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Now, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mynspr.org/news/2025-09-26/paradise-bus-driver-survivors-relive-camp-fire-escape-as-the-lost-bus-premieres-at-fires-epicenter\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new movie\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> depicts the real-life heroic escape of one local bus driver. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yosemite National Park \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">remains open during the government shutdown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but there won’t be many rangers there to help visitors.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The US Department of Education is ending several grant programs that support minority-serving institutions. Department officials say these programs are discriminatory. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/09/minority-student-funding-california/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California stands to lose more grant money \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">than any other state – for programs that support Black, Latino, Asian and Native American students on college campuses.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArtP-headline\">\u003cstrong>Paradise Bus Driver, Survivors Relive Camp Fire Escape As ‘The Lost Bus’ Premieres \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The Lost Bus” tells the story of a Paradise school bus driver and a teacher who helped 22 kids escape the Camp Fire in 2018. The fire killed 85 people and remains the most deadly and destructive in California’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the movie premiere last month, the film resonated in Chico and Oroville — two cities close to Paradise where many survivors relocated after the fire. Crowds packed into theaters to witness a film about their community’s experience. A line wrapped around The Pageant Theater in Chico, and Feather River Cinemas in Oroville also drew a full house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin McKay, the real-life bus driver at the heart of the film played by Matthew McConaughey, showed up to Feather River Cinemas with family and friends, many from Cal Fire. He told NSPR what it was like to watch his story on the big screen nearly seven years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s super surreal for me, being that the core storyline is about my life,” McKay said. “But at the same time, I’m a Camp Fire survivor, and so, honestly, there’s so many different ways that I connect to the film.” McKay said he hopes other survivors who see the movie feel seen and heard. He also hopes people leave with the message of “normal people, helping other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">\u003cstrong>Yosemite Is Open During The Shutdown — But With Lots Of Changes For Visitors\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12057777\">The shutdown of the federal government\u003c/a> has brought \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058291/san-francisco-national-parks-government-shutdown-bay-area-muir-woods-redwoods-fort-point\">the full or partial closure of many National Park Service sites\u003c/a> across California — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058298/at-muir-woods-tourists-heartbroken-over-national-park-closure-during-shutdown\">Muir Woods\u003c/a>, where visitors on Wednesday were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058298/at-muir-woods-tourists-heartbroken-over-national-park-closure-during-shutdown\">met with locked gates\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/alca/index.htm\">Alcatraz Island\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the closures have many people, especially curious about the state’s most visited national park, asking: “Is Yosemite National Park open right now?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quick answer is \u003ca href=\"https://www.yosemite.com/current-conditions/\">yes, Yosemite is still open to the public\u003c/a>. But because of the shutdown, many federal employees who staff the park aren’t working. That means many buildings, facilities and resources aren’t currently available in Yosemite, in a way that could have real consequences for a person’s visit. Instead of being stopped and greeted by a park staffer at the Yosemite gates, you’ll now drive straight through. This means there’s nobody in those booths to collect your entry fee (\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/fees.htm\">usually $35 per vehicle\u003c/a>) or to offer you guidance on your visit — including timely updates on weather conditions and any road closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such expert advice is helpful even for seasoned park-goers, and this is where the visitor centers \u003cem>outside\u003c/em> Yosemite really come in handy, said Kim Lawson, director of communications and content at the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau. “What we’re recommending is visitors to stop in the gateway communities as they come through,” Lawson said, especially since the Yosemite Welcome Center in Yosemite Valley will be closed during the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"entry-title \">\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/09/minority-student-funding-california/\">\u003cstrong>California Faces Steepest Cuts As Trump Ends Diversity Grants\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, over 100 colleges and universities across California will lose access to essential funding for tutoring, academic counseling and other support services aimed at helping Black, Latino, Asian and Native American students succeed in college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change comes after the U.S. Department of Education said last month that it was ending \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-ends-funding-racially-discriminatory-discretionary-grant-programs-minority-serving-institutions\">a grant program \u003c/a>that supports “minority-serving institutions,” claiming that it illegally favors certain racial or ethnic groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every state will lose money, but the Education Department’s decision hits California hardest. The state receives over a quarter of all of these diversity grants, since it has a high percentage of minority students, especially Latinos, and it has more college campuses than any other state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s community college system could lose $20 million next year as a result of the funding cuts, said Chris Ferguson, who supports finance and strategic relations at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The Cal State University and the University of California systems, which also receive this money, did not respond to questions about the amount of funding at risk.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, October 3, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise remains California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire in history. The Northern California fire claimed the lives of 85 people. Now, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mynspr.org/news/2025-09-26/paradise-bus-driver-survivors-relive-camp-fire-escape-as-the-lost-bus-premieres-at-fires-epicenter\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new movie\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> depicts the real-life heroic escape of one local bus driver. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yosemite National Park \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">remains open during the government shutdown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but there won’t be many rangers there to help visitors.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The US Department of Education is ending several grant programs that support minority-serving institutions. Department officials say these programs are discriminatory. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/09/minority-student-funding-california/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California stands to lose more grant money \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">than any other state – for programs that support Black, Latino, Asian and Native American students on college campuses.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArtP-headline\">\u003cstrong>Paradise Bus Driver, Survivors Relive Camp Fire Escape As ‘The Lost Bus’ Premieres \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The Lost Bus” tells the story of a Paradise school bus driver and a teacher who helped 22 kids escape the Camp Fire in 2018. The fire killed 85 people and remains the most deadly and destructive in California’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the movie premiere last month, the film resonated in Chico and Oroville — two cities close to Paradise where many survivors relocated after the fire. Crowds packed into theaters to witness a film about their community’s experience. A line wrapped around The Pageant Theater in Chico, and Feather River Cinemas in Oroville also drew a full house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin McKay, the real-life bus driver at the heart of the film played by Matthew McConaughey, showed up to Feather River Cinemas with family and friends, many from Cal Fire. He told NSPR what it was like to watch his story on the big screen nearly seven years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s super surreal for me, being that the core storyline is about my life,” McKay said. “But at the same time, I’m a Camp Fire survivor, and so, honestly, there’s so many different ways that I connect to the film.” McKay said he hopes other survivors who see the movie feel seen and heard. He also hopes people leave with the message of “normal people, helping other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">\u003cstrong>Yosemite Is Open During The Shutdown — But With Lots Of Changes For Visitors\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12057777\">The shutdown of the federal government\u003c/a> has brought \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058291/san-francisco-national-parks-government-shutdown-bay-area-muir-woods-redwoods-fort-point\">the full or partial closure of many National Park Service sites\u003c/a> across California — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058298/at-muir-woods-tourists-heartbroken-over-national-park-closure-during-shutdown\">Muir Woods\u003c/a>, where visitors on Wednesday were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058298/at-muir-woods-tourists-heartbroken-over-national-park-closure-during-shutdown\">met with locked gates\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/alca/index.htm\">Alcatraz Island\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the closures have many people, especially curious about the state’s most visited national park, asking: “Is Yosemite National Park open right now?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quick answer is \u003ca href=\"https://www.yosemite.com/current-conditions/\">yes, Yosemite is still open to the public\u003c/a>. But because of the shutdown, many federal employees who staff the park aren’t working. That means many buildings, facilities and resources aren’t currently available in Yosemite, in a way that could have real consequences for a person’s visit. Instead of being stopped and greeted by a park staffer at the Yosemite gates, you’ll now drive straight through. This means there’s nobody in those booths to collect your entry fee (\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/fees.htm\">usually $35 per vehicle\u003c/a>) or to offer you guidance on your visit — including timely updates on weather conditions and any road closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such expert advice is helpful even for seasoned park-goers, and this is where the visitor centers \u003cem>outside\u003c/em> Yosemite really come in handy, said Kim Lawson, director of communications and content at the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau. “What we’re recommending is visitors to stop in the gateway communities as they come through,” Lawson said, especially since the Yosemite Welcome Center in Yosemite Valley will be closed during the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"entry-title \">\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/09/minority-student-funding-california/\">\u003cstrong>California Faces Steepest Cuts As Trump Ends Diversity Grants\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, over 100 colleges and universities across California will lose access to essential funding for tutoring, academic counseling and other support services aimed at helping Black, Latino, Asian and Native American students succeed in college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change comes after the U.S. Department of Education said last month that it was ending \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-ends-funding-racially-discriminatory-discretionary-grant-programs-minority-serving-institutions\">a grant program \u003c/a>that supports “minority-serving institutions,” claiming that it illegally favors certain racial or ethnic groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every state will lose money, but the Education Department’s decision hits California hardest. The state receives over a quarter of all of these diversity grants, since it has a high percentage of minority students, especially Latinos, and it has more college campuses than any other state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s community college system could lose $20 million next year as a result of the funding cuts, said Chris Ferguson, who supports finance and strategic relations at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The Cal State University and the University of California systems, which also receive this money, did not respond to questions about the amount of funding at risk.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Paradise’s Recovery From the Camp Fire Holds Lessons for LA",
