The Inside Story of California's 2018 Camp Fire

Students at Paradise High School recall the moment when the deadliest wildfire in California’s history destroyed their town.

[film rolls][piano note][engine revving][crowd cheering]- [Boy In Red Shirt] Areyou bringing it up there?- [Boy] Do not spill it.- [Boy In Red Shirt] Make room.[indistinct chatter][rustling papers][boy yells]- Aye, we're lighting a fire!- Aye!- [Girl In White] Yeah![crowd chanting "Speech"]- Our town might have burntdown, so it seems fittingthat we burn all the shitthey gave us down too.[crowd cheers][melancholy instrumental music][hopeful electronic music][student chatter]- [Student Announcer] What is up Bobcats?What is up?Seniors, if you are applyingto a North Valley CommunityFoundation scholarship,be sure to mail or dropoff your applicationby the end of this week.[teacher claps hands][band plays]- [Teacher] Rest, rest, rest.- Prom is coming.Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 18that Manzanita Place.This year's theme is "AWalk Through Paradise".- Have a great day Bobcats and rise up.- [Virginia] Comin' through.Old person comin' though.- [Male Student] 'Sup Partain?[bell rings][students chattering]- [Virginia] Did I giveyou guys your calendars?- [Students] No.- All right, here we go.- [Harmony] The fire was six months ago?- [Teacher] Today.- [Harmony] Mhm, that meanswe've been going to thisterrible place for six months.- [Male Student] No.- [Teacher] We didn't start until January.- Four months.- Feels like it just happened.- [Harmony] Really?- Yeah time's going by so fast.- There's a part of methat envies my friendsthat picked up and moved out of the area.- [Female Student] Yeah.- They picked up, they left,they don't think about it,they don't talk about it.- It's like all, like,those schools shootingsyou never hear about, like,and they happen all the time.And then, like, it's our town burnt downand then, hardly evenanybody know or cares.[door opens]- People come and theywant to ask us questionsand film us or make sure we're okay,but you can't reallyunderstand what we went throughunless you, like, were escaping that day.- Everything that you thoughtyour senior year was gonna be,has totally just been flipped upside down.Never once would I've thoughtthat I would be in an airportbuilding my senior yearand have everything taken away from me.- I was expecting for a rough senior yearbut it's rough in a different way.- [Harmony] I neverrealized how much I lovedbeing in a small townlike Paradise, until now.You feel at home and, like, it sucks'cause I haven't felt at home for so longand when you do go there,it's like "I wish we could just stay hereand I wish it was back to normal".[car engine roaring]- [Harmony] It's weirdbecause being in Paradisemakes me feel, like, more relaxed,even though it looks like this.There's my old dentist office.Oh, there's Ayisha.I like your septum.The only decision that I need to makeis if I want to leave or stay close.- One, two, three.[girls laughs]- [Harmony] Why not go explore,if you don't even havesomewhere to call your home?[rain falling]- This is the last piece ofmy prayer life to the fire.Yep, this is my fabulousroom, which I love.[gentle acoustic guitar music]- [Virginia] These are all thepictures of, over the years,all the students I've had.I've had brothers, andsisters, and cousins,and even children of previous students.I really want to getback into my classroomand teach there again.That's the agenda.I haven't taken it off.That's what we were goingto be doing that day.It's like my room is frozen in time.Now, my life is definedas "before the fire"and "after the fire".So, this is all that's leftof "before the fire" for me.- Let's see if I can squeeze in here.[car warning sounds]Welcome to my home.This was my truck.I would've been able todrive this to high schoolbut I didn't have mylicense before the fireand I was never able to drive it.Really sad.I hope I can fix it up in twenty years?Who knows?It's weird, just the littlethings you find, man.Here's my pocket knife mygrandpa gave me when I was four.Not much left of it.[Kody sighs]I just wish I could'vesaved something else.[Kody clears throat]- I told my parents, even after this fire,that I didn't want them to sell the lot.I wanna keep itand eventually, whether Ibuild another house up hereor I put a garage up here, do something,this place will stay in my name, somehow.- When camera crewswalk up to me, like, umthe first couple of weeks after the fire,it was interviews and interviewsand, you know, that's what made me upset.It's 'cause, like, Iknow my stuff was goneand I didn't want to talk about it.- I actually lost everything, like,I actually only havemy phone from the fireand what I was wearing, like that's it.- My grandfather and hisfamily fled from Germany,from the Holocaust,and all the memorabilia,all the material possessionsthat came with them, you know,passports with red "J" stamped on them,prayer shawls, letters,all of that is just lost.- I've come to the conclusionthat nothing is permanent,and that's somethingthat I have to accept.And if I accept it now,it'll be less devastating later.And, you know, my town,I loved it but it's gone.- [Harmony] I actuallysaved all my makeup.[Harmony laughs]- [Harmony] 'Causelike, it's so expensive.I know that sounds really badbut I made sure to grab my baby blanketsince I've had since I was born.I made sure to grab any picturesthat we had at my house.My mom grabbed my homecoming queen crowninstead of her medication, so,that shows you what she cares about.[papers rustling]- [Jennifer] It's just somessy and so unorganized.- Oh my gosh, you look so skinny.- [Jennifer] Look at this one of you.- [Harmony] The housing in San Franciscosays it's getting fulland I want to, like,just get it over with.- [Jennifer] How do you dothat?

