If you are viewing on the ABC10 app, tap here for multimedia.
PARADISE, Calif. -- Despite the devastation along Honey Run Road east of Chico, Tom Witherspoon’s five dogs and the home he’s owned close to 40 years still stands.
“It was a night of running back and forth. ‘How’s everything going down here?’ Run back over that end. ‘How’s everything going on down there?’" said Witherspoon in front of his wooden, single-story home whose backyard rests near Butte Creek.
Witherspoon says when the last fire came near here 20 years ago, it made him think to be extra prepared.
“So, we had more than 100 foot [sic] that way which saved us from that way, hundred foot that way, 100 foot [sic] back there," added Witherspoon.
So, earlier this year, he invited CAL FIRE to his home to advise him on how to create defensible space. He cut down a giant oak, added a permanent sprinkler line to his roof and purchased a generator to pump his well water in case power was cut off.
Despite all the danger, it worked!
“As long you’re busy with a task, and you’ve got a goal you’re shooting for, you don’t think about that part, you just do it," said Witherspoon.
Witherspoon also has a metal cover surrounding his evaporative cooler sitting on his roof. And he had a sprinkler system installed on his backyard wood pile, next to a shed.
Nearby, Calvin Daley stayed behind, too.
“Maybe I’m here for a reason. All I can say I got lucky based on a gamble," said Daley in front of his still-intact home.
Daley says, when he heard PG&E might start cutting off power with increasing winds, two weeks before the fire, he purchased a generator to also pump his well water.
“I had fired the generator up to keep my well running and I had three garden hoses and I had plenty of time prior to wet things down and stay with it," Daley said.
A cinder block home next door served as added protection as the fire took aim. Daley did lose a speed boat and an older model SUV to the flames, but his home survived. His neighbor's home did not. Daley estimates it took less than 10 minutes for it to go up in smoke.
“I feel so guilty about those that have nothing and they didn't have a chance to decide to do what I did," said Daley.
Just down the road, the historic Honey Run Bridge, built in 1886, was not so lucky. Covered in 1901, the wooden bridge was no match for the flames that came roaring through the canyon like a blow torch. It is a complete loss.
Along Honey Run, utility crews were on the shoulder, replacing poles. Other crews cleared burned out trees that were prone to falling down. Firefighters were on patrol from the Bay Area to as far away as Oregon looking to put out hot spots.
Like many areas in the Camp Fire Burn Zone, some homes survived, others are completely destroyed.
Continue the conversation with Kurt on Facebook.