The Inside Story of California's 2018 Camp Fire

[film rolls]

[piano note]

[engine revving]

[crowd cheering]

[Boy In Red Shirt] Are you bringing it up there?

[Boy] Do not spill it.

[Boy In Red Shirt] Make room.

[indistinct chatter]

[rustling papers]

[boy yells]

Aye, we're lighting a fire!

Aye!

[Girl In White] Yeah!

[crowd chanting Speech]

Our town might have burnt down, so it seems fitting

that we burn all the shit they gave us down too.

[crowd cheers]

[melancholy instrumental music]

[hopeful electronic music]

[student chatter]

[Student Announcer] What is up Bobcats?

What is up?

Seniors, if you are applying

to a North Valley Community Foundation scholarship,

be sure to mail or drop off your application

by the end of this week.

[teacher claps hands]

[band plays]

[Teacher] Rest, rest, rest.

Prom is coming.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 18th

at Manzanita Place.

This year's theme is A Walk Through Paradise.

Have a great day Bobcats and rise up.

[Virginia] Comin' through.

Old person comin' though.

[Male Student] 'Sup Partain?

[bell rings]

[students chattering]

[Virginia] Did I give you guys your calendars?

[Students] No.

All right, here we go.

[Harmony] The fire was six months ago?

[Teacher] Today.

[Harmony] Mhm, that means

we've been going to this terrible place for six months.

[Male Student] No.

[Teacher] We didn't start until January.

Four months.

Feels like it just happened.

[Harmony] Really?

Yeah time's going by so fast.

There's a part of me that envies my friends

that picked up and moved out of the area.

[Female Student] Yeah. They picked up, they left,

they don't think about it, they don't talk about it.

It's like all, like, those schools shootings

you never hear about, like, and they happen all the time.

And then, like, it's our town burnt down

and then, hardly even anybody know or cares.

[door opens]

People come and they want to ask us questions

and film us or make sure we're okay,

but you can't really understand what we went through

unless you, like, were escaping that day.

Everything that you thought

your senior year was gonna be,

has totally just been flipped upside down.

Never once would I've thought

that I would be in an airport building my senior year

and have everything taken away from me.

I was expecting for a rough senior year

but it's rough in a different way.

[melancholy instrumental music]

[Harmony] I never realized how much I loved

being in a small town like Paradise, until now.

You feel at home and, like, it sucks

'cause I haven't felt at home for so long

and when you do go there,

it's like I wish we could just stay here

and I wish it was back to normal.

[car engine roaring]

[Harmony] It's weird because being in Paradise

makes me feel, like, more relaxed,

even though it looks like this.

There's my old dentist office.

Oh, there's Ayisha.

I like your septum.

The only decision that I need to make

is if I want to leave or stay close.

One, two, three.

[girls laughs]

[Harmony] Why not go explore,

if you don't even have somewhere to call your home?

[rain falling]

This is the last piece of my prayer life to the fire.

Yep, this is my fabulous room, which I love.

[gentle acoustic guitar music]

[Virginia] These are all the pictures of, over the years,

all the students I've had.

I've had brothers, and sisters, and cousins,

and even children of previous students.

I really want to get back into my classroom

and teach there again.

That's the agenda.

I haven't taken it off.

That's what we were going to be doing that day.

It's like my room is frozen in time.

Now, my life is defined as before the fire

and after the fire.

So, this is all that's left of before the fire for me.

[car engine roaring]

Let's see if I can squeeze in here.

[car warning sounds]

Welcome to my home.

This was my truck.

I would've been able to drive this to high school

but I didn't have my license before the fire

and I was never able to drive it.

Really sad.

I hope I can fix it up in twenty years?

Who knows?

It's weird, just the little things you find, man.

Here's my pocket knife my grandpa gave me when I was four.

Not much left of it.

[Kody sighs]

I just wish I could've saved something else.

[melancholy instrumental music]

[Kody clears throat]

[Kody sighs]

I told my parents, even after this fire,

that I didn't want them to sell the lot.

I wanna keep it

and eventually, whether I build another house up here

or I put a garage up here, do something,

this place will stay in my name, somehow.

When camera crews walk up to me, like, um

the first couple of weeks after the fire,

it was interviews and interviews

and, you know, that's what made me upset.

It's 'cause, like, I know my stuff was gone

and I didn't want to talk about it.

I actually lost everything, like,

I actually only have my phone from the fire

and what I was wearing, like that's it.