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"content": "\u003cp>You get a glimpse of the road ahead for Los Angeles after its wildfires by looking at a town that has already traveled it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed about 11,000 homes in Paradise, Calif. and killed 85 people. The mountain town in the Sierra Nevada foothills is still recovering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One person working on Paradise’s revival is Jenn Goodlin. She grew up there, and six years ago, she was living out of state, as almost her entire hometown burned to the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt so helpless in Colorado. Like, how many Target gift cards can I send, right?” Goodlin said, speaking to NPR’s \u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A visit to Paradise later on made it clear to Goodlin that the best way to help Paradise was to move back and build a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023495\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-12023495\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-8-160x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-8-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-8.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jen Goodlin, executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation, poses with a mural depicting a sunset from handprints of local children, at Paradise Community Park in November 2024. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jen Goodlin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Dragged my family along, my four children and my husband and said, ‘how about we leave our great life and move to a burnt-down town and live in a trailer for two and a half years?'” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She volunteered, helping people get food or sheds to store their tools. Then she took a job as executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation, which finds money to help with rebuilding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most people never have to build a custom home in their lives, suddenly a town of thousands \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1209471739/a-california-town-wiped-off-the-map-by-wildfire-is-still-recovering-five-years-o\">needed funding and knowledge of the basic, bureaucratic hurdles of construction\u003c/a>. The foundation would write people checks to pay for surveys, architecture and engineering fees and permit fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Septic was hit heavily, very expensive,” Goodlin said. \u003ca href=\"https://krcrtv.com/news/local/sewer-project-on-hold-for-town-of-paradise\">Without a sewer system\u003c/a>, Paradise relies on septic tanks. “We wanted to ease that burden.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goodlin said the foundation has a library of floor plans pre-approved by the town and county to help residents break ground more quickly. She said almost 200 new homes have relied on those floor plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many residents run into roadblocks with insurance companies that hesitate to cover homes in the so-called “wildland-urban interface” that is prone to fires. To make homes more resilient and more insurable, the foundation gave residents vouchers for gravel to lay down in the 5 feet surrounding their homes.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"forum_2010101908557,news_12015150,news_12021661\"]The nitty gritty of building and hardening homes has translated to growth. The \u003ca href=\"https://dof.ca.gov/forecasting/demographics/estimates/e-4-population-estimates-for-cities-counties-and-the-state-2021-2024-with-2020-census-benchmark/\">California Department of Finance\u003c/a>, which estimates populations in the state, said Paradise grew from fewer than 5,000 people in 2020 to nearly 11,000 in 2024. That’s still far from \u003ca href=\"https://dof.ca.gov/forecasting/demographics/estimates/e-4-population-estimates-for-cities-counties-and-the-state-2011-2020-with-2010-census-benchmark-new/\">a pre-Camp Fire population\u003c/a> of more than 26,000 in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the ground in Paradise, Goodlin has seen more\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>young families and children in town, noting that the Paradise Unified School District \u003ca href=\"https://krcrtv.com/news/local/cedarwood-elementary-in-magalia-unveils-upgraded-27-million-campus-ahead-of-school-year\">opened a new elementary school\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goodlin’s advice for people in Los Angeles who talk of rebuilding homes is to take it one step at a time. She hopes Paradise’s story can be a survival guide for Altadena and Pacific Palisades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are here. Like, we have gone through it — similar but different,” she said. “How can we help you now? People came to our side as well. But that’s now our job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was edited by Obed Manuel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You get a glimpse of the road ahead for Los Angeles after its wildfires by looking at a town that has already traveled it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed about 11,000 homes in Paradise, Calif. and killed 85 people. The mountain town in the Sierra Nevada foothills is still recovering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One person working on Paradise’s revival is Jenn Goodlin. She grew up there, and six years ago, she was living out of state, as almost her entire hometown burned to the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt so helpless in Colorado. Like, how many Target gift cards can I send, right?” Goodlin said, speaking to NPR’s \u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A visit to Paradise later on made it clear to Goodlin that the best way to help Paradise was to move back and build a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023495\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-12023495\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-8-160x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-8-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-8.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jen Goodlin, executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation, poses with a mural depicting a sunset from handprints of local children, at Paradise Community Park in November 2024. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jen Goodlin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Dragged my family along, my four children and my husband and said, ‘how about we leave our great life and move to a burnt-down town and live in a trailer for two and a half years?'” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She volunteered, helping people get food or sheds to store their tools. Then she took a job as executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation, which finds money to help with rebuilding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most people never have to build a custom home in their lives, suddenly a town of thousands \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1209471739/a-california-town-wiped-off-the-map-by-wildfire-is-still-recovering-five-years-o\">needed funding and knowledge of the basic, bureaucratic hurdles of construction\u003c/a>. The foundation would write people checks to pay for surveys, architecture and engineering fees and permit fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Septic was hit heavily, very expensive,” Goodlin said. \u003ca href=\"https://krcrtv.com/news/local/sewer-project-on-hold-for-town-of-paradise\">Without a sewer system\u003c/a>, Paradise relies on septic tanks. “We wanted to ease that burden.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goodlin said the foundation has a library of floor plans pre-approved by the town and county to help residents break ground more quickly. She said almost 200 new homes have relied on those floor plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many residents run into roadblocks with insurance companies that hesitate to cover homes in the so-called “wildland-urban interface” that is prone to fires. To make homes more resilient and more insurable, the foundation gave residents vouchers for gravel to lay down in the 5 feet surrounding their homes.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The nitty gritty of building and hardening homes has translated to growth. The \u003ca href=\"https://dof.ca.gov/forecasting/demographics/estimates/e-4-population-estimates-for-cities-counties-and-the-state-2021-2024-with-2020-census-benchmark/\">California Department of Finance\u003c/a>, which estimates populations in the state, said Paradise grew from fewer than 5,000 people in 2020 to nearly 11,000 in 2024. That’s still far from \u003ca href=\"https://dof.ca.gov/forecasting/demographics/estimates/e-4-population-estimates-for-cities-counties-and-the-state-2011-2020-with-2010-census-benchmark-new/\">a pre-Camp Fire population\u003c/a> of more than 26,000 in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the ground in Paradise, Goodlin has seen more\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>young families and children in town, noting that the Paradise Unified School District \u003ca href=\"https://krcrtv.com/news/local/cedarwood-elementary-in-magalia-unveils-upgraded-27-million-campus-ahead-of-school-year\">opened a new elementary school\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goodlin’s advice for people in Los Angeles who talk of rebuilding homes is to take it one step at a time. She hopes Paradise’s story can be a survival guide for Altadena and Pacific Palisades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are here. Like, we have gone through it — similar but different,” she said. “How can we help you now? People came to our side as well. But that’s now our job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was edited by Obed Manuel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The devastation brought on by the wildfires blazing through Los Angeles — ash-covered rubble, the air clouded in a smoky haze — is a scene that’s all too familiar to Jeff Okrepkie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the 2017 Tubbs Fire first spread into his community of Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, “an ember roughly the size of a golf ball hit the ground and rolled in front of my house, setting off other embers,” Okrepkie said. “And that’s when I was like, ‘All right, time to get out.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tubbs Fire is considered one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top20_destruction.pdf?rev=8d25d868e50f40aea60833642d65b449&hash=1DBAA251C9CC52EDC5AAEA2358158664\">destructive\u003c/a> wildfires in California history, destroying 5,600 structures, including around 5% of Santa Rosa’s housing stock. (The most destructive fire remains the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the fires in Los Angeles fit in this grim record will likely take a while to work out. Multiple fires have burned over 35,000 acres, as of Friday morning, and have destroyed thousands of structures across several neighborhoods. At least 10 people have died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021672\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 528px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12021672\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/06WUNfLv-e1736558884543.jpg\" alt=\"A middle aged white male with graying hair and goatee beard smiles at the camera standing in a park on a sunny day, crossing his arms, and wearing a light blue and gray suit and an open button shirt with no tie.\" width=\"528\" height=\"688\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/06WUNfLv-e1736558884543.jpg 528w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/06WUNfLv-e1736558884543-160x208.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Okrepkie. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jeff Okrepkie)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For many caught up in this disaster, they’re beginning to process the reality that they’ve lost their entire homes — an experience Okrepkie shares, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that I always hated to hear was, ‘Well, it’s just stuff. And you have your lives, right?’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, having that is paramount to anything else. But it’s not just the physical object. It’s the memories that come with those — whether it be Christmas ornaments or baby pictures. “It is a long and difficult process and it is extremely emotional.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For other Bay Area residents, like Crystal Johnson, the fires can serve as a reminder of how vulnerable Californians are to the threat of climate disasters. She’s originally from Redondo Beach and has been checking in with family and friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t wait. Get your important papers together, medications, you know, important contacts, information, all that kind of stuff. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833686/what-to-pack-in-your-emergency-bag-with-covid-19-in-mind\">Have it ready to go so that if something happens\u003c/a>. Have a plan in place,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the long term, given the scale of destruction in Los Angeles, the road to recovery could take years. Okrepkie, who started a nonprofit to rebuild his community of Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, offered the following advice:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Do not go through it alone’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A wildfire can be a life-threatening event, taking a toll on people’s physical and emotional health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1487\">study\u003c/a> by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, “climate trauma” led to increased instances of chronic mental health problems, like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know someone who needs help coping in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, here’s a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928658/wildfires-reignite-old-trauma-for-survivors-of-last-octobers-devastation\">list\u003c/a> of what you can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Okrepkie, he said one of the most helpful approaches was to seek support among others who’ve gone through a similar experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s method of going through this and coping with it is going to be different,” he said. “But I will say: Do not go through it alone. Find a group that you can go through this together with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okrepkie said he’s seen the difference that a community working together can have, after seeing his nonprofit help to raise $1 million to rebuild Coffey Park. He said he was inspired to do this after seeing misinformation on social media about rebuilding — a dynamic that he sees similarly playing out with the Los Angeles fires currently.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘It takes patience’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The long-term financial impacts of major wildfires can take years to resolve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The responses that are needed — whether it be more firefighting resources to information to funds for those that have lost everything — never ceases,” said Okrepkie. “So it’s not just helping them in the first couple of days after. It’s going to be an ongoing thing for weeks, months and likely years.”[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_12021019,news_12021150,news_12021308\"]Damage from the Tubbs Fires is estimated at over $10 billion, according to one consulting \u003ca href=\"https://vertexeng.com/insights/economic-fallout-of-tubbs-wildfire-santa-rosa/\">group\u003c/a> involved in California wildfire response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okrepkie, an insurance agent, said the best thing to do is be patient. He moved back into his new rebuilt home in 2020, around three years after Tubbs Fire burned down his home. He said he’s happy his family is cared for and back in their home neighborhood of Coffey Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that there is a natural urge to get back into your home and want to do it as quickly as possible. But it’s going to take patience because everybody is going to be learning for the first time — or relearning — things,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where to begin with the insurance claims?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Okrepkie himself said he had no fewer than nine insurance adjusters to sort out all his claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has the following advice to get started:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Document everything. “Do not agree to anything over the phone,” he said.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Follow up phone conversations over email to confirm the verbal exchange.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Accept that the process is complex. Disaster adjusters, typically working out of state, may be reassigned throughout the process — and an adjustor is assigned to a specific line of coverage, from property to additional living expenses. “In case adjuster A leaves and an adjuster B comes in and it’s not documented on their end, you can show them ‘This is what was discussed and this is what was agreed to.’”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>An additional complication is that in recent years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985175/insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you\">insurance companies have pulled back from homeowner policies in California\u003c/a>. As for the fires in Los Angeles, there are concerns that the damage could \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021019/la-fires-threaten-california-insurance-market-stability-housing-costs\">overextend\u003c/a> the state’s FAIR Plan — the state’s insurer of last resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can find more details on navigating insurance claims and wildfires \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/cheat-sheet-what-to-do-if-you-need-to-make-a-fire-insurance-claim\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Farida Jhabvala Romero and Brian Watt contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Jeff Okrepkie urges Los Angeles residents to lean on each other, as he did when the 2017 Tubbs Fire burned down his home.