Lesava's blog: "Nikki's Views"

I haven't written on my blog for a long while, and there is a very good reason. Since Nov. 8, 2018 I have been dealing with the aftereffects of the Paradise Camp Fire. My home and my car were destroyed in the fire; my mother, our dog Bruiser and I made it out in her car with a backpack each, some papers, some pics, Bruiser's things, meds, a couple of blankets and some snacks for in the car. 

We woke up to news of the shooting in Thousand Oaks the night before, and then the news of a fire that started in Pulga. I noticed the sky getting darker as the minutes ticked by, and then I thought about putting our flag at half mast for the shooting. When I went outside, I had black ash the size of index cards hitting me, and I figured something was VERY wrong. 

I went in on my computer, and at the same time, the TV started talking about evacuations in Paradise near us, and that the hospital was burning; the fire in Pulga had moved down the canyon DAMN fast. The hospital was a few miles away. We started packing Mom's car as I kept an eye on the Town Of Paradise Facebook page. The zone next to ours evacuated, and we got into HIGH gear. As soon as our zone #6 was called for evacuation, I told Mom get in the car NOW. She grabbed Bruiser, I grabbed her phone book as I ran out the door. I had to go in Mom's car since she wouldn't have been able to drive with her Parkinson's. It took us three hours to get to Chico going down the hill, it normally only takes 20 minutes. We went down Clark Road, and as we drove down, I looked from the driver seat and saw the fire about a mile away, flames high as I have ever seen, and heading up the hill right toward our house. I had a feeling then that we weren't going to be going back to our home as it was. And afterward, hearing the horror stories from Skyway, I'm SO happy we were forced down Clark Road. We didn't have to drive through flames or abandon cars like so many others did. 

We went to Lowe's in Chico at first, we couldn't get to the Neighborhood Church for shelter since we couldn't cross Skyway. We met up with our neighbor there, talked with him and his friends for a while, went to McDonalds to get some protein in us, and then we were finally allowed to get over to the church. We reached my brother right after getting there, and found out he had been in Chico that morning, and didn't have to evacuate. I parked and went over to check us in immediately. Red Cross got us on their safe list, and I got some goodies to munch on with some more blankets. At that point they weren't allowing animals in, so we decided to stay in the car with Bruiser. As I wandered back and forth to watch the TV set up in the courtyard, I was interviewed a few times for the news. Made the newscast on Sacramento ABC. I guess friends and family saw it. The second night at the shelter was bitterly cold, we had blankets covering us, and covering Bruiser in his carrier. We knew we had to do something else. 

After two nights, we decided to stay with an acquaintance of my brother's (he was staying with another friend). We got mom's home insurance started, as well as the insurance on my car. We stayed there for 3 nights, then the smoke and the atmosphere was just too much. Our asthma was just not handling the smoke well at all. We had to get out of the area. As soon as we got some of Mom's medications from the local pharmacy, we drove up to Southern Oregon to stay with my cousin and her husband. Lynne and Dennis were so welcoming, and couldn't believe we were finally out of the smoke and chaos............