PARADISE, Calif. — Ron Westbrook’s house is gone. The burned hull of a washer is visible in the rubble. A mangled satellite dish, too. In his collapsed garage, two cars, including a beloved 1941 Plymouth, are no more than blackened shells.

But at the end of Mr. Westbrook’s driveway, in the shade of charred pines, a 103-year-old Ford Model T somehow escaped with only minor paint damage, standing out like a museum piece in a vast landscape of destruction.

The wooden steering wheel, the leather bench seat, the brassy grill, even the for-sale sign on the back — “Runs Very Well,” it attests — were left untouched as the Camp Fire tore an indiscriminate path through the town of Paradise.

For Mr. Westbrook, 74, the car’s survival was only slight comfort. Like most other Paradise residents, he has been through hell. The fire has scorched 135,000 acres, killed at least 56 people and left the quiet town of retirees uninhabitable.