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The devastation brought on by the wildfires blazing through Los Angeles — ash-covered rubble, the air clouded in a smoky haze — is a scene that’s all too familiar to Jeff Okrepkie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the 2017 Tubbs Fire first spread into his community of Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, “an ember roughly the size of a golf ball hit the ground and rolled in front of my house, setting off other embers,” Okrepkie said. “And that’s when I was like, ‘All right, time to get out.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tubbs Fire is considered one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top20_destruction.pdf?rev=8d25d868e50f40aea60833642d65b449&hash=1DBAA251C9CC52EDC5AAEA2358158664\">destructive\u003c/a> wildfires in California history, destroying 5,600 structures, including around 5% of Santa Rosa’s housing stock. (The most destructive fire remains the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the fires in Los Angeles fit in this grim record will likely take a while to work out. Multiple fires have burned over 35,000 acres, as of Friday morning, and have destroyed thousands of structures across several neighborhoods. At least 10 people have died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021672\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 528px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12021672\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/06WUNfLv-e1736558884543.jpg\" alt=\"A middle aged white male with graying hair and goatee beard smiles at the camera standing in a park on a sunny day, crossing his arms, and wearing a light blue and gray suit and an open button shirt with no tie.\" width=\"528\" height=\"688\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/06WUNfLv-e1736558884543.jpg 528w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/06WUNfLv-e1736558884543-160x208.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Okrepkie. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jeff Okrepkie)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For many caught up in this disaster, they’re beginning to process the reality that they’ve lost their entire homes — an experience Okrepkie shares, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that I always hated to hear was, ‘Well, it’s just stuff. And you have your lives, right?’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, having that is paramount to anything else. But it’s not just the physical object. It’s the memories that come with those — whether it be Christmas ornaments or baby pictures. “It is a long and difficult process and it is extremely emotional.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For other Bay Area residents, like Crystal Johnson, the fires can serve as a reminder of how vulnerable Californians are to the threat of climate disasters. She’s originally from Redondo Beach and has been checking in with family and friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t wait. Get your important papers together, medications, you know, important contacts, information, all that kind of stuff. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833686/what-to-pack-in-your-emergency-bag-with-covid-19-in-mind\">Have it ready to go so that if something happens\u003c/a>. Have a plan in place,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the long term, given the scale of destruction in Los Angeles, the road to recovery could take years. Okrepkie, who started a nonprofit to rebuild his community of Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, offered the following advice:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Do not go through it alone’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A wildfire can be a life-threatening event, taking a toll on people’s physical and emotional health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1487\">study\u003c/a> by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, “climate trauma” led to increased instances of chronic mental health problems, like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know someone who needs help coping in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, here’s a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928658/wildfires-reignite-old-trauma-for-survivors-of-last-octobers-devastation\">list\u003c/a> of what you can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Okrepkie, he said one of the most helpful approaches was to seek support among others who’ve gone through a similar experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s method of going through this and coping with it is going to be different,” he said. “But I will say: Do not go through it alone. Find a group that you can go through this together with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okrepkie said he’s seen the difference that a community working together can have, after seeing his nonprofit help to raise $1 million to rebuild Coffey Park. He said he was inspired to do this after seeing misinformation on social media about rebuilding — a dynamic that he sees similarly playing out with the Los Angeles fires currently.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘It takes patience’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The long-term financial impacts of major wildfires can take years to resolve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The responses that are needed — whether it be more firefighting resources to information to funds for those that have lost everything — never ceases,” said Okrepkie. “So it’s not just helping them in the first couple of days after. It’s going to be an ongoing thing for weeks, months and likely years.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Damage from the Tubbs Fires is estimated at over $10 billion, according to one consulting \u003ca href=\"https://vertexeng.com/insights/economic-fallout-of-tubbs-wildfire-santa-rosa/\">group\u003c/a> involved in California wildfire response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okrepkie, an insurance agent, said the best thing to do is be patient. He moved back into his new rebuilt home in 2020, around three years after Tubbs Fire burned down his home. He said he’s happy his family is cared for and back in their home neighborhood of Coffey Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that there is a natural urge to get back into your home and want to do it as quickly as possible. But it’s going to take patience because everybody is going to be learning for the first time — or relearning — things,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where to begin with the insurance claims?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Okrepkie himself said he had no fewer than nine insurance adjusters to sort out all his claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has the following advice to get started:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Document everything. “Do not agree to anything over the phone,” he said.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Follow up phone conversations over email to confirm the verbal exchange.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Accept that the process is complex. Disaster adjusters, typically working out of state, may be reassigned throughout the process — and an adjustor is assigned to a specific line of coverage, from property to additional living expenses. “In case adjuster A leaves and an adjuster B comes in and it’s not documented on their end, you can show them ‘This is what was discussed and this is what was agreed to.’”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>An additional complication is that in recent years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985175/insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you\">insurance companies have pulled back from homeowner policies in California\u003c/a>. As for the fires in Los Angeles, there are concerns that the damage could \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021019/la-fires-threaten-california-insurance-market-stability-housing-costs\">overextend\u003c/a> the state’s FAIR Plan — the state’s insurer of last resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can find more details on navigating insurance claims and wildfires \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/cheat-sheet-what-to-do-if-you-need-to-make-a-fire-insurance-claim\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Farida Jhabvala Romero and Brian Watt contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "life-after-paradise-one-camp-fire-survivors-long-road-to-a-new-home",
"title": "Life After Paradise: One Camp Fire Survivor’s Long Road to a New Home",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap] deadly wildfire, flooding and a seemingly endless malaise. Jennifer Porter has found her way through it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years ago this month, Porter survived the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise, California, but her home, and thousands of others, were turned to ashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Porter was lucky enough to drive through the flames that day, she was immediately set on a new, harrowing path: creating a new life, finding a new job and building a new community, all while recovering from trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We checked in with Porter in various stages of her journey to rebuild her life to hear about all the bumps in the road and how she navigated them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Life before the fire\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Just before the Paradise fire started on Nov. 8, 2018, Porter’s life had hit a sweet spot. She was an emergency department nurse at the local hospital and was living in her “dream home.” Her bedroom was “huge,” and her parents and best friend would often visit to enjoy her pool and hot tub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had really good times there,” Porter remembers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had strong ties in Paradise. When she first got there in 2006, she was a core member at a local Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where she helped coordinate worship services. That’s where she met her ex-husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would sing, and he played violin,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Porter said she struggled with a group-think mentality at the church. She felt forced into getting married and having a perfect wedding. That marriage didn’t last, and by the time the fire broke out in 2018, she was divorced. The house she lived in was part of a new life she carved out for herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Driving through the flames\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That November day, Porter had just come home from working an overnight shift at the hospital. She decided to sleep on the couch and charge her phone because there were warnings of high winds and a possible power outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom called me,” Porter remembers. “She was like, ‘Jenny, you need to pack up your cats, grab… important stuff and get the hell out, now.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter didn’t realize how bad it was until she got in her car. Fire crews had stopped traffic on her road to let residents closer to the fire out first. Ash started to fall on them. Then, the wildfire jumped a major thoroughfare and ignited a house on their street. The house exploded — possibly from a propane tank — and sent embers over their cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when it headed for my house,” Porter remembers. “I watched it go straight for my house, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, there goes my home.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this point, the roads were still blocked. Porter and other people in their cars started screaming to let them go. When Porter finally was able to start driving, she looked in her rearview mirror and saw that the people behind her were burning up in their car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time, I couldn’t process it or something,” Porter said about seeing the horrific tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She kept driving and called her mom to say goodbye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was screaming: ‘I love you guys. I’m so sorry. I tried. I tried really hard…but I’m not going to make it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But her mom told her she had to get out, and Porter kept driving through smoke and flames. It was pitch black outside the car, so she had to drive with her bumper right up against the car in front of her to guide her way out. People were jumping out of their vehicles with their children and pets in their arms. Finally, Porter reached a parking lot 20 miles away where her family was waiting for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My little brother saw me, and he came running and gave me a big hug,” Porter remembers. “It was probably one of the best moments of my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015024\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jennifer Porter’s home in Paradise before the Camp Fire. Right: Porter’s home after the Camp Fire in 2018. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jennifer Porter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Just after the fire\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Porter and her parents were close before the fire, but after, they were inseparable. Her parents and her little brother had also lost their homes in the fire, and she was determined to stay with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a few weeks after the fire in 2018, the town of Oroville — about 30 minutes south of Paradise — turned a local community center into a makeshift free grocery store. There, evacuees — still sleeping on couches or in their neighbors’ garages — could fill shopping carts with food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where I first met Porter. She had been washing up in store bathrooms and wearing donated clothes since the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been really hard for us to find a place,” she explained to me about trying to find a temporary home for her adult family members and all their pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter had slept wherever she could since the fire. First, it was in her car, with five cats, in a Kmart parking lot. Then her aunt loaned her a trailer, where Porter — 35 years old at the time — slept in the same bed as her parents, packed in with the nine cats and a dog they shared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, an animal shelter in Grass Valley put the whole family — and their animals — up. That’s where she was sleeping when I met her. It wasn’t a huge improvement, but she was grateful for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not ideal because there’s so many of us,” she said. “We don’t have a kitchen or anything. We just have a room and a bathroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter was surprisingly calm and clear-headed for someone in the thick of a disaster. But at the same time, strong emotions would sometimes erupt out of her. Dead bodies were still being identified among the ashes, and she knew some of them from her church. She had intense survivor’s guilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“God, I just wish so bad we had time [to save them],” she said as she fought back tears. “We just didn’t, and if I didn’t leave a minute earlier, I would have burned too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Six months later\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To this day, the Camp Fire in Paradise is still the most deadly in our state’s recent history. It also destroyed more buildings than any other California wildfire. And at least 30,000 people in and around Paradise lost their homes overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six months later, in the spring of 2019, Porter had learned through conversations with her homeowner’s insurance company and mortgage lender that she was “grossly underinsured” on her home in Paradise. She was told that she would have had to pay to keep her property, so she let the mortgage company auction off her plot of land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had received some insurance money for lost belongings and had bought a used trailer. Her parents had a trailer, too, so they had all moved to an RV community right on the Sacramento River in Los Molinos, a half-hour north of Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without knowing where she would be permanently, she said, it was hard to look for a job. In the meantime, living in an RV park on a riverbed presented a new problem: flooding. After one rain storm that spring, water had risen to the third step of her trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015035\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015035\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Porter’s cats look out the door at flooding in the RV park in Los Molinos where she lived after the Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. Right: Flooding at the RV park in Los Molinos. