However, as residents of Paradise vow to rebuild what was lost, local officials are hoping to build it better– with an infrastructure less prone to such catastrophic damage and improvements that will last a lifetime. 

But when the painstaking weeks after the Camp Fire stretched into months of slow-paced of recovery, hopes to quickly reestablish were dampened by the restrictions of government and an unusually cold winter.  

In February, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that $1.7 billion in federal relief dollars were in jeopardy if the city and Butte County continued to allow residents to live on toxic land burned by the fire. Leaving many residents feeling angry and unsure of their next move.  

“My husband and I have all of five our kids up here. While it seems stupid, we were thinking about just needing a property; most of us had nowhere to go after that,” said Melissa Cohen, a resident of Paradise. “That really screwed us good initially.”

Rebeca Mueller, 31, her husband and their two children packed up and moved in with a relative in Arizona when it was time to evacuate. But access to specialized public education quickly became a problem. The temporary schools she selected didn’t offer the special needs care that her children so desperately need.

So, hearing that officials in California were planning on allowing residents to move back and live on their charred properties was welcome news to the recently pregnant Mueller. The next step; temporary housing. After cashing a check from her insurance company, Mueller and her family purchased an RV for $10,000 and hit the road for Paradise. 

For the next several months, their small RV became their new home. But living in a city with a damaged critical infrastructure, the family struggled to make ends meet. Their remaining finances were quickly exhausted, spending thousands on water, propane and gas. More than what they paid for the mortgage on their now-leveled house of six years. “We’re lucky though. We have a home where thousands of others don’t,” said Mueller.  

Days after the fire broke out, a county public health official issued a warning that the debris left over from the fire could contain high levels of mercury, lead, carcinogens and radioactive materials. Prompting health concerns among community members.  

The Town of Paradise was well aware of the risks before allowing their residents to return, but after showing signs of desperation, local officials decided it would be best to give residents the chance to regain their livelihoods. “It was a decision made with residents in mind,” said Jack Slota, a FEMA representative on the ground in Butte County. 

Mueller and her husband have been aware of the health risks, but like many friends and neighbors, had no other options and needed to act fast.  

The Town of Paradise was well aware of the risks too, but in a state of feeling greatly desperate after the fire, local officials decided it would be best to give residents the chance to gain their livelihoods again. “It was a decision made with residents in mind,” said Slota, a FEMA representative on the ground in Butte County. 

In early December, ordinances were passed allowing residents to move back to their burned properties, but with some restrictions. Butte County for example required property owners to have a minimum of 1-acres, additionally requiring residents to position their homes at least 100 feet away from fire debris.

The California Office of Emergency Services, the California Govenor’s office, and FEMA were aware of the health concerns and the public health official’s advisory. But the key is that they did not threaten to cut funding at that time. That prompted Paradise and Butte County to promptly began issuing utility building or “pull” permits, according to Paradise Mayor Jody Jones. Before the Camp Fire, The Town of Paradise typically approved 30 building permits. As we approach the six-month mark since the fire, Paradise, California has approved 400 building permits. 

While the priority of local government continues to be establishing essential services, like a reliable local water system, Gregg Boline, a spokesperson for the mayor of Paradise says that it will be important to ensure that all new structures are built up to the California state fire code.  

“This time, we’re going to be prepared,” he says. “We have work to do, but we owe it to our residents to rebuild efficiently, and to do this right.”

The breathtaking landscape is also a concern.  

“This town absolutely loves trees. We have to be careful with how many trees we have around our structures because that also creates an abundance of risk,” Bolin says. 

Many of the buildings in the town were made of kindling and other fragile materials, resurrected in the 1960’s.  

Other highlights of the new fire code include buildings being made of flame-resistant building materials with tweaks like requiring venting along a roof top to prevent embers from accessing the attic.  

Rob Barber is a local builder, losing the home shared with his wife Clara to the Camp Fire. “My gorgeous house, a lifetime of tools, everything is gone.” However, Barber remains committed to staying in Paradise and rebuilding. “If anyone is going to do it, it will be me,” he says.  

“We were one of the first to apply, but we only got approval to start building a week ago.”

