Evacuees recount terror, loss from Northern California blaze
57 views · Published 19 November 2018 · 3:31 · Indexed 8 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(14 Nov 2018) Five days after the devastating wildfire that swept through Northern California, over 1,000 people were at more than a half-dozen shelters Tuesday set up for evacuees in the area. Greg Gibson came to a shelter in Chico on Tuesday in search of information about his neighbours, who have been reported missing in the Paradise fire. The fire exploded so quickly, he said, that he first noticed the bottom of a shed burning about one-quarter of a mile from his house and by the time he reached the home he shares with an elderly woman, the fire was on all sides. He helped his 79-year-old roommate into her car and they fled. He doesn't know if his neighbours tried to leave or not, but he knows if they hesitated even a few minutes longer than he did, they would have had trouble. "It happened so fast. I would have been such an easy decision to stay, but it was the wrong choice. It's like, "Should I have toast with my eggs (before I leave)?" he said. "Because we just didn't know, we just didn't know what was going on." Inside the shelter, evacuee Harold Taylor chatted with newfound friends and fellow evacuees. Taylor, a 72-year-old Vietnam veteran who walks with a cane, said he received a call on Thursday morning to evacuate immediately. He looked out and saw the flames leaping up behind his house. He left with the clothes on his back, he said, and barely made it out alive. Along the way, he tried to convince his neighbor to get in his car and evacuate with him, but the neighbor declined. He doesn't know what happened to his friend. "We didn't have 10 minutes to get out of there. We really had to go. It was already in flames downtown, all the local restaurants and stuff were already engulfed in flames," he said. "Power poles were falling in the street and a power line fell on my car … fortunately, they had shut off the power!" Now, he knows his home is gone and he has insurance - but Taylor is still at a loss. His elderly mother died of dementia a month ago and he had just taken possession of the house he shared with her and settled her estate. The house and all the paperwork, along with his military memorabilia, are gone. His brother told him if he could survive the Vietnam War, he could survive this. But he was 20 then and a half-century has passed, he said. "In one day, the whole town was just basically wiped off the map," he said, shaking his head. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/3c03fcfa6369cf36447f17c5db315baa