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jennifer Porter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When my mom and I wanted to get to each other’s trailers, we would be walking through a lake. It was insane,” Porter laughed about it later. “It was just like, ‘What’s next, God? What else do you have for me?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amidst the catastrophes, Porter’s family formed even tighter bonds during this time. Her two aunts were there too, and when I visited them one hot spring evening, they were all barbecuing. Her mom, Linda, sat at a picnic bench, scrolling through real estate listings on her phone, looking for places where they could all live together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015028\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Porter (center) stands with her mother, Linda Porter (right), and a family friend in the RV where she lives in Los Molinos in 2019 after her home burned in the Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015029\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015029\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Porter (left) and her mother, Linda Porter (center), eat dinner outside Linda’s RV in Los Molinos in Spring 2019. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Porter was laser-focused on finding a new home with her family and getting her career back on track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like starting over a whole new life,” she said, and “figuring out who I am now. Because who I was is gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Family strife\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Later that summer of 2019, Porter and her parents found a house in Red Bluff, farther up the Sacramento River. She got a job as an ER nurse again — this time, at a hospital in Redding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Porter found that kind of nursing harder than before. She was helping people in the worst moments of their lives while she herself was struggling with PTSD and survivor’s guilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re an ER nurse, you have to put that away because you have to be present for the person that you’re dealing with,” she said. “I just was unable to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter was getting help from a psychiatrist. But she said the medications she got during that time actually started her on a new bad road. At one point, she was on five different anxiety and depression meds, and she started experimenting with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you say an antidepressant… or an anti-anxiety med, I’ve probably been on it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she started mixing medications and taking too much of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My parents were trying to intervene with me and tell me that I needed to back off the medications,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her parents were fighting constantly. Porter was having trouble getting out of bed, and her parents were doing all her household duties, including taking care of their large menagerie of pets. After only a year of living together, Porter and her parents decided they couldn’t do it anymore. Porter moved out, stopped nursing and was back in limbo, picking up waitressing shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew I needed something light. And my whole life before I was a nurse was being a waitress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a few years after the fire, Porter was still finding herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Wildfires in 2024\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When wildfires started raging this past summer, I wondered about Porter. People in Butte County were being evacuated again because of the Park Fire, which burned more than 400,000 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I connected with Porter over Zoom and found she was still the look-on-the-bright side person I first met six years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had moved to Portola, a town north of Lake Tahoe, near the Nevada border. She still had four of the five cats she escaped Paradise with. She had finally received a victim compensation check from PG&E. And she was almost completely off the medications she started taking after the fire. She was back to nursing, but this time, taking care of the elderly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a huge change,” she said. “I needed something a little more lightweight, and geriatrics was a good way to get back into it easily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter was living alone now, and she had reconciled with her parents, who had moved nearby to be with her. The Park Fire wasn’t threatening them, but other smaller fires in the mountains were. Porter got a warning that she might have to evacuate, and her parents actually did —they came and stayed with her for a couple of weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was pretty calm about it all when I talked to her. But when the orange glow came back in the sky, she said she did lose it for a minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom says all the time, ‘I don’t know why we moved back into the trees,’” Porter said. “Because it’s always in the back of your mind, is there a fire risk?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Moving to Nevada\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For some time now, Porter’s been cooking up a plan to get out of California fire country for good. She used some of her insurance money to buy land in Carson City, Nevada. There’s a trailer home on it now, but it’s in bad shape. So, using some money she got from PG&E, she’s tearing it down and putting a new manufactured home on the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I met her in Carson City in October 2024, I also saw a new development in her life: her future husband, Johnny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they’re building their home, he’s living among the plywood and moving boxes, and Porter visits on weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We love four-wheeling, being up in the mountains… We take my Jeep up and go camping,” she said about spending time with her fiancé.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015027\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015027\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Porter and her fiancé stand in front of their home in Carson City, Nevada, on Oct. 13, 2024. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her new neighborhood in Nevada’s capital suburbs isn’t much like Paradise. There aren’t many trees near her house, and it’s so flat you can see the horizon over miles of farmland. She couldn’t be more excited to move into a new permanent home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To be able to set myself back up in a position where I can be a homeowner again and start over has been everything to me,” Porter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s happier now without the medications. She’s studying for another nursing degree, and, at least for a while, she plans to commute to her nursing job in California, where the wages are much higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she doesn’t think she’ll miss California or Paradise — too many triggers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trauma never really goes away, she said, and it took her many years to come to terms with that. But she said prayer — for herself and others — has helped her heal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to decide that you’re not going to let that traumatic event control who you’re going to become anymore,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Realizing that she survived and finding a purpose in that survival, she said, has helped her move to a better place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Special thanks to Paul Conley and to Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, where Pauline first covered the aftermath of the Paradise fire.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Six years ago, Jennifer Porter lost her home in the Camp Fire. We followed her throughout her journey to rebuild her life.",
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"title": "Life After Paradise: One Camp Fire Survivor’s Long Road to a New Home | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> deadly wildfire, flooding and a seemingly endless malaise. Jennifer Porter has found her way through it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years ago this month, Porter survived the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise, California, but her home, and thousands of others, were turned to ashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Porter was lucky enough to drive through the flames that day, she was immediately set on a new, harrowing path: creating a new life, finding a new job and building a new community, all while recovering from trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We checked in with Porter in various stages of her journey to rebuild her life to hear about all the bumps in the road and how she navigated them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Life before the fire\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Just before the Paradise fire started on Nov. 8, 2018, Porter’s life had hit a sweet spot. She was an emergency department nurse at the local hospital and was living in her “dream home.” Her bedroom was “huge,” and her parents and best friend would often visit to enjoy her pool and hot tub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had really good times there,” Porter remembers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had strong ties in Paradise. When she first got there in 2006, she was a core member at a local Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where she helped coordinate worship services. That’s where she met her ex-husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would sing, and he played violin,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Porter said she struggled with a group-think mentality at the church. She felt forced into getting married and having a perfect wedding. That marriage didn’t last, and by the time the fire broke out in 2018, she was divorced. The house she lived in was part of a new life she carved out for herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Driving through the flames\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That November day, Porter had just come home from working an overnight shift at the hospital. She decided to sleep on the couch and charge her phone because there were warnings of high winds and a possible power outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom called me,” Porter remembers. “She was like, ‘Jenny, you need to pack up your cats, grab… important stuff and get the hell out, now.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter didn’t realize how bad it was until she got in her car. Fire crews had stopped traffic on her road to let residents closer to the fire out first. Ash started to fall on them. Then, the wildfire jumped a major thoroughfare and ignited a house on their street. The house exploded — possibly from a propane tank — and sent embers over their cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when it headed for my house,” Porter remembers. “I watched it go straight for my house, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, there goes my home.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this point, the roads were still blocked. Porter and other people in their cars started screaming to let them go. When Porter finally was able to start driving, she looked in her rearview mirror and saw that the people behind her were burning up in their car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time, I couldn’t process it or something,” Porter said about seeing the horrific tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She kept driving and called her mom to say goodbye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was screaming: ‘I love you guys. I’m so sorry. I tried. I tried really hard…but I’m not going to make it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But her mom told her she had to get out, and Porter kept driving through smoke and flames. It was pitch black outside the car, so she had to drive with her bumper right up against the car in front of her to guide her way out. People were jumping out of their vehicles with their children and pets in their arms. Finally, Porter reached a parking lot 20 miles away where her family was waiting for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My little brother saw me, and he came running and gave me a big hug,” Porter remembers. “It was probably one of the best moments of my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015024\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jennifer Porter’s home in Paradise before the Camp Fire. Right: Porter’s home after the Camp Fire in 2018. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jennifer Porter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Just after the fire\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Porter and her parents were close before the fire, but after, they were inseparable. Her parents and her little brother had also lost their homes in the fire, and she was determined to stay with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a few weeks after the fire in 2018, the town of Oroville — about 30 minutes south of Paradise — turned a local community center into a makeshift free grocery store. There, evacuees — still sleeping on couches or in their neighbors’ garages — could fill shopping carts with food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where I first met Porter. She had been washing up in store bathrooms and wearing donated clothes since the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been really hard for us to find a place,” she explained to me about trying to find a temporary home for her adult family members and all their pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter had slept wherever she could since the fire. First, it was in her car, with five cats, in a Kmart parking lot. Then her aunt loaned her a trailer, where Porter — 35 years old at the time — slept in the same bed as her parents, packed in with the nine cats and a dog they shared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, an animal shelter in Grass Valley put the whole family — and their animals — up. That’s where she was sleeping when I met her. It wasn’t a huge improvement, but she was grateful for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not ideal because there’s so many of us,” she said. “We don’t have a kitchen or anything. We just have a room and a bathroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter was surprisingly calm and clear-headed for someone in the thick of a disaster. But at the same time, strong emotions would sometimes erupt out of her. Dead bodies were still being identified among the ashes, and she knew some of them from her church. She had intense survivor’s guilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“God, I just wish so bad we had time [to save them],” she said as she fought back tears. “We just didn’t, and if I didn’t leave a minute earlier, I would have burned too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Six months later\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To this day, the Camp Fire in Paradise is still the most deadly in our state’s recent history. It also destroyed more buildings than any other California wildfire. And at least 30,000 people in and around Paradise lost their homes overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six months later, in the spring of 2019, Porter had learned through conversations with her homeowner’s insurance company and mortgage lender that she was “grossly underinsured” on her home in Paradise. She was told that she would have had to pay to keep her property, so she let the mortgage company auction off her plot of land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had received some insurance money for lost belongings and had bought a used trailer. Her parents had a trailer, too, so they had all moved to an RV community right on the Sacramento River in Los Molinos, a half-hour north of Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without knowing where she would be permanently, she said, it was hard to look for a job. In the meantime, living in an RV park on a riverbed presented a new problem: flooding. After one rain storm that spring, water had risen to the third step of her trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015035\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015035\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-Diptych3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Porter’s cats look out the door at flooding in the RV park in Los Molinos where she lived after the Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. Right: Flooding at the RV park in Los Molinos. