Many on Facebook said how they were staying put, nothing happened last time, and they'll be laughing at the local breakfast hangout while everyone else sits huddled at the bottom of the hill in Chico waiting for permission to come back to Paradise.
But it's not 2006, there's been twelve years of overgrowth and vast amounts of ground cover that's been permitted to build up and coupled with high winds, it just ripped through house after house after house.
Those who actually maintained their properties had the best chance of their homes surviving, but at least 6,500 homes have been destroyed as well as most of the businesses in the city.
Forest and wildland management is a joke in California - every inch of the way you're fighting environmentalists in countless battles before unelected judges who never have to face the consequences of their legislation from the bench.
There was no firebreak around the town of Paradise. There were vast swaths of the town that were simply wild forest, and where residences were, huge clumps of pine trees (a favorite of the bark beetle) were ripe for ignition. Add in a dash of gasoline soaked wood (also known as chaparral and other ground cover) and criminally small roads on critical evacuation routes and you got exactly what happened.
People literally burned to death in their cars or just outside them, homeowners found inside homes and while they've done initial assessment of a tenth of the destroyed homes, it will likely take the combined expertise of anthropologists and DNA examiners to fully identify all the dead. 151 people are known to be missing at this time.
So Axel, thanks for continuing the conversation about forest management. Your lack of any knowledge on the subject is obvious for anyone to see that even Stevie Wonder can tell you're just spouting some random meme you caught in passing.
Oh, and man, must really burn that the president continues to be able to use your song with impunity. Hope he continues.
6,500 homes? Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for that very detailed report. Too bad the eco fecal freak officials that caused this disaster won’t be held accountable.