Today, November 8, marks the five-year anniversary of the devastating Camp Fire, which claimed 85 lives, destroyed some 11,000 homes, and nearly wiped an entire community off the map.

Early on the morning of November 8, 2018, a faulty electric transmission line sparked a fire in the vicinity of Camp Creek Road, giving the name to a fire that would become the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history — occurring just a year after another set of devastating fires burned through Sonoma and Napa counties.

Driven by intense Diablo winds, the fire rapidly spread through the areas of Paradise and Concow, in some cases trapping residents in their cars as they tried to flee. Others burned in their homes, unaware until too late that the fire was bearing down.

Gwen Nordgren, president of the Paradise Lutheran Church council, was one of the lucky ones who was able to escape, and she has been telling the story for the last five years of how she picked up a young woman along the road who was trying to escape on foot.

"Have you lived a good life?" Nordgren asked the young woman, as she recounts to the Associated Press. The woman said she had, and Nordgren replied, "So have I. We're going to say the Our Father and we're going to drive like hell."

The Camp Fire ended up burning 153,000 acres, most within the first four hours of the blaze. San Franciscans will recall the blanket of heavy, acrid smoke that descended over our region from the fire and stayed here for several days, making it toxic to open a window or walk outside.

Today's population in Paradise is estimated to be 10,000 people, down from the 26,000 who lived there before the fire — many of them lower-income retirees. The AP reports that only six of the 36 mobile-home parks that had been there have been rebuilt and repopulated, and around 2,500 homes have been rebuilt in total — with about 700 under construction.

Some former residents say they suffered too much trauma ever to return to the area. Shari Bernacette tells the AP that she is too haunted by the image of an older couple, one pushing the other in a wheelchair, whom she saw get consumed by flames. She and her husband have relocated to Arizona where she says she's "surrounded by cactus and rocks," and, "There is nothing that can light up."

Paradise Mayor Greg Bolin tells the AP, "[It's] amazing, in five years, how well people are doing." And he touts how PG&E plans to have all power lines in the are put underground by 2025 — part of the utility's ongoing, and somewhat controversial, plan to put 10,000 miles of lines underground, following the company's wildfire-lawsuit-related bankruptcy.

The commemorations will live annually on as this community tries to reimagine itself and move on from a massive shared tragedy.

On the first anniversary, back in 2019, the Sacramento Bee spoke to one former resident, Bunny Ketterman, who relocated to Sacramento but came back to Paradise to visit the site of her burned home and perform a little ritual.

"Fuck you, universe. Thank you, universe. I love you, universe," Ketterman said.

Today, the town is hosting a commemoration that will feature 85 seconds of silence, in remembrance of the victims. The event will also include the burying of a time capsule that they will dig up in 20 years, on the commemoration of the 25th anniversary.

Over the weekend, residents of Paradise came together to plant daffodil bulbs next to a playground — a symbol of resilience and the town flower, which will emerge in the spring.

Previously: Camp Fire Anniversary Marked With Stories Of Rebuilding, and Mystery Man's Remains [2019]

Top image: Aerial photos of Paradise, California, show a slow recovery from The Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, on May 23, 2023, in Paradise, California. Located in the Sierra Foothills east of Chico and near Lake Oroville, The Camp Fire, caused by a downed PG&E powerline on November 8, 2018, burned through the community of Paradise, killing 85 people and destroying 18,000 structures (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Four men who claimed to be licensed contractors, but were not, were arrested after generating complaints from Camp Fire fire victims in Paradise.

The 2018 Camp Fire remains the deadliest wildfire in California history, and destroyed at least 18,000 structures. As such, the rebuild is still underway more than three years later. But the Butte County District Attorney’s Office says it has been “receiving complaints of unlicensed contractor activity,” and now KPIX picks up a report from KOVR in Sacramento that four unlicensed contractors have been arrested for attempting to pass themselves off as licensed contractors.

According to a press release from the Butte County district attorney, the four suspects “held themselves out to be contractors, but are not licensed through the state.” Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey says in the release, "It is important we do everything we can to protect the hardworking contractors who are trying to do it right."

And these are felony charges. Performing contract work without a license may seem like small potatoes offense, but it is a felony to do unlicensed contracting work in a declared disaster area.

The Butte County DA’s release says that unlicensed contractors "often leave their clients with poor quality work, or in some instances, no work at all. Licensed contractors are required to have a bond to commit to completion of their work. Unlicensed contractors, who do not pay worker’s compensation insurance and other fees, are able to underbid licensed contractors, who are following the law."