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jennifer Porter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When my mom and I wanted to get to each other’s trailers, we would be walking through a lake. It was insane,” Porter laughed about it later. “It was just like, ‘What’s next, God? What else do you have for me?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amidst the catastrophes, Porter’s family formed even tighter bonds during this time. Her two aunts were there too, and when I visited them one hot spring evening, they were all barbecuing. Her mom, Linda, sat at a picnic bench, scrolling through real estate listings on her phone, looking for places where they could all live together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015028\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-03-Porter_LosMolinos.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Porter (center) stands with her mother, Linda Porter (right), and a family friend in the RV where she lives in Los Molinos in 2019 after her home burned in the Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015029\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015029\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-04-Porter_LosMolinos_grilling.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Porter (left) and her mother, Linda Porter (center), eat dinner outside Linda’s RV in Los Molinos in Spring 2019. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Porter was laser-focused on finding a new home with her family and getting her career back on track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like starting over a whole new life,” she said, and “figuring out who I am now. Because who I was is gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Family strife\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Later that summer of 2019, Porter and her parents found a house in Red Bluff, farther up the Sacramento River. She got a job as an ER nurse again — this time, at a hospital in Redding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Porter found that kind of nursing harder than before. She was helping people in the worst moments of their lives while she herself was struggling with PTSD and survivor’s guilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re an ER nurse, you have to put that away because you have to be present for the person that you’re dealing with,” she said. “I just was unable to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter was getting help from a psychiatrist. But she said the medications she got during that time actually started her on a new bad road. At one point, she was on five different anxiety and depression meds, and she started experimenting with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you say an antidepressant… or an anti-anxiety med, I’ve probably been on it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she started mixing medications and taking too much of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My parents were trying to intervene with me and tell me that I needed to back off the medications,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her parents were fighting constantly. Porter was having trouble getting out of bed, and her parents were doing all her household duties, including taking care of their large menagerie of pets. After only a year of living together, Porter and her parents decided they couldn’t do it anymore. Porter moved out, stopped nursing and was back in limbo, picking up waitressing shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew I needed something light. And my whole life before I was a nurse was being a waitress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a few years after the fire, Porter was still finding herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Wildfires in 2024\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When wildfires started raging this past summer, I wondered about Porter. People in Butte County were being evacuated again because of the Park Fire, which burned more than 400,000 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I connected with Porter over Zoom and found she was still the look-on-the-bright side person I first met six years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had moved to Portola, a town north of Lake Tahoe, near the Nevada border. She still had four of the five cats she escaped Paradise with. She had finally received a victim compensation check from PG&E. And she was almost completely off the medications she started taking after the fire. She was back to nursing, but this time, taking care of the elderly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a huge change,” she said. “I needed something a little more lightweight, and geriatrics was a good way to get back into it easily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter was living alone now, and she had reconciled with her parents, who had moved nearby to be with her. The Park Fire wasn’t threatening them, but other smaller fires in the mountains were. Porter got a warning that she might have to evacuate, and her parents actually did —they came and stayed with her for a couple of weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was pretty calm about it all when I talked to her. But when the orange glow came back in the sky, she said she did lose it for a minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom says all the time, ‘I don’t know why we moved back into the trees,’” Porter said. “Because it’s always in the back of your mind, is there a fire risk?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Moving to Nevada\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For some time now, Porter’s been cooking up a plan to get out of California fire country for good. She used some of her insurance money to buy land in Carson City, Nevada. There’s a trailer home on it now, but it’s in bad shape. So, using some money she got from PG&E, she’s tearing it down and putting a new manufactured home on the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I met her in Carson City in October 2024, I also saw a new development in her life: her future husband, Johnny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they’re building their home, he’s living among the plywood and moving boxes, and Porter visits on weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We love four-wheeling, being up in the mountains… We take my Jeep up and go camping,” she said about spending time with her fiancé.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12015027\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12015027\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241119-ParadiseFireSurvivor-02-Porter_Johnny_CarsonCity2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Porter and her fiancé stand in front of their home in Carson City, Nevada, on Oct. 13, 2024. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her new neighborhood in Nevada’s capital suburbs isn’t much like Paradise. There aren’t many trees near her house, and it’s so flat you can see the horizon over miles of farmland. She couldn’t be more excited to move into a new permanent home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To be able to set myself back up in a position where I can be a homeowner again and start over has been everything to me,” Porter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s happier now without the medications. She’s studying for another nursing degree, and, at least for a while, she plans to commute to her nursing job in California, where the wages are much higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she doesn’t think she’ll miss California or Paradise — too many triggers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trauma never really goes away, she said, and it took her many years to come to terms with that. But she said prayer — for herself and others — has helped her heal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to decide that you’re not going to let that traumatic event control who you’re going to become anymore,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Realizing that she survived and finding a purpose in that survival, she said, has helped her move to a better place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Special thanks to Paul Conley and to Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, where Pauline first covered the aftermath of the Paradise fire.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "park-fire-continues-to-challenge-crews-in-northern-california",
"title": "Park Fire Continues To Challenge Crews In Northern California",
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"headTitle": "Park Fire Continues To Challenge Crews In Northern California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, July 29, 2024…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Northern California, the massive Park Fire is now the state’s sixth largest fire on record. The fire \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997697/gov-newsom-declares-state-of-emergency-as-park-fire-swiftly-grows\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has burned more than 368,000 acres\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and is affecting four different counties – Tehama, Butte, Plumas and Shasta. Crews were able to take advantage of better weather conditions on Saturday, as containment stands at 12%. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The anxiety continues for people who live in Paradise. The town, which was destroyed by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11785247/a-year-after-the-camp-fire-locals-are-rebuilding-paradise\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Camp Fire in 2018\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is under an evacuation warning because of the Park Fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Another major wildfire is scorching Kern County. The Borel Fire has burned 50,000 acres. It \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2024-07-28/borel-fire-town-of-havilah-survived-a-fire-before-historical-society-president-says\">tore through the historic town of Havilah\u003c/a> over the weekend.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Park Fire Now Sixth Largest Wildfire In CA History\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Park Fire has now burned 368,256 acres, making it one of the largest wildfires ever recorded in state history. Crews were able to take advantage of favorable weather conditions on Saturday, so the fire is now 12% contained. But hot spots continue to pop up along the fire line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several communities remain evacuated and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997697/gov-newsom-declares-state-of-emergency-as-park-fire-swiftly-grows\">some residents still don’t know whether they’ll have a home to return to when they’re allowed back.\u003c/a> Larry Jansen, a Cohasset resident, lost his home and made it out just an hour before the fire went over the road and closed the way out. “Our place is gone, burnt. Totally gone. And our whole area burned up,” he said, at Chico farmers market, where community members are coming together to support those who have been evacuated. “Friends are taking care of us right now … It’s a clean slate ahead. Nothing to worry about right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenneth Gaines evacuated his farm in Payne’s Creek in Tehama County Friday night, and relocated to Dales. He said he saw flames jump the highway less than a mile from his gate. “I just got my wallet and my phone and a couple of other things,” said Gaines. “I didn’t realize it was that close. … I stayed through the Ponderosa Fire, but this is a much bigger fire, it’s moving a lot faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials said \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jglCH_hFvCQ\">at a briefing Sunday\u003c/a> that they’re working to lower some evacuation orders to warnings, but they’re doing so cautiously, with fire activity still so uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997526/huge-wildfire-stirs-up-pain-in-fire-weary-butte-county-and-fury-toward-alleged-arsonist\">\u003cb>For Paradise Residents, Park Fire Stirs Up Painful Memories \u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For people living in Paradise, the Park Fire has brought up memories of the devastating and deadly Camp Fire. The fire in 2018 remains \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11785247/a-year-after-the-camp-fire-locals-are-rebuilding-paradise\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the deadliest and most destructive wildfire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in California history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We still have the warning in place, and we’re saying be ready if you feel uncomfortable, go ahead and evacuate,” Paradise Mayor Ronald Lassonde told KQED on Saturday. “There’s a large percentage of our population that actually drove through the flames. Someone ran through the flames. So, of course, that trauma stays with you.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The community remains under an evacuation warning, although Lassonde said he’s hopeful that will be lifted soon, with most of the fire activity up to the north.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArtP-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2024-07-28/borel-fire-town-of-havilah-survived-a-fire-before-historical-society-president-says\">Kern County Town Of Havilah Destroyed By Explosive Borel Fire\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Borel Fire burning in the Kern County mountains since last Wednesday grew to 50,000 acres by Sunday night after destroying the small gold-mining town of Havilah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is 0% contained, and has led to the evacuation of 2,300 residents — with evacuation warnings and orders being expanded throughout the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire hit an area of green brush which helped give crews a break from extreme fire behavior that was aided as the fire burned \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2024-07-27/borel-fire-fire-sweeps-through-tiny-town-of-havilah-in-kern-county-evacuations-grow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">along dry fuels\u003c/a> days earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Havilah is a historic mining town that was founded in the 1860’s. The town served as county seat in 1866 when Kern County was formed. It’s also designated as a California historical landmark.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Park Fire Continues To Challenge Crews In Northern California | KQED",
"description": "Here are the morning's top stories on Monday, July 29, 2024… In Northern California, the massive Park Fire is now the state's sixth largest fire on record. The fire has burned more than 368,000 acres and is affecting four different counties – Tehama, Butte, Plumas and Shasta. Crews were able to take advantage of better weather conditions on Saturday, as containment stands at 12%. The anxiety continues for people who live in Paradise. The town, which was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018, is under an evacuation warning because of the Park Fire. Another major wildfire is scorching Kern",
