Their homes burned in the Camp Fire. Then again in the Park Fire.
Four people in California describe what it was like to lose their homes to wildfires twice in six years: First to the Camp Fire in 2018, then to the ongoing Park Fire.
Ken Baker was expecting a check to arrive in the mail at his new house — part of a settlement after his Paradise, California, home burned in the 2018 Camp Fire.
But that check won’t reach its destination.
“The address it’s supposed to go to is no longer,” Baker said.
In a painful deja vu, the new house burned in the Park Fire on July 25. Some of Baker’s family members watched their Ring camera feed until flames extinguished it.
Ken Baker.Courtesy Ken BakerBaker and his wife, Sylvia, had settled in Cohasset, a rural community with a scattering of houses along winding forest roads about 5 miles from Paradise. Now, they are staying in his son’s spare bedroom back in Paradise, contemplating how to rebuild for the second time in six years.“Daunting,” he said, identifying with the Greek legend of Sisyphus. “Rolling it up the hill and watching it roll back down again.”
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