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6 years after California’s deadly Camp Fire, some residents are returning to Paradise
The town of Paradise, California, was almost completely destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire — which scorched more than 150,000 acres and was the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history. The once lush landscape covered in pine trees was stripped bare, as 95% of the town burned.
But from the ashes, a new breed of American pioneer was born.
Kylie Wrobel and her daughter, Ellie, were one of the first families to return.
“Seeing the town grow and build, my heart needed this,” Kylie Wrobel said. “A lot of people don’t want to come back here. I had to stay here.”
In 2019, six months after the firestorm that destroyed everything, and nearly claimed their lives, the Wrobels were in tears. Now, Ellie Wrobel told CBS News, “Even though we lost everything in the fire, it’s nice to have something new.”
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Kylie Wrobel said, “You just heal every single day. It’s nice to get back in our hometown because then it, you get a fresh start on life.”
Thousands more have come back for a fresh start. In fact, Paradise was the fastest-growing town in California for the past four years, according to the California Department of Finance.
Jennifer Gray Thompson, the founder of the nonprofit After the Fire, which helps people decide if they should rebuild, said, “People who do decide to rebuild in a place like Paradise, they’re often even safer than they were before the fire, because that place has already been burned.”
Fire threatens 40% of homes in California. Starting in the 1990s, well-intentioned firefighters were trained to quickly put out flames to protect a growing population. But dead vegetation was left behind, which, combined with increasing drought levels, ended up creating a fuel source that continues to threaten communities today.
In Paradise, efforts are focused on protecting against future fires. All power lines will be buried underground and all residents must remove vegetation that’s too close to their homes. Federal grants are offered to homeowners who use fire-resistant materials to build their homes.
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Kylie Wrobel said she believes the town is more resilient today than it was in 2018.
“The likelihood of seeing another wildfire in Paradise, it already devastated our whole community, took the trees. I don’t think another wildfire would hit like it,” she said.
But not everyone agrees enough to return. While Paradise has seen record growth, the current population is still only one-third of what it was before the Camp Fire.
“Paradise is a microcosm of broader issues that our nation’s going to have to grapple with more,” said UC Davis’ Ryan Miller, a researcher who is tracking growing climate migration in the U.S. and the conflicts it’s causing.
“I’m hoping with some of the work we understand from Paradise, we can get ahead of some of those issues and prevent those disasters from happening later down the road,” he said.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning on the campaign trail for the Harris campaign. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start in Michigan, which is where you are right now. And it is going to be such a key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris is facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel’s wars. What are you hearing on the ground there from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been out here for a couple days. We’ve been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I’ve been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I’ll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we’re hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there’s a funeral service for an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just underscores how that community you’re talking about out in Michigan feel some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how close this race is, do you think this war and the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, nobody wants to see escalation and it’s tragic when any innocent person, whether it’s an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. Tomorrow’s one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, I and my wife, you know, we feel for the community here who’s been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a live issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Israel is, you know, fighting a war now on, I think it’s fair to say, two fronts and then being attacked by the Iranians as well. And, they- they need to defend themselves, and we need to support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their life, innocent people in a conflict, it is- it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You do sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and so I know you know how intense the efforts are by foreign actors to try to manipulate voters going into November. Just this Friday, Matthew Olsen, the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, told CBS the Russians are, quote, highlighting immigration as a wedge issue. That is such a key issue in Arizona. Are you seeing targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now?
SEN. KELLY: Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we will do our best to help parse that for viewers. But on the topic of the border, President Biden did announce just this past week new regulations to keep in place that partial asylum ban that he rolled out back in June. That’s what’s credited with helping to bring down some of the border crossing numbers in recent weeks. It was supposed to be a temporary policy, dependent on how many people were crossing at a time. Do you think this is the right long term policy, or is this just a gimmick to bring down numbers ahead of the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the right long term policy is to do this through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing that, passing strong border security legislation supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, and the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and Republicans–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: –This is bipartisan. This isn’t. But the legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting it passed. That’s the correct way to do this. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president interrupts the legislative process the way he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that happened, the only other option is executive actions. And this has gone from what was chaos and a crisis at our southern border to somewhat manageable. And if you’re the border- Border Patrol, you know, this is this- you need this. I mean, otherwise it is unsafe for Border Patrol agents, for CBP officers, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. So it’s unfortunate that this was the- these were the steps that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do this through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it right there. Face the Nation will be right back.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says Americans need to know about “huge amount of misinformation” on election
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