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"headline": "Park Fire Continues To Challenge Crews In Northern California",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, July 29, 2024…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Northern California, the massive Park Fire is now the state’s sixth largest fire on record. The fire \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997697/gov-newsom-declares-state-of-emergency-as-park-fire-swiftly-grows\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has burned more than 368,000 acres\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and is affecting four different counties – Tehama, Butte, Plumas and Shasta. Crews were able to take advantage of better weather conditions on Saturday, as containment stands at 12%. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The anxiety continues for people who live in Paradise. The town, which was destroyed by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11785247/a-year-after-the-camp-fire-locals-are-rebuilding-paradise\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Camp Fire in 2018\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is under an evacuation warning because of the Park Fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Another major wildfire is scorching Kern County. The Borel Fire has burned 50,000 acres. It \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2024-07-28/borel-fire-town-of-havilah-survived-a-fire-before-historical-society-president-says\">tore through the historic town of Havilah\u003c/a> over the weekend.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Park Fire Now Sixth Largest Wildfire In CA History\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Park Fire has now burned 368,256 acres, making it one of the largest wildfires ever recorded in state history. Crews were able to take advantage of favorable weather conditions on Saturday, so the fire is now 12% contained. But hot spots continue to pop up along the fire line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several communities remain evacuated and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997697/gov-newsom-declares-state-of-emergency-as-park-fire-swiftly-grows\">some residents still don’t know whether they’ll have a home to return to when they’re allowed back.\u003c/a> Larry Jansen, a Cohasset resident, lost his home and made it out just an hour before the fire went over the road and closed the way out. “Our place is gone, burnt. Totally gone. And our whole area burned up,” he said, at Chico farmers market, where community members are coming together to support those who have been evacuated. “Friends are taking care of us right now … It’s a clean slate ahead. Nothing to worry about right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenneth Gaines evacuated his farm in Payne’s Creek in Tehama County Friday night, and relocated to Dales. He said he saw flames jump the highway less than a mile from his gate. “I just got my wallet and my phone and a couple of other things,” said Gaines. “I didn’t realize it was that close. … I stayed through the Ponderosa Fire, but this is a much bigger fire, it’s moving a lot faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials said \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jglCH_hFvCQ\">at a briefing Sunday\u003c/a> that they’re working to lower some evacuation orders to warnings, but they’re doing so cautiously, with fire activity still so uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997526/huge-wildfire-stirs-up-pain-in-fire-weary-butte-county-and-fury-toward-alleged-arsonist\">\u003cb>For Paradise Residents, Park Fire Stirs Up Painful Memories \u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For people living in Paradise, the Park Fire has brought up memories of the devastating and deadly Camp Fire. The fire in 2018 remains \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11785247/a-year-after-the-camp-fire-locals-are-rebuilding-paradise\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the deadliest and most destructive wildfire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in California history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We still have the warning in place, and we’re saying be ready if you feel uncomfortable, go ahead and evacuate,” Paradise Mayor Ronald Lassonde told KQED on Saturday. “There’s a large percentage of our population that actually drove through the flames. Someone ran through the flames. So, of course, that trauma stays with you.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The community remains under an evacuation warning, although Lassonde said he’s hopeful that will be lifted soon, with most of the fire activity up to the north.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"ArtP-headline\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2024-07-28/borel-fire-town-of-havilah-survived-a-fire-before-historical-society-president-says\">Kern County Town Of Havilah Destroyed By Explosive Borel Fire\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Borel Fire burning in the Kern County mountains since last Wednesday grew to 50,000 acres by Sunday night after destroying the small gold-mining town of Havilah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is 0% contained, and has led to the evacuation of 2,300 residents — with evacuation warnings and orders being expanded throughout the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire hit an area of green brush which helped give crews a break from extreme fire behavior that was aided as the fire burned \u003ca class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2024-07-27/borel-fire-fire-sweeps-through-tiny-town-of-havilah-in-kern-county-evacuations-grow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">along dry fuels\u003c/a> days earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Havilah is a historic mining town that was founded in the 1860’s. The town served as county seat in 1866 when Kern County was formed. It’s also designated as a California historical landmark.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sharks-are-circling-again-with-wildfires-come-lawyers-and-previous-survivors-have-a-warning",
"title": "'Sharks Are Circling Again': With Wildfires Come Lawyers, and Previous Survivors Have a Warning",
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"headTitle": "‘Sharks Are Circling Again’: With Wildfires Come Lawyers, and Previous Survivors Have a Warning | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of fires ravaging parts of Northern California, and they’re promising to take on a familiar target: PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-20210713.pdf\">company disclosed\u003c/a> that its equipment \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-210802-14927.pdf\">may have sparked two fires this year\u003c/a>, including the Dixie Fire, the largest single-origin fire in California history, which to date has engulfed nearly 1,400 square miles, destroying 1,282 structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Victoria Gann, Camp Fire survivor\"]‘It’s like a free-for-fall.’[/pullquote]Prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys have swooped in even as the fire burns. As part of their campaign, they’ve plowed money into social media and launched websites touting their credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve held a steady stream of in-person and virtual town hall meetings, flying in from across California and around the country to lure in potential clients with everything from free food to face time with famed anti-PG&E activist Erin Brockovich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some attorneys have already begun the process of setting up shop in the small mountain towns of Quincy and Susanville, where many evacuees are stuck in limbo, staying in motels or with friends as they try to figure out what’s next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887772 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg\" alt=\"Three people sit at an outdoor table amid Styrofoam containers and soda cans.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandy Sullens (right) and her husband, Bob, who recently lost their home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville, at a barbecue for evacuees in Quincy, sponsored by the law firm Potter Handy, on Aug. 19, 2021. “We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These lawyers claim they have experience getting massive settlements out of PG&E for survivors of earlier fires. But many of those families, who turned to these same lawyers after losing their homes and loved ones, still sleep in cars and trailers and now say they see a replay of the broken promises they say have traumatized them a second time. They offer a warning for today’s fire victims: Buyer beware.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a free-for-fall,” said Victoria Gann, who lived in Paradise for 20 years before the Camp Fire destroyed the Sierra Nevada town in 2018. Three years later, she still lives in a trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gann is among the 70,000 survivors of wildfires sparked by PG&E equipment between 2015 and 2018 who were promised $13.5 billion in a settlement with the utility. Nearly two years later, most of those fire survivors have yet to receive a dime. “It’s only a disaster for the people it happened to. For everyone else, it seems to be a cash windfall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rush of attorneys into rural Northern California prompted Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister to \u003ca href=\"https://www.plumasnews.com/district-attorney-hollister-provides-information-regarding-legal-assistance-in-the-wake-of-the-dixie-fire/\">publish and distribute pamphlets\u003c/a> urging fire victims not to rush as they hire lawyers and contractors. It includes ethics guidance from the State Bar of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing we want is for people to be revictimized,” Hollister told KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom. “This is a big life-changing decision. So take a step back and make a good choice that’s going to protect you going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887782 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"One worker is on top of a crane next to a power line.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-2048x1384.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1920x1298.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several days after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, PG&E crews repair power lines destroyed by flames on Nov. 21, 2018. As of Sept. 2021, a large number of the 70,000 survivors of PG&E-caused fires between 2015 and 2018 had not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust, set up in 2020 to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers haven’t delivered, survivors say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The push by lawyers to sign up new survivors as clients has become something of a grim fire season tradition in California. Among the most prolific lawyers is Mikal Watts, a trial lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, who once told a community forum of fire victims in Sonoma County wine country that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-victims-lawyer-scrutinized-over-Wall-15241511.php\">wanted to “be your daddy.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Mikal Watts, Trial lawyer to wildfire survivors\"]‘The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people.’[/pullquote]On Wednesday, Watts could be found holding court at the Quincy Public Library, addressing those fleeing the Dixie Fire in person, with Brockovich and more fire victims joining on Zoom. “They have a ton of lawyers,” Watts said of PG&E, telling his audience the company was prepared to “crush you like a bug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people,” said Watts, who represented 16,000 survivors of PG&E fires during the company’s recent bankruptcy. “Now all of a sudden, you’ve got their attention and they’re quaking in their boots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s rising concern among survivors of past fires who say these lawyers do not deliver what they promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, Watts, along with other attorneys currently recruiting Dixie Fire survivors as clients, announced a settlement with PG&E that promised $13.5 billion in compensation for approximately 70,000 fire victims of the Camp Fire and other fires sparked by the company’s equipment between 2015 and 2018. But payments have been slow to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11884610\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg\"]In May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom revealed\u003c/a> that in its first year of operation, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust spent more than $50 million on overhead, with the trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charging $1,500 an hour (he now \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">claims to make $125,000 a month\u003c/a>). Since then, payments have sped up — with the trust saying it’s put approximately $740 million in the hands of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because half of the settlement came in the form of PG&E stock rather than cash, Trotter said it’s unlikely that fire survivors will get the amount that was promised. With the utility implicated in starting new fires every year, its stock price has languished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom asked Trotter in August when fire victims would be made whole, he said “they never will.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having to deal with the trust’s stock component is “unbearable,” he told us. When pressed, Trotter also said that in his decades as a trustee, he had never seen a victims’ settlement that included stock in the company that had harmed them.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A “horrible” fire settlement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In his Sept. 1 letter to fire victims who were promised money in the 2019 settlement, Trotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee_(9-1-21).pdf\">made an oblique reference to Watts\u003c/a>, saying some lawyers “eager to have their clients vote to approve PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy, set unrealistic timelines for payments to be made after the Trust’s creation,” before quoting a description of Watts from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-wildfire-victims-still-unpaid-as-new-california-fires-weigh-on-companys-stock-11628674201\">recent article in The Wall Street Journal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11879943\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/02/Powell-Camp-Fire-1020x698.jpg\"]In his letter, Trotter said the trust was currently worth “approximately $2.5 billion less than promised.” (PG&E is set to fund the trust with a final $700 million cash installment after this fire season.) So far, the trust hasn’t sold any of its 478 million shares, which comprise a quarter of all PG&E stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom, he did not address the discrepancy directly but said Trotter was “an honorable man in whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.” The PG&E bankruptcy settlement “was the second-largest tort settlement in American history at that time,” he added, “one I am very proud to have worked [on] with fine lawyers across California to achieve on behalf of all our clients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts continues to boast of the scale of relief he said he brokered for fire survivors. A website from his group offering legal services declares that he “led the negotiations with PG&E to raise the settlement negotiation from $8.4 billion to $13.5 billion, the largest settlement in bankruptcy history,” though the trust has never been worth that much in the year since PG&E funded it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also declined to be interviewed and sent a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We empathize with the ongoing hardships many victims face, and remain steadfast in our commitment to make it safe for our customers and communities,” the statement read. “To deliver on this commitment, we are hardening our system, piloting new technologies, and taking other aggressive action to increase system safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887779 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt='A woman, yelling, holds up two big poster signs, one reading, \"Disaster Capitalism.