My grandfather and his family fled from Germany,

from the Holocaust,

and all the memorabilia, all the material possessions

that came with them, you know,

passports with red J stamped on them,

prayer shawls, letters,

all of that is just lost.

I've come to the conclusion that nothing is permanent,

and that's something that I have to accept.

And if I accept it now,

it'll be less devastating later.

And, you know, my town, I loved it but it's gone.

[melancholy instrumental music]

[Harmony] I actually saved all my makeup.

[Harmony laughs]

[Harmony] 'Cause like, it's so expensive.

I know that sounds really bad

but I made sure to grab my baby blanket

since I've had since I was born.

I made sure to grab any pictures that we had at my house.

My mom grabbed my homecoming queen crown

instead of her medication, so,

that shows you what she cares about.

[papers rustling]

[Jennifer] It's just so messy and so unorganized.

Oh my gosh, you look so skinny.

[Jennifer] Look at this one of you.

[Harmony] The housing in San Francisco

says it's getting full

and I want to, like, just get it over with.

[Jennifer] How do you do that? What's your next step?

[Harmony] Well I'd have to just do it.

Just say okay I'm gonna go?

[Harmony] Mhm.

I think you should go to Chico.

[Jennifer laughs]

[Harmony] My mom's a really awesome person

and I love her a lot.

But I have to think that it's my life

and I should make the decision of where I want to go.

But it's also is, like, two sides fighting within myself

because I do care about her more than anything

and I don't wanna make her sad.

[crickets chirping]

Man, we should try to get up there.

Through that hold up there.

That one?

Why not?

'Cause who knows where I'm gonna pop back out at?

[Kody] You'll probably end up in the chute.

[Male In Red] And then I'll have to get shot out of that.

I won't even fit through that, dude.

My head won't.

[Kody] I'll give you a boost, the best I can.

[Male In Red] Right?

[Kody] My grandma had her favorite little thing

in the front yard.

It was, uh, I am lost. If I am found before I return,

please tell me to wait for myself.

And I always read that and stood there like

what does that actually mean?.

[Male In Red] So, you gonna tell me

how the sunset is up there?

[Kody] Beautiful.

I had a job when I was fifteen and a job ever since.

And since the fire, I've been unemployed.

I'm kinda lost, tryin' to get back on my feet.

[ladies chatter]

Okay so ladies,

I need you all to weigh in on my retirement.

[Virginia laughs]

[Female] Your retirement?

[Virginia] I went out, Sunday, to my classroom

and driving up there,

I got a moment where I felt like I was in the fire again.

I literally saw, like, flames by the side of the road

in my mind, you know?

And I had that terror again

and um, and then I just felt sad.

Just sad, 'cause I look around and it's not what I remember.

I'm tired.

The fire kind of burned a lot out of me.

Sometimes teaching, you feel,

you start the fall semester,

you feel like you're serving a term.

[Virginia] Yeah.

In prison.

It's so regulated.

I haven't had a weekend off, except in the summers,

and then I'm taking classes every summer.

I just, I just all let it go

and think well, whatever happens, will happen

and I will be, I'll be okay.

And I have been.

So, what Thoreau said, when he left Walden Pond:

I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there.

I had more lives to live

and I had spent enough time on that one.

That's my quote.

That's it, yep.

I have more lives to live.

[car engines roaring]

[fire truck alarm blaring]

[fire crackles]

I turned into a really angry person after the fire

and I didn't know that I would turn out that way

and I took it out on the people that were closest to me.

It's kinda, like, ups and downs right now.

It's like, today is one of my ups

but, like, I don't know, tomorrow

if I'm gonna be down or not.

Just like, how I wake up, it's weird.

I cry a lot behind closed doors.

My parents, I don't like crying in front of my parents.

I don't know,

I feel like we haven't really had a chance to talk about it

and, like, every time I do, I cry.

And I don't want to cry anymore.

It's, like, I'm so over crying about it

but it was, like, a traumatic thing

that we weren't expecting or prepared for.

[mellow acoustic guitar music]

[Jennifer] God, it seems like you guys were just going

to your junior prom.

I'm getting sad.

Do I look skinny?

Yeah you skinny.

You don't look skinny, you look lean and beautiful.

Hey, oh my gosh, you look very handsome.

Thank you.

So yeah, the girls are, like, halfway ready.

[Girl] I'm not ready...

You look hot.

[Harmony] Before the fire, I had a stepdad

and he started being mean to me to get to her

and I feel like the cops never did anything to help.

We had to leave and we were homeless for a little bit.

And she works so hard to find a house

that we were renting at the time

and that's when the fire happened,

and she was just really devastated.