Cleanup efforts have already proven to be a challenge of historic proportions. “Clearing land can be very tricky in this neighborhood. It’s a day and night project until it’s done,” said Ellie Young, a debris removal supervisor for the California Office of Emergency Services. Their agency expects efforts to clear land will be the biggest debris cleanup since the acclaimed 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Preliminary estimates for the cost of debris removal alone are nearing $1.2 billion, according to the local long-term recovery group. 

But for those who need to rebuild without insurance, options for assistance remain limited, but available.   

The Federal Emergency Management agency has committed to covering 75% of the costs associated with clearing properties, but the assistance has been offered on a fist come, first-serve basis. 

John Kounz, a representative with the California Office of Emergency Services says the agency’s goal after the fire continues to be getting rid of toxic debris and to get utilities such as electricity and water up and running. Officials estimate that that reestablishing the town’s water system could take five years. 

“COES is focused on the community,” he says. “Navigating federal resources to help residents get the relief they need.”

Federal funds will provide for about 75% of the town’s recovery costs, and the majority of remaining costs will be picked up by the state. 

According to rebuilding information available online, federal funds will pay to rebuild roadways and public utilities. After private land is cleared, individuals will be responsible for rebuilding their homes, regardless of their insurance coverage or ability to obtain separate charitable grants or additional assistance from the government.

Kounz says that it is possible for the community to come back, even better than before. 

“We can make it safe to rebuild and live there,” Kounz says. 

But even with the unfathomable devastation that residents have endured, Mayor Jody Jones believes that Paradise has a bright future ahead.  

“Everything will be brand new, which will make people want to live here.” Jones said.  

The post Government Responds appeared first on Reclamation on the Ridge.

The wildfire dubbed “Camp Fire” eliminated 95% of the small town of Paradise, California killing at least 80 people and several others in the surrounding communities. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, leaving the city and other area towns nearly wiped out.

In a month’s long investigation completed by Cal Fire, the agency conducted “a meticulous and thorough investigation” into the cause of the Camp Fire, announcing the findings in a statement. 

“Dry vegetation and red flag conditions created a tinder box atmosphere. Conditions like strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures only promoted this fire and caused incredible spreading rates,” causing the fire to rapidly burn through the area, CalFire said in a press release.  

Investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection arrived at the same conclusion. “Our investigation found PG&E equipment responsible for the devastating Camp Fire,” officials said in a statement.  

PG&E is California’s largest electrical provider, providing power to over 16 million customers. The company was charged with six felonies in recent years after a gas pipeline explosion devastated a neighborhood killing eight people in the Bay Area. A Federal magistrate judge has been recently conducting hearings on PG&E activity after state regulators determined that the company had “violated its probation” by providing misleading information about its gas operations since the incident, according to online records. 

In a statement released, the company claims to have not reviewed the investigators’ report yet but said that their prior findings were “only consistent with previous statements made by the company.” The company has struggled to publicly accept responsibility for their allegedly failing equipment since the fire. In a statement released in early April, PG&E said it could be only “probable” that their equipment started the blaze.

“PG&E has not been able to form a conclusion as to whether a second fire ignited as a result of vegetation contact with our electrical distribution lines, as Cal Fire has also determined,” the company said in a press release. “We have and will continue to fully cooperate with all ongoing investigations concerning the Camp Fire,” the company said.

The utility’s provider has been bombarded with legal inquiries recently, responding in court to several state and federal actions concerning their involvement in the fire. 

Three of the world’s largest insurance companies are suing PG&E over the millions of dollars in claims received from the Camp Fire. 

Insurance conglomerates like State Farm, Allstate Insurance Co and USAA, represent a large staggering blow to the utility provider, which has only acknowledged that an issue occurred on a high-voltage electrical transmitter close to where the fire started Nov. 8. Survivors of the wildfire have also brought legal action against PG&E, adding to the intense scrutiny that the company is under.  

The company has been in a state of transition for the past year. Filing for bankruptcy in early January as it came under pressure from billions of dollars in claims tied to deadly wildfires. 

In early March, PG&E decided to tap William Johnson as their new CEO. Johnson recently retired as a top executive of the Tennessee Valley Power Authority. The company also appointed 10 new members to its board of directors, after seven promptly stepped down. 