And it certainly lends a little more shadiness that one of the suspects was also hit with controlled substance and drug paraphernalia charges. According to KOVR, those charges were for "methamphetamine and fentanyl possession."

You probably do not live in or own property in Butte County, but you may need a contractor from time to time. There is a Contractor State License Board lookup tool that allows you to check whether a contractor is valid, and their current license status.

Related: Ron Howard's New Documentary 'Rebuilding Paradise' Depicts a Town Starting From Scratch [SFist]

Image: The White House via Wikimedia Commons

A wildfire that expanded rapidly on Wednesday is burning very near the burn scar of the 2018 Camp Fire, just east of the origin point of that fire, but so far is not threatening any homes.

This fire is dubbed the Dixie Fire because it broke out Tuesday at Dixie Road and Camp Creek Road in Butte County — with the latter road being the namesake of the Camp Fire. The fire grew to 60 acres overnight on Tuesday and then exploded to 1,100 acres on Wednesday. Cal Fire now says the fire has burned 2,250 acres and is 0% contained.

As Bay Area News Group explains, around 10,000 people in Plumas County lost power Wednesday until around 2 p.m., with PG&E blaming smoke from the Dixie Fire. The former Caribou-Palermo transmission line that sparked the Camp Fire is no longer energized, but a PG&E spokesperson confirmed that several other power lines run through the area, which is near Feather Canyon, east of Pulga.

It remains unclear what sparked the fire, and PG&E has not filed any report with the California Public Utilities Commission to suggest that they had any equipment issues in the area at the time of the fire.

Around 350 firefighting personnel were reportedly on the scene Wednesday, battling the blaze in steep and often inaccessible terrain. Evacuation warnings for Pulga and East Concow went out Wednesday from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, however fire officials say the fire is burning north toward Plumas County and away from more populated areas. (See map here.)

At least one Union Pacific Railroad crew is fighting the blaze via train.

John Gaddie, fire captain with the Cal Fire Butte Unit, tells Bay Area News Group that the crews' main priority is building containment along the western flank of the fire, to prevent it from spreading to more populated areas — and back toward Paradise. So far, winds seem to be cooperating.

The Camp Fire three years ago virtually leveled the town of Paradise, killing 85 people and destroying thousands of homes, many of which are not yet rebuilt.

Charles Brooks, one Paradise resident who has only been back in his rebuilt home for thee months, tells the Chronicle, "I’m not going to lie, as resilient as our community is, for those of us who have stayed, seeing a column of smoke is unnerving."

Many of the firefighters now on this fire just moved over from the Beckwourth Complex blaze in Lassen and Plumas counties. That fire, a combination of the Dotta and Sugar fires, has been burning for two weeks and has scorched almost 100,000 acres as of this morning.  It is now 68% contained — downgraded from 71% containment on Wednesday.

Just shy of five months after the devastating Camp Fire leveled the Northern California town of Paradise, two small signs of rebirth arrived Thursday in the form of the town's first two building permits for new homes.

Married couple Jason and Meagann Buzzard were the first to receive a permit to rebuild, and Jason tells the Associated Press, "We were 100 percent intent on rebuilding in Paradise. It’s home. I was born and raised there. My wife was born there and so was my daughter." They're crossing their fingers that they'll be able to move back in by Christmas.

The second permit, issued Friday, went to Colleen Corners and her husband. Corners tells the AP, "There are still lots of people struggling to just get their insurance straight. There’s still a lot to do and lots of patience is required."

Paradise Mayor Jody Jones announced Thursday that $3,500 grants are available for every homeowner who decides to rebuild, as a small encouragement.

In addition to taking the lives of 85 people, the Camp Fire destroyed more than 18,000 buildings, including 11,000 homes, displacing some 27,000 people. Debris removal has only occurred so far at 580 of the 11,000 burned home sites.

FEMA has set up some mobile homes, but only 243 families had moved into them as of March 1, according to the AP — and the agency is having trouble locating suitable sites for them. Also, drinking water is contaminated in some neighborhoods, and the process of replacing water pipes throughout the town could take up to three years.

A grocery store, a hardware store, and an auto repair shop have recently reopened — as Corners says, "Everything a small town needs."

Previously: Artist Paints Murals on Camp Fire Wreckage

Photo: Wayne Hsieh/Flickr