\"' width=\"860\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">About a hundred survivors of the Camp Fire attended a rally in Paradise on May 22, 2021, to protest runaway overhead expenses incurred by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. Angela Casler, left, lost her father-in-law shortly after the Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geoff Reed, a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, didn’t mince words when asked about the deal that Watts helped craft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan is horrible,” he said. Reed and his two daughters, who were 4 and 3 at the time of the fire, have lived in a cramped apartment in Redding since they lost everything. His older girl has nightmares from witnessing dead bodies during their escape from Paradise as the fire burned all around them. His younger daughter constantly worries that another blaze will come for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said that, fresh off the experience of fleeing the fire, he signed up with Watts’s group after attending a town hall meeting featuring Brockovich, who gained fame for exposing PG&E’s water contamination cover-up in Hinkley, a desert town in San Bernardino County. Reed later learned that Brockovich was acting as a paid non-attorney spokesperson for the legal group headed up by Watts along with Doug Boxer, the son of former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hired Brockovich as a media mercenary and everybody fawns over her and flocks to her. I did,” Reed said. After he signed up, Reed says Brockovich stopped returning his calls. Jarred by the experience, he switched to a different legal group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Geoff Reed, Survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire\"]‘I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?’[/pullquote]When KQED interviewed Brockovich last year, she responded to allegations that she has been unresponsive: “I travel a lot. There could be moments where I’m backlogged or I didn’t get back to somebody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire survivors voted on their settlement last year, Brockovich \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Erin-Brockovich-Why-fire-victims-should-accept-15173053.php\">penned an opinion piece in The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> urging them to vote in support of the settlement, and was quoted in two PG&E press releases touting the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed called it “a legal con job. I know the outcome, as do thousands of us.” Reed said he’d received an initial $6,667 from the trust but was expecting far more: “I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Trotter, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust when shares were worth $9. That’s well below the $14.13 implied price they paid per share, a value derived by dividing the $6.75 billion in stock they were promised by the 478 million shares that PG&E actually gave them in the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers backed by Wall Street\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As word of Watts and Boxer’s forum at the Quincy library leaked out on social media, a member of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/573936233419008/posts/1017406632405297/\">Facebook group for 2015-2018 fire survivors\u003c/a> posted a screenshot with the caption “Ka-Ching,” drawing dozens of comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sharks are circling again,” commented Stephen Muser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No thx. We’re 3 years of waiting ourselves with the Campfire,” wrote Patricia Wenner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even suggested that past fire survivors attend the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us Camp Fire folks should join and ask questions about our claims—-,” commented Eva Shepherd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another commenter referenced the revelation last year that Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11813173/attorney-for-pge-fire-victims-funded-by-wall-street-firms-hes-negotiating-against\">accepted litigation funding from some Wall Street hedge funds\u003c/a> negotiating against the interests of fire survivors, including his own clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED was first to report on those ties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">some fire victims and ethics experts said it raised red flags\u003c/a>, adding that Watts should have disclosed them to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Stories' tag='camp-fire']At a town hall meeting last year, \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/TEwCjhG53C8?t=6545\">this reporter asked Watts\u003c/a> if he had accepted funding from the hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. He indicated that he had not. But when KQED neared publication on a story about it, Watts changed course, admitting to accepting the litigation funding from Centerbridge and others, and ultimately submitting a written disclosure to clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom for this story, Watts said there was no conflict of interest because he does not have a single line of financing. “I have access to funds from multiple sources relating to different kinds of cases I litigate across the country,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that that particular line of credit \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">was worth $100 million\u003c/a>, but toward the end of Wednesday’s recruitment event, Watts quoted a much larger amount, which he later told KQED stems from multiple lines of credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mentioned I’ve got access to a lot of money that I borrow from New York banks — $400 million of access so I can spend whatever it takes,” Watts told the audience. “They made up this cockamamie deal about Mikal’s loans are backed up by people that own part of PG&E and this and that. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience of Dixie Fire survivors that he had refinanced the loans “to clean it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll come after me but don’t worry about it. It’s all white noise,” Watts concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital flyers for the event included a photo of Brockovich, who appeared on the Zoom but never spoke and dropped off the livestream midway through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887799 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg\" alt=\"People sit at a group of picnic tables on a green lawn beneath tall trees.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last month, attorney Bret Cook organized a barbecue in Quincy for those displaced by the Dixie Fire. Not far from the food, attorneys placed a stack of legal contracts for potential wildfire victims to review. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Free food brings in wildfire survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Watts is hardly the only attorney working to land recent fire victims as clients. KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom counted at least two dozen law firms posting ads and launching websites aimed at survivors of the Dixie Fire. They offer to represent them for damages ranging from property loss, emotional distress and displacement costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Potter Handy, Attorney representing 200 victims of the Camp Fire,\"]‘It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy … the clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged.’[/pullquote]Last month, one firm organized a barbeque meal of smoked tri-tip and butterhorn rolls. For days, a flyer advertising it made the rounds of social media: “FREE DINNER,” it read. In smaller type below, it specified: “For those displaced due to the Dixie Fire Come Hungry!’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ash fell from the sky, evacuee Sandy Sullens said she was there to learn more about what resources might be available to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens, who recently lost her home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same story over and over and over again. PG&E. We’re not sure,” Sullens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was organized by a local attorney, Bret Cook, who is partnering with Potter Handy, a law firm based in San Diego. The firm recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Disability-lawsuits-hit-S-F-Chinatown-and-state-16356130.php\">came under scrutiny\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Chinatown for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits against small businesses using the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, had floated the possibility of filing charges for criminal extortion against the firm, though no such charges were made in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potter, who represented 200 victims of the Camp Fire, did not return an email seeking comment on his San Francisco litigation. But in an interview in Quincy he admitted to the flaws of the wildfire deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy,” Potter said. “The clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged in the bankruptcy process and so that was frustrating, frankly. It’s rewarding to help them out but those clients still haven’t been fully paid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far from the food, Potter Handy attorneys had placed a stack of legal contracts for potential victims to review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract states the terms: a contingency that would leave the lawyers with 25% of any potential reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Coverage' tag='2021-wildfires']Cook has been the Sullens’s lawyer for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just providing some food for people evacuated from the Dixie Fire. It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Cook, who also lost his home and law office in Greenville. “It was a way of putting a little smile on their face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they’re here to enlist clients, Cook demurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not doing that, necessarily. People are asking us. And we’re certainly not going to say no. As I call around, having an avenue to rebuild brings them a sense of hope,” Cook said. “Some are ready to move to that next step and I want to make ourselves available in that case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the correct name of the State Bar of California.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Boger of KUNR in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting from Quincy.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of fires ravaging parts of Northern California, and they’re promising to take on a familiar target: PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-20210713.pdf\">company disclosed\u003c/a> that its equipment \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-210802-14927.pdf\">may have sparked two fires this year\u003c/a>, including the Dixie Fire, the largest single-origin fire in California history, which to date has engulfed nearly 1,400 square miles, destroying 1,282 structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys have swooped in even as the fire burns. As part of their campaign, they’ve plowed money into social media and launched websites touting their credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve held a steady stream of in-person and virtual town hall meetings, flying in from across California and around the country to lure in potential clients with everything from free food to face time with famed anti-PG&E activist Erin Brockovich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some attorneys have already begun the process of setting up shop in the small mountain towns of Quincy and Susanville, where many evacuees are stuck in limbo, staying in motels or with friends as they try to figure out what’s next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887772 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg\" alt=\"Three people sit at an outdoor table amid Styrofoam containers and soda cans.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandy Sullens (right) and her husband, Bob, who recently lost their home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville, at a barbecue for evacuees in Quincy, sponsored by the law firm Potter Handy, on Aug. 19, 2021. “We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These lawyers claim they have experience getting massive settlements out of PG&E for survivors of earlier fires. But many of those families, who turned to these same lawyers after losing their homes and loved ones, still sleep in cars and trailers and now say they see a replay of the broken promises they say have traumatized them a second time. They offer a warning for today’s fire victims: Buyer beware.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a free-for-fall,” said Victoria Gann, who lived in Paradise for 20 years before the Camp Fire destroyed the Sierra Nevada town in 2018. Three years later, she still lives in a trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gann is among the 70,000 survivors of wildfires sparked by PG&E equipment between 2015 and 2018 who were promised $13.5 billion in a settlement with the utility. Nearly two years later, most of those fire survivors have yet to receive a dime. “It’s only a disaster for the people it happened to. For everyone else, it seems to be a cash windfall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rush of attorneys into rural Northern California prompted Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister to \u003ca href=\"https://www.plumasnews.com/district-attorney-hollister-provides-information-regarding-legal-assistance-in-the-wake-of-the-dixie-fire/\">publish and distribute pamphlets\u003c/a> urging fire victims not to rush as they hire lawyers and contractors. It includes ethics guidance from the State Bar of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing we want is for people to be revictimized,” Hollister told KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom. “This is a big life-changing decision. So take a step back and make a good choice that’s going to protect you going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887782 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"One worker is on top of a crane next to a power line.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-2048x1384.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1920x1298.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several days after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, PG&E crews repair power lines destroyed by flames on Nov. 21, 2018. As of Sept. 2021, a large number of the 70,000 survivors of PG&E-caused fires between 2015 and 2018 had not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust, set up in 2020 to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers haven’t delivered, survivors say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The push by lawyers to sign up new survivors as clients has become something of a grim fire season tradition in California. Among the most prolific lawyers is Mikal Watts, a trial lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, who once told a community forum of fire victims in Sonoma County wine country that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-victims-lawyer-scrutinized-over-Wall-15241511.php\">wanted to “be your daddy.