PARADISE, Calif. - Today, people on the ridge are reflecting on their journey two years after the Camp Fire tore through the town.
We spoke with one woman who remembers the day like it was yesterday.
"All we could hear was propane tanks exploding. We could see te fire getting closer and closer to our house. So, we had to leave."
Antoinette Peppler, a Camp Fire survivor.
"We had just moved into our rebuilt home and I was on my way to work and we could see the white plume of smoke." She continued, "We thought, 'Oh, there is definitely a fire but hopefully they will get it under control.' So, I came into town and it kept getting darker and darker. I work at Save Mart so I pulled in there and it just...the ashes and the smoke. It was just raining ashes."
But, this wasn't an unfamiliar feeling.
She also went through the Saddle Fire in 2016.
She said, "We had the fire marshals come down and tell us we had to leave, and we didn't want to leave because we already lost our home. So, we hesitantly left and then after two weeks, we were able to come back. The fire had burned trees that had already been burned once. We were able to move back in and start our lives. We just wanted to help other people going through it."
Peppler turned her experience into something more meaningful by writing her book, Out of the Ashes, to help those in her community.
She told us about her book with one goal in mind: guiding survivors through personal inspirational blog posts.
"I started writing posts and they said 'write a book.' We want something to hold onto. Grab a hold of it and keep so I wrote Out of the Ashes and it's just been a way to help others." She added, "The message is to never give up. To be Paradise Strong."
And Paradise hasn't given up.
Peppler wants to move forward, along with many others, saying, "Now we are trying to rebuild with what we have."
Most importantly, Peppler is very proud to be a part of a strong community.
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November 09, 2020 at 09:22AM
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Camp Fire survivor shares her story two years later - Action News Now
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