave the town is gone. Normalcy bias killed a lot of people that day. Dont believe the initial numbers I have seen footage of several carloads of people that died less than a mile from my parents home that never showed on the fatality map. They got cut off by fallen trees, and the only survivor who took the video said more died in their home because they wanted to do things like put on make up before leaving. They thought they had time, it was like the other fires. I had to say some disturbing shit to snap my Mom out of that. My Dad had gotten the text we sent him and had left work and ran the road block set up to block entry into town. He saw how bad it was and agreed they needed to go right then. We lost everything from my childhood, the family guns (which were in a supposedly excellent fire safe in a room with concrete walls which shows how hot the fire was). Thankfully my parents had taken my advise, and ignored their insurance agent telling them they were over insured. I had them set up a replacement value policy. My parents were among the first that rebuilt thanks to that. Not just rebuilt but everything is paid off too. The evac was a cluster for most. I had saved both satellite, and topo, and aerial maps and photos to my devices specifically for this situation. The phone network was still up in most areas and I was able to route family members down side streets, and through cleared drivable areas like utility right of ways and in one case someones large lawn. In case it went down I sent SMS images of the route and turn points. The people I spoke to I had out in less 45 minutes. Most others seem to have taken two hours or more if they got out at all. The advise about large parking lots is on point. K-Mart parking lot saved a pile of people that day thanks to quick thinking by CDF. We talked about how to push disabled vehicles with their vehicles out of the way to clear up a jam in traffic. I can post a lot more lessons learned if theres interest in this. I have an extensive family AAR we did to learn from the Camp Fire because its going to happen again. Its part of the ecology and as long as natural resources are mismanaged by the state the dead fuel load in the wildland interface will build and build. Politics at all levels killed a lot of people that day. Including the town mayor that had taken Skyway, the primary evacuation route off the mountain for all the communities and reduced it from four total lanes to two, one in each direction so the town could have a green strip in the median. This was done against the states recommendations, and even more offensive supposedly it was a family member's construction company that got paid for the work. The mayor must have paid the right people because the criminal investigation launched into this just vanished like all the lives lost that couldnt get out due to inadequate egress size.

Home unit Missoula Montana Northern Rockies Cordinating Group

DEW'S

California is on fire again??? At this point, makes you wonder about weaponized weather, or Harp. I feel for all those folks who lost the homes and loved ones. 🇺🇸

#1 lesson, don't live in CA. #2 lesson, the government never helps anyone directly if someone gets help it's likely "collateral" help as they carpet bomb the problem with money in order to mitigate damage to the controlling party in the next election cycle.

And to add to it all, everyone in this video is a coward, except for the long haired dude. Not returning to your hometown? Alright then. That former Sheriff is completely incompetent, by the way.

California is not paradise