When David Siler, Camp Fire survivor, moved to Gridley, he planted 18 fruit trees in his backyard. Photo by Cindy Scott

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - David and Nancy Siler lived in their Paradise dream home for only ten months before smoke filled the skies on the morning of Thursday, November 8, 2018 – the day Paradise was lost.

They had never talked about a catastrophic fire coming into Paradise, but they had prepared their property after experiencing past small fires in the past. David said, “In the back of our mind, we always knew it could. We just never dreamed it would happen in the way that it did.”

The morning of the Camp Fire, David woke up and went outside. He worked for a Chico pest control company and saw smoke in the sky as he prepared for his workday. He saw two fire trucks go by, not unusual, as firefighters were quick to get to spot fires to get them under control.

Siler drove to the first house on his work schedule. His boss called about 8:10 am, asking how he was doing. He responded, “It’s getting dark.” His boss said, “It should be, you’ve got a fire up there.” Siler asked where the fire was located. When his boss said it was in Concow, Siler wasn’t worried.

Ten minutes later, his boss called again with an update on the fire’s location – Merrill Lane. Siler replied, “That’s close, I’d better get out of here.” He left the bill on the customer’s front door, a house that would be destroyed in the fire that day.

Siler knew Paradise well, however, the streets were already congested with evacuees, and it took Siler 20 minutes to drive two miles back to his home.

Securing his family, Siler changed his clothes while his wife Nancy packed a small bag. Siler, Nancy, and their daughter’s family left their home on Pentz road, and all drove separate cars as they began to evacuate. Nancy drove their car and was able to get into the stop-and-go traffic. Siler took the work truck, and, when a neighbor let him in, got out into the traffic four cars behind Nancy. In turn, Siler let a neighbor into the traffic. The neighbor later told him, “Nobody was letting us out. You saved my life.”

They all slowly drove the 15 miles to the Durham-Pentz Highway and turned west toward Highway 99, crossing Clark Road on the way. As they drove, people were beginning to use the oncoming lane to evacuate, and meeting and blocking emergency vehicles trying to go up the hill. The traffic never opened up; even Highway 99 was stop-and-go traffic.

“You always knew, in the back of your mind, that this could happen. And you always thought, ‘Here’s my plan to get out.’ You never dream that there are 27,000 people trying to get out at the same time you are.”

During the evacuation and chaos surrounding the fire, the family endured the stress of being separated from each other without the ability to reach one another by phone. It took over 2 hours to drive 15 miles to Chico even with all lanes of Skyway dedicated to outgoing traffic. Looking up the hill, Siler could see the dark cloud from the fire, “the darkest cloud you could imagine up on top of that mountain.”

He later recalled the videos and pictures of evacuees who had to drive through fire to escape, “They have no idea what they’re driving into. They may be driving off a cliff, they may be driving into a light post, they may be driving into another car, they have no idea. But what they know is what’s behind them is worse than what’s in front of them.”

As they sat at In-n-Out Burger, they connected and shared stories with two other families that had evacuated. “In the first eight hours, 27,000 people were homeless.” Siler said, “We didn’t know what to do. We were just lost, because you can’t go home.”

They began to find direction. The Silers went to Walmart for supplies, and he called his insurance company. They asked him to start keeping receipts. The family started out for their son’s house in Woodland, where they would stay temporarily. As they drove south, they saw fire engines from everywhere along Highway 99, fighting to stop the fire from crossing the highway toward Durham.

As they passed Estates Drive, they could see the flames on the east side of the highway. That was the first time they actually saw the fire, “That thing was, I imagine, it was 50 feet tall if not taller, and it was rolling, there was nothing stopping it. We could feel the embers hitting the car. My wife thought we could get through, and we did.”

They made it to safety. The next morning, they turned to TV news to try to learn if they had lost their home. Through friends in the police department, they learned Saturday morning, two days after the fire, that their home had been destroyed. Siler remembers, “It didn’t sink in until Sunday morning. I cried twice because our house was gone, one was Sunday morning, and then Monday morning.”

The devastation continued after the fire. Siler was laid off. He lost his job, his health insurance, four weeks of vacation pay, and his seniority. He had to start over at 58 years old.

Ten days after the fire, while in Chico, he was walking out of the bank and saw a friend that told him of an opening at Sigler Pest Control. He started working for Sigler 3 weeks later, and the owner assigned him to paradise because he knew Siler would be able to relate to the residents.

As he served Paradise customers, Siler was amazed by their stories, how people recounted driving through fire and other details, “we all walked through it yet again.” He adds, “There’s two people you need to talk to everyday about the fire. One is God, and the other is everybody else, and the first one listens better than the second.”

Siler remembers that Walmart in Chico had a fire-survivor area in its parking lot with food, clothing, and medical services. The first time he went to the area was before Thanksgiving. A lady asked him if he wanted a lunch plate with turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, and green beans. She asked, “Would you like to have a piece of pumpkin pie?” He answered, “Yes, ma’am.” Siler reached for his wallet, and the woman said, “No, this is all free.” Siler said, “I’d always been a worker. I’d always been a giver. I had to learn what it meant to take. I was not good at it. It was hard.”

Like many, the Silers moved around, trying to find a place to bunker down, staying with family, friends and eventually a 28-foot RV. They found themselves at the Chico fairgrounds.

The Red Cross was supervising the refugees at the fairgrounds. Siler said, “Red Cross did a spectacular job of organizing people and providing food, showers, clean water, and black water pumping. The Red Cross really went out of their way.” They had security there, and residents had wristbands to enter. There were a little over 400 families at the fairgrounds. Siler added that the Red Cross, “supplied three meals a day, snacks, free laundry services, a doctor who came weekly, and pet services. They spared nothing, they gave us everything we needed.”

The Silers lived at the fairgrounds until January 31, 2019, when the Red Cross shut it down. Red Cross met with residents a few weeks in advance and gave them notice. The weekend before January 31, the Silers returned to Orland, their sixth move, living in the camper for about seven months.

They eventually found a new home in Eagle Meadows and moved in right before Memorial Day 2019. 

Siler first returned to his Paradise property in January, two months after the fire. “It was so strange, because I couldn’t remember where the front door was. Everything had lost direction. There was a cedar tree that had survived the fire. That’s where I knew where to start.”  The master bathroom shower wall was still standing, and that’s how he figured out where the rest of the house had been.  

The Silers have no desire to return and live in Paradise. Siler said, “It’s not the same as it was before. The houses, neighbors, church, and groceries stores are not the same, it’s not the same place.”

The Silers have lived in Gridley for over four years now. He said, “When we moved into Gridley, everyone was very friendly. They gave us a ‘Welcome to Gridley’ day and a free haircut. I had to learn how to take. It’s still hard.”

Siler is grateful for their current life, “We’ve been blessed. We’ve got family around us now. We’ve got a three-year old granddaughter who we’ve seen from birth about every day. We’ve got a good church home, we’ve got doctors here in town, and my wife is 15 minutes away from Hobby Lobby.”

The Silers are still waiting for their PG&E lawsuit funds. Siler said, “Whenever this PG&E money gets here, is it worth it? No, it’s not worth it. It’s not worth what we lost. It’s not going to bring back any of it.”