PARADISE, Calif. — As thousands of people affected by the Southern California wildfires figure out the next steps to rebuild their homes, residents in the town of Paradise are offering their support to the Palisades and Altadena communities.


What You Need To Know

  • The town of Paradise continues to rebuild after the 2018 Camp Fire

  • The Camp Fire took the lives of 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 structures

  • Paradise residents say one of the biggest hurdles in the recovery process is dealing with the insurance crisis

  • The Rebuild Paradise Foundation helps residents navigate the hurdles that come with rebuilding

It’s been over six years since the Camp Fire nearly wiped out the picturesque town located 90 miles north of Sacramento.

The 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes.

Staci Galla and her family are among the Paradise residents who lost everything. She said she’s heartbroken for all the families in Palisades and Altadena who are experiencing what she and her community went through.

“I know that feeling and it’s horrible,” she noted. “I have learned that we had to lose everything to gain everything, but it’s very hard to explain that to people that you are at your lowest, but you will get back up there.”

Galla added that before the Camp Fire there was no playbook on how to rebuild an entire community and even now, six years after the fire, the work to build back better and stronger is far from over.

“Here we are six years later and we’re still going through a tree program to remove trees that are dead, so it’s a really long process,” she said.

The proud Paradise mom credits the power of community for getting her through the most difficult time in her life.

“That’s when you lean on that community of the people who also lost that same day in that same neighborhood. You just have this common ground and can understand that specific type of pain that you’re going through,” she said.

One of the people she often leans for support is Jen Goodlin, executive director for the Rebuild Paradise Foundation.

Goodlin grew up in Paradise and was living in Colorado during the Camp Fire. After feeling helpless from afar, she decided to move back to her hometown to be a part of the recovery process.

The Rebuild Paradise Foundation provides community members with resources during the recovery period by helping residents navigate the hurdles that come with rebuilding an entire town.

“We started with bringing out all kinds of programs to help homeowners rebuild and bridge the gap financially with other hurdles our community faces. We try to step in and minimize the hardship,” explained Goodlin.

Goodlin said one of the greatest challenges ahead for those in Southern California is understanding that it’s going to take a long time to rebuild.

“A lot of it is mental challenges. Trying to look at the whole picture at once of everything that needs to be done. Instead, ask yourself, what do I need to do right now? The enormity of the devastation — it’s a massive amount to clean up,” she said.

She also recommended wildfire survivors be good stewards of any government funding they receive in the weeks and months to come.

“You’re going to get a lot of aid in the beginning. Please save and use that money — get a financial adviser or whatever you can do because you don’t know what the future brings. For us, it was COVID, and that really hindered our recovery,” she said.

She added the work to rebuild Paradise was like working on an upside-down puzzle that no one knows how to put together.

“We need a million pieces to come together, but we can’t see what the picture is going to look like. For Altadena, it’s a little different because we can give them some of those puzzle pieces that we never had,” said Goodlin.

Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder also lost his home and business in 2018, and just a few weeks ago, his daughter lost her home in Altadena.

Crowder explained it took a handful of people who were determined to rebuild Paradise to get the town to where it is today.

“We’re a close-knit community and I guess we’re a stubborn community too because I heard it over and over, ‘Oh, you guys can’t possibly come back,’ and we’re like the little train that said I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” said Crowder.

The town went from having 26,000 residents to about 2,000 after the Camp Fire. Crowder said there’s now about 11,000 people who call Paradise home. 

Nearly 3,000 out of the roughly 14,000 homes that were destroyed have been rebuilt. The mayor points out that the biggest obstacle his community has dealt with and continues to face is the insurance crisis. 

“We’re losing more homes that are falling out of escrow because of insurance costs than any other reason,” he said.

Galla added she had to change to make her new home more fire resistant, including installing a metal roof and not having any trees or bushes next to her house.

“We do defensible space up here because that’s why a lot of us lost our homes. We had so much vegetation…. we do things that can withstand embers,” she said.

The stories of those in Southern California resonate with Galla and she wants them to know the long road to recovery will be challenging, but not impossible.

“It’s hard because you want to be positive, but you also have to acknowledge when someone is going through something pretty terrible and life-changing. So I think just saying, ‘I’ve been there, you will come out on the other side, one day at a time.’”