A18
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Fire
Continued from Page A1
Contributed photo
These are just two of the many businesses in Paradise,
California, destroyed by fi re.
Contributed photo
Courtney Fox of Canyon City, left, and her daughter Brooke, right, help kindergartner
Rachel assemble a toy she received for Christmas. Rachel’s school, the Paradise Adventist
Academy in Paradise, California, was destroyed in November by the Camp Fire.
Megan said the Foxes
gave them some gift cards
and blankets. She gave one
quilt, made by ladies of
the John Day Seventh-day
Adventist Church, to a
friend’s daughter, and the gift
is well-loved.
Megan fi rst heard the
sirens at 6:30 a.m. Nov. 8 as
she left her home for work
at the Feather River Hospital
where she was an oncology
pharmacy physician.
“Within 30 minutes, I
noticed new smoke right
behind the hospital,” she
said. “It spread pretty quick.”
Five minutes later they
were told to evacuate.
“It reminded me of a
movie — total chaos, every-
one was running,” she said.
Megan visited with her
dad for a moment at home,
and he stayed behind. She
picked up her dog from a
doggie daycare and was
stuck in traffi c for about 1 1/2
hours on her way out.
She knew her dad
wouldn’t leave home until he
saw the house burning with
his own eyes.
“The sky was on fi re, peo-
ple’s yards were on fi re,” she
said. “I could hear propane
tanks exploding. ... McDon-
Our Camp Fire Relief Benefit Sale raised a grand total of
$5600.00 along with a truck load of new items we were
able to deliver to the victims!
Thank you Grant County for being so generous and helping
pay it forward! Special thanks to everyone who helped pull
this together and make the event possible!
We are so grateful for all the monetary donations, items
and time spent helping organize! Thank you everyone!And
a very special thank you to the following people.
Don & Jennifer Skipper-Mooney
Terry Justen-Griffith
Dusty Williams
Mindy Winegar
Karin Barntish
Marcia & Howard Gieger
Ronda Huff
Sue Malaney
Anne Frost
Colleen Malaney
Steve & Joan Hopper
Farrell Fox
Brooke Taynton
Izee Livestock Club
Chesters Thriftway
Trent Wright & Triangle Oil
Blue Mountain Eagle
Janice Provencher & Bank of Eastern Oregon
Gregg Haberly
Clark’s Disposal
Cork Humphrey & Les Schwab Tire Center
Sincerely,
Dean & Courtney Fox
ald’s was on fi re, cars were
driving on the bike path.”
An eerie sight was the
school’s newest bus in the
ditch. She said her dad, who
is in his late 60s, helped a
dozen residents of the senior
mobile home park near their
home to the safety of a Kmart
parking lot.
Wayne lost fi shing gear,
including old wooden lures
that once belonged to his
father.
In years past, Wayne spent
time in Grant County fi shing
and hunting.
Now Megan and her dad
live 10 feet from each other
in travel trailers, staying at an
almond orchard owned by a
family friend in Gridley.
The damaged hospital
closed, and she said everyone
who worked there will be ter-
minated Feb. 5.
While Megan said she
feels “lost,” she is grateful
to be in contact with family,
and she’ll soon start nursing
school.
“I can restart,” she said.
Monte Nystrom
Dave Vixie
Paradise Adventist School
Principal Monte Nystrom
noticed “a different look to
the sky” at 7:15 a.m. Nov. 8
on his way to work.
At 7:30, as parents arrived
with students, he asked them
to stay in their car and head
out, after learning the fi re had
reached a nearby town.
Nystrom made his way to
the other side of town to pick
up his paraplegic sister and
his mother-in-law at a retire-
ment center near the hospi-
tal — the fi re burning about
50 yards away. An offi cer
asked him to take as many
other residents as he could,
so three more people joined
them, and as they drove past
the Feather River Hospi-
tal, he also offered a ride to
a nurse who was walking by
Teacher Dave Vixie was
at his Paradise property on
Jan. 10, waiting to speak
with a work crew about haul-
ing away debris, the remains
of his house.
“I’m standing in the mid-
dle of ashes, like mud, like
the ash of Pompeii,” he said.
Dave said he and his wife,
Karen, were in the last vehi-
cles on one of the three roads
heading out of town. They
hauled their eight mules in
two trailers, and one of the
trailers, designed for four
mules, had six packed inside.
