Andrew and Ariya Boone got the call from Paradise Elementary at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 8. Fire was roaring toward the town of Paradise and they had to come immediately to pick up their three boys.
Andrew raced to the school as Ariya frantically packed the family’s most treasured belongings and soothed their small daughter while the sky, which had been relatively clear just an hour before, turned so dark that it felt like “10 o’clock at night at 9:30 in the morning.”
“It was insane…the fire was being driven by winds that were so strong it was throwing embers the size of large rocks,” Ariya said Wednesday, recalling the family’s harrowing flight from their home of eight years to an evacuation center at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds in Yuba City.
The Boone children were among at least 3,800 of the more than 4,200 Paradise Unified School District students who lost their homes in the Camp Fire — the deadliest wildfire in California history. Scores of teachers and several school board members were also left homeless, according to officials with the Butte County Office of Education.
The fire consumed eight of Paradise Unified’s nine schools, including Paradise Elementary, with Paradise High School the only one left standing. It also destroyed nearly 9,000 homes in the town of 27,000 residents. As of Friday morning, 63 peoplewere confirmed dead and more than 600 were still missing.
To continue reading this article by David Washburn and Diana Lambert, go to: https://edsource.org/2018/afte...district-gone/605038
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