Park Fire destroys couple’s home 6 years after Camp Fire did the same

By Hunter Sowards, Photojournalist: Daniel Arellano

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    BUTTE COUNTY, California (KPIX) — The Park Fire was the second time in six years the Baker family had driven away from their dream home with a dark plume of smoke from a wildfire hanging overhead.

It’s also the second time in six years that they evacuated only to learn that their home was among the hundreds of others destroyed by the flames.

Sylvia and Ken Baker had just spent months upgrading and renovating their house off Watson Lane in Cohasset.

“People ask you, have you been through the fire? Did you lose anything? And I’m like, ‘Yeah, for the second time,’ ” Sylvia said. “They look at me, almost expecting me to cry and I tell them, ‘I don’t have the time for that.’ “

Sylvia’s husband Ken is an Air Force and Army veteran and was close to retirement. He said that when he saw the smoke rising into the sky from his work at the VA clinic in Chico last Wednesday, he called his kids and asked them to come help evacuate just in case.

“I could look up and see the smoke over the hill and I thought, ‘This isn’t good, I know where that goes,’ ” Ken said.

When the fire started creeping closer to their neighborhood, Ken tried to stay behind and save his home, sending his wife and kids away with as much as they could carry. Sylvia wondered if it would be the last time she would see her husband.

“For me, the emotion was when I had to, sorry now I get to cry. When I had to tell him bye, when I left with the kids,” Sylvia said. “I know him, being in war twice, doing this with the Camp Fire, I knew that he was not wanting to leave.”

Ken stayed as long as he could, hosing down his house, building as much defensible space around the property, and stepping through all the preparations he had put in place over the last six years. His bulldozer, one of the only things that survived the fire, was an investment he hoped would be enough to save his home.

Their Ring doorbell camera captured him escaping 15 minutes before his home was ravaged by the flames. The strength of the fire blew off their roof and melted it to where their back porch used to be.

“It’s just kind of surreal. Everything we own is sitting in an ash pile that you saw in Cohasset,” Ken said.

It took hours to evacuate, with the fire jumping the freeway and taking down power lines across roads and streets.

Ken has served in the military most of his life, serving two tours overseas, and hoped that after surviving the Camp Fire his home in Cohasset would be a fresh start.

“A lot of people will ask, why do you keep going back to the same place, suffering in the same position? It’s all we know,” Ken said. “Generations of my family are from Northern California.”

Sylvia said the thought of even picking out new furniture or starting over again isn’t something she is ready to face yet. The couple said they lean on each other during times like this, remembering that someone always has it worse.

“For me, I’m just grateful. I’m grateful I have my family. I’m still on the right side of the grass, so it’s hard to be bitter about that,” Ken said. “It doesn’t do any good. You can be as mad as you want, as angry as you want. You never know what the person you’re standing next to at the grocery store is going through.”

Ken said his heart breaks for the people in Cohasset who don’t have insurance. While the process is difficult even when you are fortunate enough to have coverage amid a growing crisis in California, he said so many people in his neighborhood couldn’t afford it.

“I feel worse for them than I do myself,” Ken said.

The North Valley Community Foundation is raising funds for victims.

“We have faith in better things, we have better things and because of that. There’s more to be grateful for than to be unhappy about,” Ken said.

They have a GoFundMe to help cover day-to-day living costs.

Help is something Ken encourages other fire victims to take advantage of, saying it’s the only way to survive the recovery process.

“We know because we’ve been there. We know what it’s like,” Ken said.

The Baker family is counting their blessings saying the most important thing is that they are safe.

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