Before a fire demolished their town, Rowdy Shaw and Shanna Shaw had planned to host nine guests for Thanksgiving at their new home, off Lucky John Road in Paradise, Calif. The Shaws had moved into the house just four months earlier, to be close to the community’s resources for their daughter, Chelsea, who has Down syndrome, and close to Mr. Shaw’s employer, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Like so many families, they thought about what they needed to stock up on, and what chores had to get done before their guests arrived. They looked forward to sitting down with bellies full of turkey and watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” as they do every year. But two weeks before Thanksgiving, they joined a caravan of evacuees leaving town in buses and cars, with a fire raging around them.

Their new home burned to the ground. On Thanksgiving, instead of hosting dinner, the family left their room at the Residence Inn in nearby Chico to fill out paperwork with FEMA, apply for new social security cards and look for a deed to their home. Like thousands of other displaced families, their annual traditions had been thrown into disorder, but they found some warmth.