PARADISE, Calif. — Wednesday marked five years since the start of the Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise and surrounding Butte County communities.
More than 100 people gathered at a memorial Wednesday morning at Paradise Community Park, where the crowd observed an 85-second moment of silence, with one second for each of the lives lost in the Camp Fire.
"This place was devastated,” said Mayor Greg Bolin, speaking to ABC10 before the event. “There was very few buildings left…Over 14,000 homes burned to the ground. I lost my home and all the council lost their home. Everyone in my family lost their home except for one."
He spoke at the emotional memorial event.
“It was so hard for so many people to see a future here, but for those that did, they came back and I'm proud of those people for doing that,” he said.
The town had a population of some 26,500 people before the Camp Fire. Now, it’s closer to 9,300 but growing. Bolin says at any given time there are about 500 homes in the process of being rebuilt.
“Next five years, we should be able to see our sewer system. We're the largest city west of the Mississippi without a sewer system,” said Bolin. “Our (public) roads will all be redone because many cars melted and burned on those roads and destroyed them. Trees burned on them and then undergrounding of all our utilities will be done by then."
Somber feelings lived alongside celebration Wednesday as the town mourned losses but also appreciated all the recovery work done in the last five years. Signs of life are everywhere driving along Skyway through the heart of Paradise. It’s a community determined to recover, driven by hope.
Colette Curtis is Recovery and Economic Development Director for the Town of Paradise and organized Wednesday's memorial event.
"It has been five years. This is a huge milestone in our recovery, and while there is so much positive action and so many wonderful things that we really look to, moving into the future, it has been a very hard road, and we think it's really important to be able to sit with that,” she said.
Wednesday morning’s event included the dedication of a time capsule filled with letters, wood carvings and other mementos to be re-opened 20 years from today.
"We'll have a time of remembering what those different things meant to the town before the fire and after the fire,” said Bolin.
John and Lori Manninen included a video in the time capsule. It’s of their Nov. 8, 2018 fire-fight and their subsequent escape from Paradise, through flames along the roadway.
"I think it's important for the next generations to remember the Camp Fire, remember those who lost their lives, maybe learn some lessons about fire management and emergency preparedness,” said Lori Manninen.
They were clearing brush around their home in the years leading up to the Camp Fire. They credit that and their staying to fight with hoses with saving their house and three of their neighbors' houses.
"It's very important to have everything in your lives ready to go, even before the problem shows up,” said John Manninen.
Later, across town at the Camp Fire Pet Memorial in Bille Park, people were remembering other lives lost. Heidi Johnston placed a rock for her cat Ehirma, who went missing in the fire.
"I just put the year she was born and the year I believe she perished,” said Johnston. “It's a good thing to do because it gives you some closure.”
She and her husband left their home Nov. 8, 2018 to get Johnston’s mother, who lived nearby in a nursing home. Johnston left her cat at home, thinking they’d be able to return.
“We couldn’t make it back. They closed the roads. There were cars everywhere and trees down and powerlines,” she said. “The next day, we found out that our house and everything had burned.”
Johnston and her husband and mother survived, but they lost their home and all their belongings. Despite the tragedy, they decided to rebuild.
"Paradise is back. People are back and so we're looking to the positive,” said Johnston.
At the corner of Skyway and Foster Road sits the future site of Hope Plaza. Melissa Schuster, a former Paradise councilmember, is working to bring the Camp Fire memorial space to life. The project is in need of donations in order to be completed.
"We're setting the bar for how you recover from a disaster like this,” she said, reflecting on her community’s resilience.
On this five-year milestone since the Camp Fire, people left handprints and notes of encouragement on a wall along the Hope Plaza site.
“They're so full of hope and love and inspiration, and that's what this Hope Plaza is all about,” said Schuster. "I'm just so full of pride for this community."
WATCH MORE ON ABC10 | Camp Fire: Looking back on the sights and sounds of the 2018 deadly wildfire
