Escape from Paradise

(Jhan and Tony Dunn recently moved to Flat Rock after losing their home in Paradise, CA to the devastating Camp Fire in November 2018.  Approximately 90% of the homes in Paradise were destroyed and 85 people lost their lives, making the Camp Fire the deadliest wildfire in California history. The following article includes excerpts from Tony Dunn’s blog post entitled, “Escape from Paradise.'“ With permission.)

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Jhan and Tony Dunn

In the early morning on Thursday, November 8, 2018, Jhan and Tony Dunn got ready for work and left their picturesque home that overlooked a small forested canyon on the edge of Paradise, CA.  Jhan would never see the house again. Tony would return one more time - for 13 minutes later that morning - to collect their cat, their “Go Bags”, and some prescription medications. 

The second time he left the house, it was in a race for his life.

6:30 AM

As usual, my wife headed down the hill before me to her job on the other side of the Sacramento Valley in Willows. I left at 6:30 for my job at Chico State University. I had no idea that at the very moment I was leaving home, the fire that would wipe an entire city off the map was being sparked.

The Dunn’s home in Paradise, CA

Jhan and Tony Dunn, both in their 60’s, loved their home in Paradise. Tony describes it as a virtual treehouse that overlooked a beautiful canyon and was shaded by a majestic Ponderosa Pine just a few feet from their back deck.“We had a beautiful deck,” explains Tony, “and we'd be out there when it was 110 with misters going and out there when it was 25 degrees with jackets and heaters going. It was just a beautiful place.”

Jhan was only three months from retiring from her job as an administrator for adult education for Glenn County. Tony planned on working for a few more years in strategic planning for nearby Chico State University.  And they had every intention of spending their retirement years enjoying the wooded setting of their beautiful Paradise home

The sky filling with smoke from the Camp Fire.

8:00 AM

While I was setting up for a meeting, I got a local news notification on my phone, "Paradise being evacuated," was all I saw.  Without even blinking, I told my boss that I had to leave to get the cat, grabbed my jacket and left. I had no conception of what I was heading into.  When I walked out of the building I was stunned by the ominous sky overhead. Just an hour earlier it had been cloudless and crystal clear. Now, an angry black band blotted out the sun and most of the sky.

Frantically driving back to his house, Tony passed the local elementary school where anxious parents were picking up their children and the schools was being evacuated. Already there was a line of vehicles backed up as Paradise residents scrambled to get out of town.

8:46 AM

As I turned onto our tiny street, all seemed sleepy and quiet. The sky was smoky, but it was cool and calm. I went into the house, greeted the cat, and packed an extra bag of clothes - mostly t-shirts. I remembered that we had bought sprinklers for our deck after talking about the Santa Rosa fires. I went outside, tried to brush dry leaves off our deck with my bare hands, turned on the sprinklers, scooped up the cat, set the alarm, and left the house. 

Tony decided to take a back way out of Paradise - hoping to avoid traffic congestion. But cars were beginning to back up regardless of the route he chose. Traffic crept forward slowly and Tony could see a long line of cars backing up behind him in his rearview mirror. Tony tried to call Jhan but only got through briefly.

9:26 AM

The sky darkened. We crept forward. The line behind me lengthened. Edgewood was a 2 mile long street with a single exit - Pearson Rd. When I took this picture at 9:26, the fire was already starting to consume the south end of Edgewood where 5 people would be trapped and burned to death. They were the first fatalities of many to come.

The drama around Tony Dunn unfolded over the course of the morning and was a surreal experience. “ I didn't really believe it, you know? It wasn't something that happened suddenly … it evolved over a four hour period.”  When asked if he ever thought he might die, he remains incredulous that he survived to tell the story.  “I don't know how we all didn't burn alive. When I got far enough down the road to get out of the trees, I could see that the canyon was just a sea of flames..”

… people in the cars behind me began frantically honking their horns and yelling, "The fire is here!! The fire is right here!!" I watched as a house on the other side of (the street) caught fire and embers fell all around. People began abandoning their cars and running. The fire was literally upon us.

The Dunn’s home after the fire.

As Tony desperately tried to stay ahead of the flames, their dream home was being consumed in its entirety by the raging inferno. It would be six days before they got confirmation that the house was gone. It would be a month before they could go back and see the charred remnants of their home.  Although devastated by the loss of their material possessions, it was the loss of photos and mementos and the beautiful trees behind their home that was the most painful to accept. 

“We just had our whole life taken away. All that was left were unusable remnants to kind of cruelly remind you of what you once had. Jhan had mementos from her travels around the world. They were all gone.”

“I'd say the thing that I really miss the most are the family photo albums. My biggest reaction was just the level of devastation in the forest. I mean the forest, it was such a beautiful forest and it was dead.”

9:59 AM

It took an hour to travel the seven-tenths of a mile to Sawmill Rd., but we were still ahead of the fire, if barely. I actually don't know how we all weren't consumed by the flames. It took another half hour to reach Clark Rd., where we finally emerged from the trees and the blackness of night. By this time I had managed to get Jhan on the phone. "I think I've made it," I told her, "We're out of the trees.”

Tony’s relief was to be short-lived. 

