Paradise Mayor Jody Jones loved to cook. She lost her entire set of family recipes when the flames consumed her home in the town that suffered the greatest loss of life and structural damage in California’s deadliest blaze.
”You know, we lived with fire danger all the time here. But I never thought that if it came it would wipe the town out.
We had fires in 2008 and I had a number of friends who lost their homes in that fire. Maybe 50 structures. But this kind of devastation, no one imagined,” Jones told the Mercury News.
Jones in now determined to rebuild the town she calls home.
Mayor Jody Jones sits on a bench in the front yard of her home in Paradise, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. Her house was burned during the Camp Fire last week. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Mayor Jody Jones is photographed on the passenger seat of reporter Julia Prodis Sulek’s car on their way to Paradise, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Paradise Mayor Jody Jones, right, talks with Courtenay Jenvey, left, at a Valero gas station in Chico, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Mayor Jody Jones walks down to her home in Paradise, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. Her house was burned during the Camp Fire last week. A sign that reads “Jody Jones Way” still stands in front of her property. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Mayor Jody Jones looks at her property in Paradise, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. Her house was burned during the Camp Fire last week. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Two scenes are photographed on Skyway in Paradise, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. On the left a building that was burned during the Camp Fire and in the distance buildings that were unharmed by the blaze. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
The street where Mayor Jody Jones’ sister lived is photographed in Paradise, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. Jones evacuated Paradise during the Camp Fire from her sisters house. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Signs that say “Town Hall closed” are photographed at the Paradise, Calif., town hall on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
A vehicle is photographed in Paradise, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. The car received little damage during the Camp Fire. However the structures around it were destroyed. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Mayor Jody Jones takes a picture of where her house used to be in Paradise, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. Her house was burned during the Camp Fire last week. (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group)
Randy Vazquez Media 