At the helm, Johnson will be responsible for leading PG&E through what’s expected to be contentious bankruptcy proceedings as creditors, victims and California officials bring action against the company. This while Johnson wrestles over restructuring a company serving millions in one of the world’s largest economies. Johnson’s predecessor, Geisha Williams, resigned in January before the company filed for bankruptcy. Resigning from the position before facing billions in liability claims tied to the fire.  

PG&E noted in its statement that, under Johnson’s leadership, TVA retired more than half of coal generation, cutting the utility’s carbon emissions by about 50 percent over the last decade. 
 

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“Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that would never happen with proper Forest Management,” the president tweeted earlier this month. “Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation.” 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been supporting residents on the ground in California after wildfires in early November brought destruction and devastation to more than 18,000 buildings and killing 85 people, according to authorities. The largest of the fires, famously dubbed the “Camp Fire,” destroyed much of the Northern California town of Paradise and towns around it, in the nation’s deadliest wildfire in at least a century. FEMA has also been providing assistance in response to the Woolsey and Hill fires in Southern California.

Newsom has publicly fired back against the president’s rhetoric, saying “Disasters and recovery are no time for politics,” in a recent tweet. “We’re already taking action to modernize and manage our forests and emergency responses. The people of California – folks in Paradise – should not be victims to partisan bickering,” said Newsom on Twitter.  

Playing out in the background, however, around the same time, were rising tensions between the Republican president and Democrats as the partial U.S. government shutdownentered its 19th day due to a stalemate over funding Trump’s proposed border wall. Newsom has been critical of the wall and Trump’s policies on immigration, as well as a wide range of other issues.

Trump’s threat to pull FEMA funding followed Newsom’s criticism of the Trump administration during his inaugural address. Newsom called the administration “hostile to California’s values and interests” and also took a swipe at what he called “the corruption and incompetence in the White House.”

The threat to halt disaster funds also could be a setback for recovery efforts in Paradise, a community in Butte County, where Trump edged Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by more than 3 percentage points in 2016. 

The president has been known to be critical of California’s wildfire prevention efforts previously. Threatening to pull federal funds in October and then again in November as firefighters were still battling major blazes across the state. For example, in November he went on social media to blame “gross mismanagement of the forests” for the state’s wildfires and added, “Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” 

Then, a week after his tweet about “gross mismanagement,” the president flew to California to see the devastation in Paradise with then-Gov. Jerry Brown and Newsom and suggested the “forest nation” Finland did a better job preventing wildfires by devoting “a lot of time raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem.” 

In addition, back in August as the massive Mendocino Complex wildfires in Northern California were raging, the president claimed the state’s wildfires were “being magnified & made so much worse” due to what he called California’s “bad environmental laws.” 

California fire officials have said the increasing severity of wildfires in the state is due to climate change, not forest management practices. 

“The president’s attempt to pin sole blame for California’s wildfire problems on the state’s forest management is flat wrong,” said Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters — a union representing about 30,000 local, state and federal firefighters. 

In a statement, he called Trump’s threat to pull FEMA aid “deplorable” and said those still rebuilding their lives in Paradise now “find themselves being used as pawns in the president’s ill-informed chest-pounding at their expense.” Rice also ripped the president for “a self-imposed [government] shutdown” and said Trump “has little standing to lecture anyone else about dysfunction.”

Rice pointed out the lion’s share of forest land in California is controlled by the federal government and added that “many catastrophic fires in California occur in the wildland-urban interface, fueled by unprecedented weather conditions, drought and development patterns.” 

According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, about one-third of the state is forested land, and nearly 60 percent is owned by the federal government. Only 3 percent is owned by state or local governments. The remaining forested land is owned by private entities, including timber companies. 

Newsom announced plans to expand the state’s emergency preparedness for wildfires, including a five-year, $1 billion forest management plan in his next budget. He also wants the state to spend about $300 million for new helicopters and planes to combat fires as well as to update its communications equipment and install more fire-spotting cameras.

“We are stepping up our game,” Newsom said during a news conference with emergency officials. “The last two years have been devastating.” 

The new governor said more than 33,000 structures in California have been destroyed due to fires in the past two years. Fires and floods have claimed 167 lives during that period, too, Newsom said. 

In announcing the plans, the governor’s office said the state has already invested more than $111 million in forest health since 2017. The office also said the U.S. Forest Service has had its budget slashed “by more than $2 billion since 2016, reducing the agency’s capacity to manage federal forestland in California.” 

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