Butte County Camp Fire NCS Members Evacuated

We are happy to report all members of the Butte County New California State Committee are safe and accounted for. The 'Camp Fire' raced through the town of Paradise and Magalia in the early morning hours on Thursday destroying nearly the entire town of 28,000. Paradise has served as a base for the New California State movement where there have been numerous meetings and town halls. Sadly all the homes and churches where NCS meetings have been held are now destroyed. NCS Butte county committee members and their families are safe but their residences are destroyed.

Actor James Woods has been instrumental in connecting people together during the evacuation and in the last two days.

California wildfires leave Paradise ‘destroyed,’ force evacuees to abandon vehicles and run

“Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed, it’s that kind of devastation,” Cal Fire Capt. Scott McLean told the Associated Press late Thursday. He estimated the Camp Fire burned a couple of thousand structures to the ground in the town of 27,000 people, about 180 miles northeast of San Francisco.

“We were surrounded by fire, we were driving through fire on each side of the road,” said police officer Mark Bass, who lives in Paradise and works in neighboring Chico. He evacuated his family and then returned to the fire to help rescue several disabled residents, including a man trying to carry his bedridden wife to safety. “It was just a wall of fire on each side of us, and we could hardly see the road in front of us.”

The evacuation of Paradise as the flames engulfed the town was nothing less than a panic as people left their cars and ran on foot. Many cars were engulfed in flames. Many people just made it out of their homes as homes around them were sent up in balls of fire. Emergency personnel were forced to push the cars off the roads being used for the exodus.

“Not one home will be left standing. I am devastated. We just bought a home in Upper Magalia right now, and we’re hoping that our brand-new home that we just get to move into tomorrow is not going to be burned to the ground. We’re kind of all shaking right now. So we grabbed our animals and some food and clothes and we’re getting the heck out of here.”