No words can really describe the devastation I saw as I drove into what is left of the town of Paradise CA.
I was there for a pre-bid meeting for contractors wanting to help with the cleanup of the town. That was in January right after New Years.
The fire started on November 8th and was declared contained on about Nov 22nd with 151,000 acres burned, 80 people killed and over 15,000 structure destroyed.
Why was I there? I hoped I could help people get back on the home sites, with our sleeping cabins. The state and federal government had other idea. It turn out that if your home was a total loss the site is now a contaminated site and needs to be thoroughly cleaned up before you can move back.
I switched gears when I learned that there would be four prime contractors chosen to do the work. Each one of them would need a worker camp with sleeping cabins, a cook house, showers, laundry and toilets. LIke a fire camp but for a longer term. The best estimate was one year to finish. The work force would be well over 1,000 people.
We realized there was a need for worker sleeping cabins and set about designing a solution. We also met a Base Camp operator at the meeting who liked our solution.
So far it looks like a closed loop system and we are not invited to play.
It took three months for Butte County to decide that it would be OK for people to live in RV’s and Tiny Houses on wheels while they rebuild or figure out what to do.
Oh, and good news FEMA might have their infamous trailers for folks to live in by mid April.
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