A simple gesture: Coffey Park fire survivors erect Christmas tree in Paradise

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PARADISE -- Residents are not allowed back in yet and emergency crews and utility workers are the only ones who get to see it. But a Christmas tree stands in downtown Paradise.

In front of the town's brick "Welcome" sign that survived the inferno that incinerated almost everything else, the 12-foot Noble fir twinkles at night with solar-powered white lights.

It's a gift from the fire survivors of Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood who, for the second time in less than a year, are embarking on a grim pilgrimage to offer a bit of hope to a place where it's difficult to find any.

"You don't want anyone to be a member of this club," said Tricia Woods, whose house burned down in Coffey Park last year along with more than 5,600 other homes and buildings in the Tubbs Fire. "To have someone else go through that like we did, you don't wish it on anyone."

The Camp Fire that swept through Paradise and the other ridgetop hamlets of Magalia and Concow achieved a milestone Sunday: It is 100 percent contained. There are still hot spots that need to be doused within, but -- with help from recent rains -- fire crews cut a complete boundary around the fire and the danger has passed. Authorities are still grappling with a long list of the missing, however, and recovery crews are still searching for remains of the dead, so few feel like celebrating.

"We're still in the middle of a crisis right now," Paradise Councilman Mike Zuccolillo said Sunday.

But a Christmas tree in downtown Paradise -- when little is left but melted metal and ash? "It touches my heart," he said.

Just as newspapers from cities that have covered local tragedies have a tradition of sending take-out dinners to newsrooms covering their own disasters -- like the Redding Searchlight and Las Vegas Review-Journal did for the Paradise Post and Chico Enterprise-Record -- the Christmas tree in Paradise is one in a chain of simple gestures among Northern California's fire-ravaged communities.

Survivors of the 2015 Valley Fire in Lake County sent to Coffey Park last year a homemade Christmas sign that had helped restore their community pride: "Miss U Guys," it said. The head of Coffey Park's neighborhood association drove up to Redding last summer after the Carr Fire to offer advice and encouragement. And on Thanksgiving Day, Ronnie Duvall, who had set up a light display last Christmas in Coffey Park, drove up to Paradise with the donated tree and decorated it with white lights, purple and gold ornaments and a star on top.

"It's good to show to the rest of the world that when disasters happen, people come together," said Duvall, who was joined by John Allen, also from Santa Rosa.

Until the Camp Fire ravaged Paradise on Nov. 8, the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa on Oct. 8, 2017, held the distinction of being California's most destructive wildfire, having destroyed more than 5,800 homes and businesses. Some 22 people were killed in its path (making it the third most deadly.) The Camp Fire blew that record away -- just 13 months to the day later -- when more than 18,800 homes and buildings were destroyed. It also became the most deadly, with 85 bodies recovered so far.

"Nobody wants somebody to break our record of how many homes were lost or how many lives were lost," said Annie Barbour, another Coffey Park resident who was one of the first in the neighborhood to celebrate Thanksgiving in her newly rebuilt home. "When it happened to us, we were hoping it was a one-time thing."

When Barbour and other members of the "Coffey Strong" neighborhood association took to their social media account to discuss ways they could help, they considered delivering Thanksgiving meals, but learned others were taking care of that. Instead, they are setting up a meeting in Chico the second week of December, hopefully to mingle with the fire evacuees and deliver a presentation on how to deal with insurance and how to handle their emotions.

They will offer practical advice, like staying organized and keeping files for receipts, and they will share suggestions on how to cope, like accepting help when it is offered. They will tell them that one year later, 70 percent of their lots are in some process of rebuilding.

"It's important for these individuals to know that we know what you're going through, we know what happened and what you're feeling," said Jeff Okrepkie, founder of the Coffey Strong association. "You're not alone and we're here to help you."

And someday, Okrepkie said, this band of fire veterans will come together to work not only to solve their own crises, but to "advocate for this never to happen again."

"It's not just the Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County or the Carr Fire or the Camp Fire," Okrepkie said. "If we can keep people connected and encourage them to organize and stay together, when it comes time for action, political or philosophical, we will have that base. "

Until then, a Christmas tree is twinkling in Paradise. And one community defined by fire is helping another.

"It's kind of like passing an Olympic torch, but about a fire misfortune," said Councilman Zuccolillo. "Hopefully, we'll be the last to pass it. But I know we're not."

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