What's your next step?- [Harmony] Well I'd have to just do it.- Just say "okay I'm gonna go"?- [Harmony] Mhm.- I think you should go to Chico.[Jennifer laughs]- [Harmony] My mom's areally awesome personand I love her a lot.But I have to think that it's my lifeand I should make the decisionof where I want to go.But it's also is, like, twosides fighting within myselfbecause I do care abouther more than anythingand I don't wanna make her sad.[crickets chirping]- Man, we should try to get up there.Through that hold up there.- That one?- Why not?- 'Cause who knows whereI'm gonna pop back out at?- [Kody] You'll probablyend up in the chute.- [Male In Red] And then I'llhave to get shot out of that.I won't even fit through that, dude.My head won't.- [Kody] I'll give youa boost, the best I can.- [Male In Red] Right?- [Kody] My grandma hadher favorite little thingin the front yard.It was, uh, "I am lost.

IfI am found before I return,please tell me to wait for myself".And I always read thatand stood there like"what does that actually mean?".- [Male In Red] So, you gonna tell mehow the sunset is up there?- [Kody] Beautiful.I had a job when I wasfifteen and a job ever since.And since the fire, I've been unemployed.I'm kinda lost, tryin'to get back on my feet.[ladies chatter]- Okay so ladies,I need you all to weighin on my retirement.[Virginia laughs]- [Female] Your retirement?- [Virginia] I went out,Sunday, to my classroomand driving up there,I got a moment where I feltlike I was in the fire again.I literally saw, like, flamesby the side of the roadin my mind, you know?And I had that terror againand um, and then I just felt sad.Just sad, 'cause I look aroundand it's not what I remember.I'm tired.The fire kind of burned a lot out of me.- Sometimes teaching, you feel,you start the fall semester,you feel like you're serving a term.- [Virginia] Yeah.- In prison.It's so regulated.- I haven't had a weekendoff, except in the summers,and then I'm taking classes every summer.- I just, I just all let it goand think "well, whateverhappens, will happenand I will be, I'll be okay".And I have been.- So, what Thoreau said,when he left Walden Pond:I left the woods for as gooda reason as I went there.I had more lives to liveand I had spent enough time on that one.- That's my quote.That's it, yep.I have more lives to live.[car engines roaring][fire truck alarm blaring][fire crackles]- I turned into a reallyangry person after the fireand I didn't know that Iwould turn out that wayand I took it out on thepeople that were closest to me.- It's kinda, like, upsand downs right now.It's like, today is one of my upsbut, like, I don't know, tomorrowif I'm gonna be down or not.Just like, how I wake up, it's weird.- I cry a lot behind closed doors.My parents, I don't likecrying in front of my parents.- I don't know,I feel like we haven't reallyhad a chance to talk about itand, like, every time I do, I cry.And I don't want to cry anymore.It's, like, I'm so over crying about itbut it was, like, a traumatic thingthat we weren't expecting or prepared for.[mellow acoustic guitar music]- [Jennifer] God, it seemslike you guys were just goingto your junior prom.I'm getting sad.- Do I look skinny?- Yeah you skinny.You don't look skinny, youlook lean and beautiful.Hey, oh my gosh, you look very handsome.- Thank you.- So yeah, the girlsare, like, halfway ready.- [Girl] I'm not ready...- You look hot.- [Harmony] Before thefire, I had a stepdadand he started beingmean to me to get to herand I feel like the copsnever did anything to help.We had to leave and we werehomeless for a little bit.And she works so hard to find a housethat we were renting at the timeand that's when the fire happened,and she was just really devastated.She's just so strong foreverything she's been through.I just want her to be happy.- [Jennifer] Have fun.- [Harmony] Bye mom, love you.- Love you too.[door shuts]- [Jennifer] My focus was mydaughter for such a long time.Being able to, like, haveplace for kids to be at,and be themselves, andfeels like it's my purpose.And now, I'll be lonely.I won't have them around.I won't be able to sharethings with them, you know?I think that's the scariest thing.- [Father] See ya bud.- [Kody] Later.- [Father] Later Kod.- My family ended up betteroff than I would've thought.We lived in a double-widetrailer up in Magalia,and now we have an actualmanufactured house.I hate what happenedto the town I lived inbut I love what happened to my family.[train horn blares]- [Kid] I will.- Come on.- [Kody] Do you remember the fire?- [Kid] Yeah, my grandpaactually got trapped.- [Kody] Oh did he?

