It’s 200 miles from home, wildly expensive and a world apart from the rural, tree-filled communities they left behind — but for some Camp Fire survivors, the Bay Area offers their best bet at a new life.
Two months after wildfire incinerated Paradise, killing at least 86 people, destroying 14,000 homes and becoming California’s deadliest and most destructive blaze, families who fled the flames are showing up on the Bay Area’s doorstep. It may seem like an imperfect choice — the region’s staggering home and rental prices can be another shock for refugees who arrive with little more than the clothes they’re wearing. But with nowhere else to go, evacuees who have family, friends or any other connections to the Bay Area are attempting to start over here. And a handful of local residents are helping.
On a recent cold and windy afternoon, Ana Maille sat at Willow Street Pizza in San Jose, a plate of angel hair pasta in front of her, and listened to a young couple describe their narrow escape from the flames.
Lauren Decker, 19, and Ansel Craig, 21, recounted how the Paradise sky turned so black they could barely see the car in front of them. How they exchanged panicked calls and text messages with friends and family members who weren’t sure they were going to get out. How they planned what to do if the flames overtook their car. And how they finally ended up at a Panda Express in Chico three hours later, frantic and dressed in pajamas.
By the end of the harrowing tale, Maille had tears in her eyes.
“It’s almost like, how can you not help?” the 55-year-old San Jose resident said.
After meeting Craig and Decker online, Maille jumped into mother-hen mode. She helped the couple scour the internet for an affordable place to live in San Jose — where they landed to be close to Decker’s best friend — donated cash, art supplies, Chromebook laptops and a computer monitor, and offered friendship. Other local residents have chipped in, too, donating furniture and kitchen items.
Those connections and others were forged in Facebook groups for survivors displaced to the Bay Area. Evacuees describe what they need — furniture, transportation, an affordable apartment — in sometimes heart-wrenching posts. In response, local residents contribute money, donated items or make friendly calls and text messages. A spreadsheet posted in the “Bay Area Camp Fire Support” Facebook group lists more than 25 fire survivors living here who need help.
Being so far from home takes its toll on evacuees. They can’t visit the aid centers in Butte County, they miss informational meetings and they’re cut off from the emotional support of their former neighbors. While some evacuees in the Bay Area feel buoyed by support, others struggle to get the help they need. The news cycle has moved on, the smokey air has cleared, and many local residents likely don’t know there are fire survivors in their own community.
Before the fire, Tova Love, 54, was commuting to Berkeley once a week for classes at Starr King School for the Ministry and returning to Paradise, where she lived and worked as a caregiver. When the flames got too close on Nov. 8, the aspiring chaplain abandoned her car — which contained all the worldly possessions she’d hoped to save — and fled on foot with a teacup poodle under each arm.
Once she escaped, she says it was the kindness of her Unitarian Universalist church community, and her new neighbors, that saved her. A fellow church member put Love up in her Berkeley duplex, and other good Samaritans donated sewing supplies to help her restart her embroidery side-business. One woman took her to lunch, which perhaps was the gesture Love appreciated most — it reminded her of growing up in Texas, where new neighbors were greeted with a pie.
“It was like, ‘Hey, you’re new here. Let me welcome you,’ ” Love said. “And that was nice.”
There are still hard moments. Tiny things make Love cry — like a can opener at the grocery store that reminds her of one she bought just before the fire. And Love’s housing is guaranteed only through the end of February.
When 47-year-old Jodi Sheppard evacuated Paradise, her husband, 53-year-old Kent Sheppard, stayed behind to protect their house. When he finally fled, he drove too fast through the blinding smoke and flames and ended up in the cemetery, crashing over tombstones. He had to scramble into his roommate’s car to make it to safety.
The Sheppards later moved into Kent’s mother’s house in San Ramon, but Jodi is anxious to go home and rebuild. She feels isolated in her new city, like her life is on hold.
“Being down here, we’re not getting anything done,” she said. “It feels like we’re just standing still.”
Anna Kamedulski, of Livermore, who met the Sheppards through a Facebook group for Camp Fire survivors, calls the family a few times a week to check in and talk.
“If it was me and my house burned down, I’d want some support,” she said. “And I’m just trying to be that support.”
After they fled the fire, Craig and Decker, who had worked together at a Grocery Outlet in Paradise, bounced from Chico to Fairfield to Southern California. They eventually landed at Decker’s best friend’s apartment in San Jose. But the building didn’t allow dogs, so Craig slept in the car with Cocoa, their German Shepherd mix.
Finally the couple found a bedroom in a San Jose house for $1,000 a month.
Now they’re working on getting jobs and are hopeful about enrolling in a local community college. They were attending Butte College before the fire, Craig taking welding classes and Decker studying computer system administration and multimedia art. But Craig lost his welding equipment in the fire. Decker lost the cable that connects her drawing pen to her tablet. Both still have nightmares.
The support they’ve received from their new community has been great, Decker said, but the Bay Area still feels foreign. And while they’re excited about hiking in the redwoods and visiting the beach, they miss Paradise — the place where they knew everyone, and everyone knew them.
“Honestly,” Craig said, “I really, really do miss the family, friends — just the whole vibe in town.”
How to help
There are several Bay Area Facebook groups dedicated to helping local residents connect directly with fire evacuees, including: Bay Area Camp Fire Support and Paradise (Camp) Fire Support San Jose Bay Area. The Paradise Fire Adopt a Family group has a broader scope, and serves survivors and helpers in the Bay Area and beyond.