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'I guess we have bad luck' | Family loses home in North Complex fire after losing home in Paradise

A family moved to Berry Creek after losing their home to the Camp Fire almost two years ago. They learned they lost their second home to the North Complex Fire.

BERRY CREEK, Calif. — A family who lost their home to the Camp Fire learned they lost their home in Berry Creek to the North Complex Fire as well.

Jill Rouse, her boyfriend and their three children chose Berry Creek as a place of respite. Somewhere to start over after losing everything in Paradise. 

“This is literally identical to what happened last time. It feels made up like how could this even be happening to someone twice,” Rouse said. "I guess we have bad luck."

The family used the insurance money from the paradise home they lost to purchase the new home in Berry Creek, but they chose not to buy fire insurance due to money being tighter. 

“There was probably 200,000 dollars worth of stuff there, but there was all of our possessions, the animals that we left the brand new trailer from the Camp Fire,” Rouse said.

The only possession Rouse recognized was a painting she drew on a propane tank on the Camp Fire's anniversary. 

“It was like half of the cabin was in the nice green forest, and the other half was on fire, and then I made a hear,t and like wind going around it. I can’t believe how much of it is still visible,“ Rouse said.

The family is now in the process of figuring out how to start over for the second time. The couple said their kids are starting to view destructive wildfires as something people would expect every year — like a birthday.

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