Where?- [Kid] He got trapped over up in Concow.He had like 18 people.- [Kody] Wow.- [Kid] And he was surroundedbut he got out alive.- [Kody] Thank goodness.- [Kid] Successfully.- [Kody] You play football?

No?[basketball bounces]- [Kody] Yeah, I was there 16 years.- [Kid] Sixteen?- [Kody] How old are you?You said you were...?- [Kid] Eleven.- [Kody] Eleven?Yeah, a little more than your whole life.- [Kid] 'Aight, see ya.- [Kody] Take care bud.Thanks for playing.Yes, I would love theworld to go on long enoughfor a kid of mine to beable to sustain a nice lifeand even pass on a future generations,but until we find anotherplanet to live on,if they screw this one, we're done for.- All I know is that I'm gonnahelp others somehow, someway.I'm just gonna help people.And either if it's fromother natural disastersor in the hospital as doctor or a nurse,or just as simple as acoach, of a softball team,I'm gonna help people.- Yeah, it's gonna be tough'cause I've been trying to get a joband getting jobs are hard.Especially when you're eighteen'cause you don't have, really,anything to back it up.You gotta, you know, just finda taco truck or something,work there.But, yeah, I'm ready for it I think.I want to experience life.- Me and my friends, we all realizethat this is our last year of high schooland that we were finallygonna be, like, you know, goneand we were finally gonna get away,but it's almost likewe didn't wanna leave.Like, we wanted to stayin this one spot forever.[truck engine roars]- [Female] I love you so much.[crowd applauds]- [Male Teacher] All right now,teacher of the year asvoted on by students:Miss Partain.[students cheer and applaud]- We have been through so much, so much.And as you know, I've lost it all too.And I'm graduating withyou too this year, so.I'm the class of 2019.[male teacher continues speaking][melancholy guitar music]- My others burned up.So I have one now.I'm gonna miss the kids so much, you know?There's something that happensin a classroom that's magic.I didn't know it would comeat the end of so much loss.[tattoo needle buzzes]- [Tattoo Artist] Not too hurtful?- Mm, nah.- Run me through theparticulars again, man.- Um, why I got it?- [Tattoo Artist] Yeah, yeah.- Ah.For, like, twenty yearsmy dad had this truckand, uh, my dad had fixed the truck up.He swapped me driver seat asI was, like, nine years oldand let me drive.And, uh, it burned in the fire.- [Tattoo Artist] Well now you got it,a piece of it forever.- Um, I'm officiallygoing to San Francisco.- Oh you are?- [Boy In Black T-Shirt] Nice.- Congratulations.- [Harmony] Yeah I signed,I did all the stuff for it last night.Like actually, like, enrolled and stuff.- [Girl in Black T-Shirt]When do you go to orientation?- [Harmony] We don't have,like, a calendar yet.We need to sign up.♪ That's not all what it seems ♪[girl rapping and laughing][people cheering and screaming]♪ It's not all what it seems ♪- [Harmony] It's definitely shockingand it's, like, terriblewhen we hear aboutanother fire or something.Because when you go through that,it's not just "after thefire it's gone, it's over".Something needs to changeand I feel like that'sprobably our generation.The fire, kind of, madeall of us have to grow upsooner than we'd like.This summer is gonna be thelast time I can be a kid.Although I'm, like, scaredto be an adult and on my own,I feel like I'm ready for it.[slow, intense electronic music]