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Monday, May 6, 2024

Camp Fire Survivor reflects two years later

Credit: KHSL
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Camp Fire Survivor reflects two years later
Camp Fire Survivor reflects two years later

Action News Now spoke with one man from Paradise who reflected on the Camp Fire two years later.

We're two days away from the second anniversary of the camp fire.

Action news now reporter kristian lopez is live in paradise.

Kristian what progress are the town and people making?

Fire hit.

Nats: video of evacuation james kemp/camp fire survivor: "it's 11:30 in the morning and this is all you can see."

Nats: of james clearing out tree limbs james kemp is clearing out the lot where his house stood two years ago james kemp: everything was on fire, there wasn't anything you couldn't see that wasn't on fire.

You have 24 years of kids stuff in your house, all the christmas, kindergarten, handprints, everything.

Kristian: what was located right here where we are standing?

James: this was our daughters bedroom, it was a nice sized bedroom, and ours was a little bigger, but there was a hallway from her bedroom all the way to where those piles of limbs are.

Kristian stand up (havent shot this yet) james and his wife jill have since relocated to chico - but plan to rebuild right on this property and gift the new home to their daughter amanda.

James: we knew we weren't leaving we wanted to contribute to paradise and our daughter and son and law loved the property and so everything worked out.

Colette curtis/town of paradise information officer: its a significant time for all of us we all have emotions and memories that go along with this date.

Paradise information officer colette curtis says the town has made significant progress in the two years.

Colette curtis/town of paradise information officer: we have rebuilt 440 new homes, that is a huge number we are well ahead of where we thought we would be at this time.

We continue to see a lot of interest in rebuilding.

But there is still a long road ahead.

Colette curtis/town of paradise information officer: just know that those of us working on recovery are working very hard every single day to move projects forward, restoring infrastructure, fixing roads, undergrounding utilities, removing those dead trees, putting in an early warning system and many more.

Kemp says the tragedy formed an even stronger bond between him and his loved ones.

James: you know you just lost everything in your life but you still have each other, thats what we base our love on, because we can go through anything now, anything.

# kemp says they expect the house to be finished here in about another year.

Live in paradise kristian lopez action news now coverage you can count on.

For a list of camp fire anniversary events that will be taking place this weekend you can visit our website action news now dot com and click on newslinks.

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