In the aftermath of the fire, housing prices in the region would skyrocket as nearly 50,000 displaced people began looking for homes. The Dunns started looking for homes in Northern California which would allow them to still commute to work. The resulting scarcity of suitable homes and skyrocketing prices made the search incredibly difficult and frustrating. Once, when they did find a home they liked, no insurance company would sell them insurance and they were not willing to risk losing another home with no coverage.

They widened their search to Oregon. And then to Washington. And then on to Boise, Idaho. But they never found the right combination of a home they would love at a price they could afford. The process was complicated due to their uncertain financial status which remained in limbo for months as they negotiated with insurance companies.

At 10:45 

It had taken me an hour and 45 minutes to travel 2.2 miles. I could see that the whole left side of Skyway (Road) was on fire. Flames engulfed 60-foot tall pine trees. Too late, I realized that the uphill lanes closest to the fire were closed and they were forcing us onto Neal Rd.  I immediately knew this was a mistake. Neal is a narrow, tree choked road, a single lane each way.

 I didn't want to be in the trees again.

After several months, the Dunn’s discussed the possibility of moving east. As fate would have it, Chico, CA is the home of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and the Dunn’s had heard about the charms of Asheville, NC.  “I did some research on the internet,” Tony explained, “and I was like, wow, there's culture and all this cool stuff in that area.”

So they flew to North Carolina in May of 2019 and set off with a local realtor to explore Asheville. What happened next will surprise no one living in Henderson and Buncombe Counties.  “We didn't even get to Asheville before we got stuck in the traffic on I-26. We decided then that Asheville itself was out.”

Their realtor turned them around and they ended up at Honey and Salt Restaurant and a stop by The Park at Flat Rock. The Dunn’s liked what they saw.

A house next to Tony’s car is engulfed in flames

11:22 AM

At first, we moved along briskly (on Neal Road), but …within seconds we came to a complete stop. And there we sat - completely unmoving - for 50 minutes. It became pitch black again. And then I could see the fire. It came up the canyon on our right. I watched as the trees caught fire. I watched as the house next to my car started to smoke, as the eaves caught fire, and as it became totally engulfed.

After their visit to North Carolina, Jhan and Tony processed what they had seen. “We were on the plane on the way back and discussed what we’d seen. For me, there was nothing I didn't like ... literally nothing. It had beautiful mountains. Asheville's got all the restaurants and culture you could want. Hendersonville is a cute little town. Flat Rock is beautiful.”

And the cost of living was key.  “It's more affordable here. The lifestyle is more relaxed. Jhan was worried that it was going to be real East Coast - like Boston and New York. But it’s actually just as laid back and casual as Chico."

11:22 AM

I tried not to panic, but it was getting grim. There were cars to the left of me, cars in front of me, cars behind me, and flames to the right of me. The popping got louder and closer. I sat there, trapped, just waiting to be burned alive.

Reception was very poor, but on and off I was able to get through to my wife. I told her that I loved her and that I might not make it. We cried. She said that as long as we kept talking, I would make it. I wasn't so sure. I felt that I was saying goodbye. If we didn't move, I knew I was going to die.

Pleased with their visit, the Dunn’s committed to finding a home in North Carolina. The search was once again frustrating and options were considered from Mills River to Brevard to Tryon. Eventually, they found a place they could call home in Kenmure in Flat Rock. As fate would have it, they once again owned a home on a heavily wooded lot. Tony laughs, “Every day we get up and the forest is so beautiful and we say, ‘Well, we did it again. We bought a house in the woods.’”

Kitty Dunn

12:13 PM

After almost an hour watching everything on my right be consumed, and contemplating a horrifying trapped death as the flames approached, a couple of teenagers came running up the road. "Everybody get on the right side of the road!" they yelled, signaling everyone on the wrong side of the road to move over. Miraculously, as people merged, we started moving.

I finally got to Highway 99 at about 1:00 PM - four hours after leaving my home for the last time. But I was alive, and so was the cat. I finally met up with Jhan at the Casa Ramos in Willows around 2:00. We were lucky. We were all alive.

Living in Flat Rock since November, Jhan and Tony are still exploring the area and trying to figure out what their new lives will look like.  In the meantime, they appreciate the friendly reception they receive from their new Henderson County neighbors.  “People are really nice. In California, people are not mean, but they don't really pay much attention to you. Here in North Carolina, we go for a walk in the park and everybody smiles and says hello. I think the lifestyle here is a little less stressed.”

They also enjoy the weather. Even the cloudy days.  "We were at Publix and I was just sitting in the car waiting for Jhan. And it started to pour. It was the middle of July.  I was just like, I don't even know what's happening right now! Things are falling out of the sky and it's the middle of summer. I love it.”

When asked if there are any lessons to be learned from the past 15 months, Tony has a very specific answer.  “One thing that's definitely changed:  if we have something nice, dammit, we're going to use it. No more putting it away in some cabinet and saving it for a special event.  Nope, we're using it every single day.” 

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You can read Tony’s detailed blog post  and see more photos at Tony’s blog at https://jhanandtony.blogspot.com/2018/11/escape-from-paradise.html