Good morning.

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The wildfire that would become the deadliest in California’s history had just begun ripping through Paradise when Dharma Tony LaRocca started worrying about Helltown.

Mr. LaRocca, a winemaker living in nearby Chico, grew up in Helltown — a tight-knit Butte Creek Canyon community just northwest of Paradise. Though the town’s name conjures up images that are anything but idyllic, he recalled a childhood of fishing and dirt-biking with neighbors who felt more like family; potlucks at the local schoolhouse-turned-museum; and tales of the town’s history as a mining destination known for some of the prettiest gold in the world.

By the time Mr. LaRocca’s parents got there in the late 1970s, though, Helltown was known mostly as a hippie haven. That communal spirit infused his upbringing.

And now, Mr. LaRocca thought, the wind-whipped Camp Fire was about to burn it all down.

He called his parents and sister. Once they were safe at his house, he hopped in a truck with his brother-in-law and a buddy. They got to a ridge and peered out at their little town.