Paradise fires affect students
Although the fires raged in Paradise, California more than 2000 miles from the campus of Southern Adventist University, for some students, the blaze is quite closer to home.
The fire in Paradise, known as the Camp Fire, is currently one of three major fires in the state. It ignited on Nov. 8 and has destroyed much of the small town, a place senior international studies major Annalise Lang called home her entire life.
“All the places I’m used to seeing are gone,” Lang said. “Its almost unrecognizable…the church [I attend] is totally gone, my childhood home is gone.”
Paradise was home to the Paradise Seventh-day Adventist Church and Paradise Adventist Academy, of which only a few structures remain standing. The church and some of the school buildings were completely lost in the flames.
Sophomore biology major Sarah Jane Tobing’s aunt and grandmother resided in Paradise when the fires came through. They have since relocated to a nearby hotel and Tobing said her parents are able to go and visit and provide support.
“It was hard because I wanted to be there but obviously I’m at school,” she said. “[My aunt] is someone I care about immensely and the house was beautiful and it took her a long time to find somewhere where she felt comfortable. She had been praying about such a house for a long time it was just hard to all of us because we had all house hunted for such a long time and now it’s all gone...My mom sent me before and after pictures; it was pretty bad. There’s nothing there.”
Madison Carter, senior international studies major, lives in the neighboring town of Chico and used to attend PAA, where her younger sister is currently a student.
“It was really crazy because most people evacuated when they saw flames in their backyard,” Carter said. “Eventually the cars got so gridlocked because Paradise is so small there are only a few ways in and out that people had to abandon their cars and run from the fires.”
Lang said that most people had to leave their homes with little to no preparation.
“We’re used to getting fires in California, so we all have our evacuation lists and we know when you’re called to get evacuated you’re going to grab x y and z, but this came so quickly that most people barely got out with the clothes on their backs,” she said. “I think a lot of people experienced a lot of trauma as well.”
Although Lang and her family were in transition to move to southern California, they had yet to complete the move before the fires hit.
“It’s really surreal. You hear about all these natural disasters and you never thing that it would happen to you,” Lang said. “Stuff is just stuff but there are also memories attached to it. It’s hard.”
The residents of Chico have provided resources and support to those displaced by the fire.
“Most of my church members are housing families and friends from Paradise and the Paradise church,” Carter said.
Both Carter and Lang spoke on the sense of community felt in Chico during regular Sabbath services over Thanksgiving Break.
“These people who had lost everything were there basically saying in spite of all of this they were going to praise the Lord’s name and singing songs like It is Well with my Soul,” Lang said. “Hearing that come from the mouths of people who I know and love and who had experienced the trouble of all these things was a testament to the power of our relationship with God.”
For those looking to support, sources said that while most of the shelters and community members have received large numbers of material goods, financial contributions and prayers are much appreciated.
The Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists has set up a secure way to donate on their website, nccsda.com, where users can send any amount of money to targeted projects such as fire-related disaster relief in general, the Paradise SDA Church, the Paradise Academy and to displaced teachers and pastors.