Dave, who teaches sev-
enth and eighth grades at Par-
adise Adventist Church, lost
almost everything, including
old wagons and carts.
His interest in history,
especially the explorers of
the West, ties him to Canyon
City. He is friends with Jim
and Mary Jensen who own
the Oxbow Trade Company
where they sell and repair
wagons, wagon wheels and
carts.
Taking students on trail
rides, for living history jour-
neys, is a favorite pastime for
Dave, and last summer he
brought a group of students
to John Day in a motorized
vehicle to witness the total
solar eclipse.
After the Camp Fire
burned their home, Vixie met
the Foxes while transport-
ing two of their mules during
the Thanksgiving break. The
Vixies had planned a stop at
the Oxbow Trade Company
to pick up a repaired wagon
wheel, and they ended up
staying with the Foxes. Both
families shared stories of the
fi res they experienced.
When the Foxes came
to the school in Chico,
Dave said he was especially
impressed with Brooke,
Courtney’s
10-year-old
daughter, who helped dis-
tribute Christmas gifts to 10
kindergartners.
Dave said, when Brooke
went through the Canyon
Creek Complex fi re, not all
her classmates understood
what she was going through.
“Brooke understood these
kids’ experience,” Dave said.
“It was a neat interaction.”
Dave described a class
assignment, where geome-
try students were drawing
pictures with shapes on a
white board. One boy drew a
detailed picture of his house,
then quickly erased it.
“All gone,” he said, then
added another doodle —
“All gone, except these ten-
nis shoes.”
In a recent history les-
son, Dave said they learned
about the spread of Christi-
anity in 300 AD and that one
of the attractions was creat-
ing a community where peo-
ple took care of each other.
“As they read that, I said,
‘Does any of this sound
familiar to you?’” he said,
and responses included,
“That’s exactly what hap-
pened to us.”
“I wanted to say thank
you to the communities of
John Day and Canyon City
for reaching out with kind-
ness and compassion to
lift the lives and courage
of others,” he said. “This
time it was Butte County,
California.”
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Megan Cateron
Megan Cateron and her
father, Wayne Cateron, were
rummaging through piles of
ash where their home once
stood in Paradise when they
noticed a truck drive past.
Megan, 34, said she
thought it was likely workers
involved with the cleanup,
but then she looked up and
saw the Foxes walking
toward her.
“They introduced them-
selves to us, and immediately
I felt this heartfelt rush,” she
said. “We started talking to
them, and in a matter of min-
utes it felt like we’d known
each other for years. ”
with her face covered.
He said it was raining
embers, which he would stop
to stomp out, until it became
too smokey. He said it took
about three hours for a drive
that normally would have
taken 10 minutes.
“There was a fair amount
of time that I was 99 percent
sure that we weren’t going
to make it with high winds
blowing the fi re,” he said.
“When we did get out, it did
feel miraculous.”
Nystrom’s wife, who was
on the other side of town,
also reached safety, but their
home burned, and they now
live in a motor home parked
at a friend’s home. Most of
the staff and 166 students’
families also had their homes
destroyed, but all survived.
A few classrooms were
destroyed, so the remainder
of their school year is being
held in a church on the same
campus as the Chico Oaks
Adventist School until mod-
ule classrooms arrive.
The Foxes visited the
school and, after handing out
Christmas gifts, gave several
Visa cards to Nystrom to dis-
tribute. One recipient was
a mother who not only lost
her uninsured home but was
also in a serious wreck when
her car was rear-ended on the
freeway.
“I was able to give her
several gift cards, and
she was just so grateful,”
Nystrom said. “We appre-
ciated the gifts they brought
and, even more than that, was
the love and compassion that
they exuded while they were
here.”
97254
for the new blankets, quilts
and clothing, plus 56 $100
Visa gift cards they distrib-
uted on behalf of Grant County
residents.
“We found people sifting
through what was left of their
houses,” Courtney said.
“Some people were very
distraught — a lot of tears
on both sides,” Dean said,
adding they also found three
families with Grant County
connections.
Courtney said it felt great
to give people something that
didn’t require paperwork or a
long wait time.
“We want to give a spe-
cial thanks to everyone who
helped pull this together and
make this event possible,”
she added. “We’re so grate-
ful for all the monetary dona-
tions and items and time
spent helping organize.”