As Camp Fire death toll rises, families mourn losses

Paradise Firefighter Mike Rea surveys a property for remains at the Paradise Community Village Apartments. Paradise Firefighter Mike Rea surveys a property for remains at the Paradise Community Village Apartments. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 87 Caption Close As Camp Fire death toll rises, families mourn losses 1 / 87 Back to Gallery

CHICO, Butte County — The death toll in the Camp Fire climbed by six Tuesday to 48 as local officials called on the National Guard to help search for human remains in the path of the 130,000-acre blaze.

All six bodies were found inside residences in fire-leveled Paradise, a community with a large population of retirees, many of them disabled and mobility-impaired.

“We’re going to do everything we possibly can to search for remains,” said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

Officials said that firefighters made progress on Tuesday, expanding containment to 35 percent from 30 percent a day earlier. Several arrests were made Tuesday over looting in the burn area.

The fire has destroyed 8,817 structures — including 7,600 homes and 260 commercial buildings. Officials said 5,615 personnel are fighting the fire; 52,000 people remain evacuated in and around Paradise; and 13,085 people remain sheltered.

On Tuesday night, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency in California due to the wildfires, a move that gives health care providers and suppliers flexibility in treating recipients of Medicare and MediCal. The declaration followed President Trump’s move Monday to designate Butte, Ventura and Los Angeles counties federal disaster areas, allowing victims of the wildfires to seek federal aid for housing.

More than 200 people have been reported missing in the fire that broke out Thursday morning, and no update on that number was given Tuesday.

Among the three people identified as Camp Fire victims so far was Ernie Foss, a homebound retiree whose family cared for him at his house in Paradise. Foss was bedridden with a chronic disorder.

So when the relentless Camp Fire tore through his neighborhood on Edgewood Lane on Thursday, he didn’t have a way out.

Foss’ stepson and caregiver, Andrew Burt, tried to get Foss into a wheelchair as a fast-moving wall of fire wiped out the town.

They almost made it.

Investigators found Foss’ body outside next to his stepson’s burned-out van, said Foss’ daughter, Angela Loo. Burt remains missing.

“This is happening for all these people — it’s just unimaginable,” Loo said in a telephone interview from Oregon. “For our whole family, it’s been devastating. We’re in shock.”

As the number of dead continues to climb in the days after the fearsome blaze, a tragic picture is emerging: many of the missing people are seniors, according to descriptions from loved ones looking for them. Like Foss, who was 63, some lived with mobility challenges or more serious disabilities that would have made a fast escape almost impossible.

“The tragedy continues. The search for lives continues,” Gov. Jerry Brown said outside his office in Sacramento on Tuesday. “The firefighters are doing their best, and I want to express gratitude for that. Other states are providing resources. California is pretty well maxed out.”

How to help Evacuees need warm clothes, shoes and socks, and donations are being accepted at the Hope Center in Oroville at 1950 Kitrick Ave. Monetary donations may be made to the North Valley Community Foundation through its website (bit.ly/CampFireHowToHelp), according to Butte County’s website. Monetary donations may also be made to the American Red Cross. Visit www.redcross.org, call or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Source: Chronicle research

The blaze hit Paradise so quickly that most residents had to drop everything and run. The town’s narrow streets became flooded as traffic came to a stand-still. Some abandoned their vehicles and tried to outrun the fire on foot, jumping into strangers’ cars in the mad dash out of the inferno.

At many of the town’s assisted-living facilities, staff rushed to evacuate their frail clients. Many couldn’t walk on their own.

At the Cypress Meadows Post-Acute nursing home, caregivers used their cars, alongside sheriff’s deputies and firefighters, to transport 92 residents as embers rained down on them and the fire jumped across roads.

But left behind in the scramble for survival were more of the town’s vulnerable residents, who lived alone and didn’t have help getting out.

Paradise was a well-known community for retirees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 25 percent of its residents were over age 65. That’s about 10 percentage points higher than the national average.

What’s more, nearly 20 percent of Paradise residents under age 65 are living with a disability, compared with just over 8 percent nationally, according to the Census Bureau.

“There is a disproportionately larger senior, fixed-income and disabled population. That is a lot of members of our community,” said Paradise Town Councilman and former Mayor Scott Lotter.

Paradise even marketed itself to seniors. In the 1970s, the Paradise Pines subdivision near Magalia just north of town ran television ads around the state to lure seniors to the rural foothills community. The population more than doubled in the years that followed.

They came from fast-paced places like the Bay Area, Southern California and the Sacramento area to live out their later years in peace.

“It’s a beautiful community,” Lotter said. “There’s clean air, low crime, good schools and really nice people, so a lot of people located there.”

One of those people was Foss.

He was born in San Francisco, raised three children and worked as a studio musician. Before moving to Paradise eight years ago, he was diagnosed with lymphedema, a condition that causes the body’s tissue to retain fluid and swell.

His daughter, Loo, would drive down every few months to prepare meals that he could pull out of the freezer and reheat. Though she lives in Oregon, Loo was in constant contact with her father. Burt became Foss’ in-home caregiver.

When the fire struck, Loo became concerned. Foss was on a designated list stating that he needed a medical evacuation if disaster hit, but no one showed up to save him, Loo said.

Instead, Burt rushed to the home to help.

Foss’ neighbor, Dylan Powell, was on his way home from work when the flames moved into town. He rushed to his home to gather up his grandmother and banged on his next-door neighbor’s home, where Burt was already inside.

“I said, ‘Look, guys. We have to get out of here,’” he said. “At that point I’m telling Andrew, ‘Let’s get out of here’ as Andrew is pulling out the wheelchair and I’m moving stuff out of the way.”

Foss didn’t want to leave. Burt and Powell pleaded with him as the flames began to devour trees and brush on Edgewood Lane. At the far end of the dead-end street, several people burned to death, trapped in their cars.

“When Andrew was telling me, ‘I’m staying,’ he was under the impression that there was going to be firefighters or an ambulance coming to his rescue,” Powell said.

Standing inside the home, Powell got a desperate call from his girlfriend, who was in another part of town.

“She basically said, ‘I’m not going to make it. I love you,’” he said. “I had to go, so I hugged them and said I love them, and grabbed my grandma and left.”

Flames licked the sides of his car, and the sky turned to “red darkness” as he drove away, he said. Powell put blankets and sweaters over his grandmother to protect her from the heat in the agonizingly slow drive to find his girlfriend and get out of town.

Powell found his girlfriend and they made it out safely, but back on Edgewood, things were becoming hopeless. Burt apparently persuaded Foss to get in the wheelchair and got him outside.

“They were basically trapped,” Loo said. “My dad is a big guy. My stepbrother is a big guy. From some miracle he got him into a wheelchair and to the van, and that’s where they found him.”

Foss’ dog, Bernice, his longtime companion, died at his side. A detective told Loo that her father was burned on one side. If the family wanted to have an open casket, they could. Foss’ family pictures, record collection, Fender guitar and other instruments were all lost.

“Everything is gone,” Loo said. “The weight of that just started to hit me. I can’t imagine what it’s like for other people going through the same thing.”

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office has activated a call center to respond to reports of people missing in the Camp Fire. Anyone with a missing family member, or those who have located a missing person, can call 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544 or 530-538-7671.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Sarah Ravani, Melody Gutierrez and Ashley McBride contributed to this report.