She's just so strong for everything she's been through.

I just want her to be happy.

[door opens]

[Jennifer] Have fun.

[Harmony] Bye mom, love you.

Love you too.

[door shuts]

[Jennifer] My focus was my daughter for such a long time.

Being able to, like, have place for kids to be at,

and be themselves, and feels like it's my purpose.

And now, I'll be lonely.

I won't have them around.

I won't be able to share things with them, you know?

I think that's the scariest thing.

[Father] See ya bud.

[Kody] Later.

[Father] Later Kod.

My family ended up better off than I would've thought.

We lived in a double-wide trailer up in Magalia,

and now we have an actual manufactured house.

I hate what happened to the town I lived in

but I love what happened to my family.

[train horn blares]

[Kid] I will.

Come on.

[Kody] Do you remember the fire?

[Kid] Yeah, my grandpa actually got trapped.

[Kody] Oh did he? Where?

[Kid] He got trapped over up in Concow.

He had like 18 people.

[Kody] Wow.

[Kid] And he was surrounded but he got out alive.

[Kody] Thank goodness.

[Kid] Successfully.

[Kody] You play football? No?

[basketball bounces]

[Kody] Yeah, I was there 16 years.

[Kid] Sixteen?

[Kody] How old are you?

You said you were...?

[Kid] Eleven.

[Kody] Eleven?

Yeah, a little more than your whole life.

[Kid] 'Aight, see ya.

[Kody] Take care bud.

Thanks for playing.

[basketball bounces]

Yes, I would love the world to go on long enough

for a kid of mine to be able to sustain a nice life

and even pass on a future generations,

but until we find another planet to live on,

if they screw this one, we're done for.

All I know is that I'm gonna help others somehow, someway.

I'm just gonna help people.

And either if it's from other natural disasters

or in the hospital as doctor or a nurse,

or just as simple as a coach, of a softball team,

I'm gonna help people.

Yeah, it's gonna be tough

'cause I've been trying to get a job

and getting jobs are hard.

Especially when you're eighteen

'cause you don't have, really, anything to back it up.

You gotta, you know, just find a taco truck or something,

work there.

But, yeah, I'm ready for it I think.

I want to experience life.

Me and my friends, we all realize

that this is our last year of high school

and that we were finally gonna be, like, you know, gone

and we were finally gonna get away,

but it's almost like we didn't wanna leave.

Like, we wanted to stay in this one spot forever.

[hopeful electronic music]

[truck engine roars]

[Female] I love you so much.

[student chatter]

Thank you.

[crowd applauds]

[Male Teacher] All right now,

teacher of the year as voted on by students:

Miss Partain.

[students cheer and applaud]

We have been through so much, so much.

And as you know, I've lost it all too.

And I'm graduating with you too this year, so.

I'm the class of 2019.

[students cheer and applaud]

[male teacher continues speaking]

[melancholy guitar music]

My others burned up.

So I have one now.

I'm gonna miss the kids so much, you know?

There's something that happens in a classroom that's magic.

I didn't know it would come at the end of so much loss.

[tattoo needle buzzes]

[Tattoo Artist] Not too hurtful?

Mm, nah.

Run me through the particulars again, man.

Um, why I got it?

[Tattoo Artist] Yeah, yeah.

Ah.

For, like, twenty years my dad had this truck

and, uh, my dad had fixed the truck up.

He swapped me driver seat as I was, like, nine years old

and let me drive.

And, uh, it burned in the fire.

[Tattoo Artist] Well now you got it,

a piece of it forever.

Um, I'm officially going to San Francisco.

Oh you are?

[Boy In Black T-Shirt] Nice.

Congratulations.

[Harmony] Yeah I signed,

I did all the stuff for it last night.

Like actually, like, enrolled and stuff.

[Girl in Black T-Shirt] When do you go to orientation?

[Harmony] We don't have, like, a calendar yet.

We need to sign up.

♪ That's not all what it seems ♪

[girl rapping and laughing]

[people cheering and screaming]

♪ It's not all what it seems ♪

[Harmony] It's definitely shocking

and it's, like, terrible

when we hear about another fire or something.

Because when you go through that,

it's not just after the fire it's gone, it's over.

Something needs to change

and I feel like that's probably our generation.

The fire, kind of, made all of us have to grow up

sooner than we'd like.

This summer is gonna be the last time I can be a kid.

Although I'm, like, scared to be an adult and on my own,

I feel like I'm ready for it.

[slow, intense electronic music]