SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Nov. 8,2018, the Camp Fire began ravaging the town of Paradise and the surrounding area. It became the deadliest wildfire in California history, 85 people lost their lives and more than 18,000 structures were destroyed.
The town’s population went from 26,000 residents to zero overnight.
Five years later, Paradise has rebounded, becoming the fastest-growing town in California, with a population of 9,142. It is now home to families relocating and to returning residents such as Sonny Ventimiglio.
“Paradise really is paradise. It is gorgeous. Not only in its weather, in its energy, in its space, but in its people,” Ventimiglio said.
He and his family were able to move back to Paradise in the fall of 2020, only two years after losing their home and experiencing the traumatic blaze.
“You couldn’t see through [the smoke] and then right underneath it, it felt like a dragon was behind it. There was this massive fireball that came that went up the pine tree and then blasted right at the top,” Ventimiglio recalls.
The only thing left standing of Ventimiglio’s home after the fire was the chimney. Their home is one of approximately 3,000 that have been rebuilt.
The Ventimiglio's home after the fire. (Sonny Ventimiglio)
“I saw this as an opportunity for my children to get to see a community rebuild from nothing and to understand what it’s like to lose everything and put in the work to build back your dreams,” the father of three noted.
Ventimiglio wants Paradise to be viewed as a beacon of light.
“Will it take time? Absolutely. But you know what? All the good things in life take time,” he adds.
It was not only the returning residents who helped rebuild Paradise, but new residents who wanted to be part of the recovery process.
“I learned right away, boots on the ground, the hardship of what it meant to rebuild here. I had no idea,” Jen Goodlinn said, the executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation.
Goodlin grew up in Paradise, and was living in Colorado when the Camp Fire started. She visited the town six months later to say goodbye to her hometown. However, that’s when inspiration struck.
“What if we’re part of this recovery and so I went home and talked to my husband and he thought I was crazy. I said why don’t we move to Paradise — not like when it’s better, like now,” Goodlin said.
The Goodlin family bought land in 2019, but because of construction delays caused by the pandemic, they didn’t move into their home until 2022, which meant they spent two-and-a-half years living in a trailer.
“I simultaneously learned what it was like for everybody else in the after part of the fire — the struggle for those rebuilding. You can’t teach someone, you can’t train, you just live it,” she explains.
Goodlin acknowledges there is still a lot of work to be done to completely recover.
“I don’t ever want to paint our community as rainbows and butterflies because there is a realness to living here that is still difficult,” Goodlin added.
The biggest challenge both Goodlin and Ventimiglio say their community is facing is the high cost of insurance, an issue they hope the state can solve to help the town of Paradise fully recover.
“We need to continue to provide the support for those folks that do want to come up here,” Ventimiglio said.