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On Wednesday, Watts could be found holding court at the Quincy Public Library, addressing those fleeing the Dixie Fire in person, with Brockovich and more fire victims joining on Zoom. “They have a ton of lawyers,” Watts said of PG&E, telling his audience the company was prepared to “crush you like a bug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people,” said Watts, who represented 16,000 survivors of PG&E fires during the company’s recent bankruptcy. “Now all of a sudden, you’ve got their attention and they’re quaking in their boots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s rising concern among survivors of past fires who say these lawyers do not deliver what they promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, Watts, along with other attorneys currently recruiting Dixie Fire survivors as clients, announced a settlement with PG&E that promised $13.5 billion in compensation for approximately 70,000 fire victims of the Camp Fire and other fires sparked by the company’s equipment between 2015 and 2018. But payments have been slow to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom revealed\u003c/a> that in its first year of operation, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust spent more than $50 million on overhead, with the trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charging $1,500 an hour (he now \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">claims to make $125,000 a month\u003c/a>). Since then, payments have sped up — with the trust saying it’s put approximately $740 million in the hands of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because half of the settlement came in the form of PG&E stock rather than cash, Trotter said it’s unlikely that fire survivors will get the amount that was promised. With the utility implicated in starting new fires every year, its stock price has languished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom asked Trotter in August when fire victims would be made whole, he said “they never will.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having to deal with the trust’s stock component is “unbearable,” he told us. When pressed, Trotter also said that in his decades as a trustee, he had never seen a victims’ settlement that included stock in the company that had harmed them.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A “horrible” fire settlement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In his Sept. 1 letter to fire victims who were promised money in the 2019 settlement, Trotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee_(9-1-21).pdf\">made an oblique reference to Watts\u003c/a>, saying some lawyers “eager to have their clients vote to approve PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy, set unrealistic timelines for payments to be made after the Trust’s creation,” before quoting a description of Watts from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-wildfire-victims-still-unpaid-as-new-california-fires-weigh-on-companys-stock-11628674201\">recent article in The Wall Street Journal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In his letter, Trotter said the trust was currently worth “approximately $2.5 billion less than promised.” (PG&E is set to fund the trust with a final $700 million cash installment after this fire season.) So far, the trust hasn’t sold any of its 478 million shares, which comprise a quarter of all PG&E stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom, he did not address the discrepancy directly but said Trotter was “an honorable man in whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.” The PG&E bankruptcy settlement “was the second-largest tort settlement in American history at that time,” he added, “one I am very proud to have worked [on] with fine lawyers across California to achieve on behalf of all our clients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts continues to boast of the scale of relief he said he brokered for fire survivors. A website from his group offering legal services declares that he “led the negotiations with PG&E to raise the settlement negotiation from $8.4 billion to $13.5 billion, the largest settlement in bankruptcy history,” though the trust has never been worth that much in the year since PG&E funded it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also declined to be interviewed and sent a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We empathize with the ongoing hardships many victims face, and remain steadfast in our commitment to make it safe for our customers and communities,” the statement read. “To deliver on this commitment, we are hardening our system, piloting new technologies, and taking other aggressive action to increase system safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887779 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt='A woman, yelling, holds up two big poster signs, one reading, \"Disaster Capitalism.\"' width=\"860\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">About a hundred survivors of the Camp Fire attended a rally in Paradise on May 22, 2021, to protest runaway overhead expenses incurred by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. Angela Casler, left, lost her father-in-law shortly after the Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geoff Reed, a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, didn’t mince words when asked about the deal that Watts helped craft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan is horrible,” he said. Reed and his two daughters, who were 4 and 3 at the time of the fire, have lived in a cramped apartment in Redding since they lost everything. His older girl has nightmares from witnessing dead bodies during their escape from Paradise as the fire burned all around them. His younger daughter constantly worries that another blaze will come for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said that, fresh off the experience of fleeing the fire, he signed up with Watts’s group after attending a town hall meeting featuring Brockovich, who gained fame for exposing PG&E’s water contamination cover-up in Hinkley, a desert town in San Bernardino County. Reed later learned that Brockovich was acting as a paid non-attorney spokesperson for the legal group headed up by Watts along with Doug Boxer, the son of former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hired Brockovich as a media mercenary and everybody fawns over her and flocks to her. I did,” Reed said. After he signed up, Reed says Brockovich stopped returning his calls. Jarred by the experience, he switched to a different legal group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When KQED interviewed Brockovich last year, she responded to allegations that she has been unresponsive: “I travel a lot. There could be moments where I’m backlogged or I didn’t get back to somebody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire survivors voted on their settlement last year, Brockovich \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Erin-Brockovich-Why-fire-victims-should-accept-15173053.php\">penned an opinion piece in The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> urging them to vote in support of the settlement, and was quoted in two PG&E press releases touting the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed called it “a legal con job. I know the outcome, as do thousands of us.” Reed said he’d received an initial $6,667 from the trust but was expecting far more: “I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Trotter, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust when shares were worth $9. That’s well below the $14.13 implied price they paid per share, a value derived by dividing the $6.75 billion in stock they were promised by the 478 million shares that PG&E actually gave them in the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers backed by Wall Street\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As word of Watts and Boxer’s forum at the Quincy library leaked out on social media, a member of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/573936233419008/posts/1017406632405297/\">Facebook group for 2015-2018 fire survivors\u003c/a> posted a screenshot with the caption “Ka-Ching,” drawing dozens of comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sharks are circling again,” commented Stephen Muser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No thx. We’re 3 years of waiting ourselves with the Campfire,” wrote Patricia Wenner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even suggested that past fire survivors attend the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us Camp Fire folks should join and ask questions about our claims—-,” commented Eva Shepherd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another commenter referenced the revelation last year that Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11813173/attorney-for-pge-fire-victims-funded-by-wall-street-firms-hes-negotiating-against\">accepted litigation funding from some Wall Street hedge funds\u003c/a> negotiating against the interests of fire survivors, including his own clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED was first to report on those ties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">some fire victims and ethics experts said it raised red flags\u003c/a>, adding that Watts should have disclosed them to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At a town hall meeting last year, \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/TEwCjhG53C8?t=6545\">this reporter asked Watts\u003c/a> if he had accepted funding from the hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. He indicated that he had not. But when KQED neared publication on a story about it, Watts changed course, admitting to accepting the litigation funding from Centerbridge and others, and ultimately submitting a written disclosure to clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom for this story, Watts said there was no conflict of interest because he does not have a single line of financing. “I have access to funds from multiple sources relating to different kinds of cases I litigate across the country,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that that particular line of credit \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">was worth $100 million\u003c/a>, but toward the end of Wednesday’s recruitment event, Watts quoted a much larger amount, which he later told KQED stems from multiple lines of credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mentioned I’ve got access to a lot of money that I borrow from New York banks — $400 million of access so I can spend whatever it takes,” Watts told the audience. “They made up this cockamamie deal about Mikal’s loans are backed up by people that own part of PG&E and this and that. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience of Dixie Fire survivors that he had refinanced the loans “to clean it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll come after me but don’t worry about it. It’s all white noise,” Watts concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital flyers for the event included a photo of Brockovich, who appeared on the Zoom but never spoke and dropped off the livestream midway through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887799 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg\" alt=\"People sit at a group of picnic tables on a green lawn beneath tall trees.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last month, attorney Bret Cook organized a barbecue in Quincy for those displaced by the Dixie Fire. Not far from the food, attorneys placed a stack of legal contracts for potential wildfire victims to review. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Free food brings in wildfire survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Watts is hardly the only attorney working to land recent fire victims as clients. KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom counted at least two dozen law firms posting ads and launching websites aimed at survivors of the Dixie Fire. They offer to represent them for damages ranging from property loss, emotional distress and displacement costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last month, one firm organized a barbeque meal of smoked tri-tip and butterhorn rolls. For days, a flyer advertising it made the rounds of social media: “FREE DINNER,” it read. In smaller type below, it specified: “For those displaced due to the Dixie Fire Come Hungry!’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ash fell from the sky, evacuee Sandy Sullens said she was there to learn more about what resources might be available to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens, who recently lost her home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same story over and over and over again. PG&E. We’re not sure,” Sullens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was organized by a local attorney, Bret Cook, who is partnering with Potter Handy, a law firm based in San Diego. The firm recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Disability-lawsuits-hit-S-F-Chinatown-and-state-16356130.php\">came under scrutiny\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Chinatown for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits against small businesses using the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, had floated the possibility of filing charges for criminal extortion against the firm, though no such charges were made in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potter, who represented 200 victims of the Camp Fire, did not return an email seeking comment on his San Francisco litigation. But in an interview in Quincy he admitted to the flaws of the wildfire deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy,” Potter said. “The clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged in the bankruptcy process and so that was frustrating, frankly. It’s rewarding to help them out but those clients still haven’t been fully paid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far from the food, Potter Handy attorneys had placed a stack of legal contracts for potential victims to review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract states the terms: a contingency that would leave the lawyers with 25% of any potential reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cook has been the Sullens’s lawyer for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just providing some food for people evacuated from the Dixie Fire. It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Cook, who also lost his home and law office in Greenville. “It was a way of putting a little smile on their face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they’re here to enlist clients, Cook demurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not doing that, necessarily. People are asking us. And we’re certainly not going to say no. As I call around, having an avenue to rebuild brings them a sense of hope,” Cook said. “Some are ready to move to that next step and I want to make ourselves available in that case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the correct name of the State Bar of California.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Boger of KUNR in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting from Quincy.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A 266-Mile Walk: Youth Climate Activists March From Paradise to San Francisco",
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"content": "\u003cp>Madeline Ruddell, 16, says she has long lived with the effects of climate change as a resident of Sonoma County, where wildfires have ripped across the landscape in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruddell, communications lead for the \u003ca href=\"https://hubs.sunrisemovement.org/sonoma-county\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sonoma County hub of the Sunrise Movement\u003c/a>, a national youth-led climate activist group, can’t remember a fall where she didn’t prep an evacuation bag, or take time off of school because of a big fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was eager for action because I’m watching fires consume my town and consume my county,” she said. “These fires … motivate me to work harder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is one of seven young activists marching 266 miles over 2 1/2 weeks in an effort to pressure California lawmakers to support the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilian Climate Corps\u003c/a> as part of a Green New Deal. She hopes work done by the corps could help reduce fire risk in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want ambitious progressive climate legislation passed by the end of summer 2021,” she said. “We only have one planet and my generation is gonna have to live on it for the rest of our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/smvmtgenonfire/status/1398350383924211713\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue the $10 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proposal\u003c/a> could create \u003ca href=\"https://collaborative.evergreenaction.com/policy-hub/building-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.5 million jobs\u003c/a>, putting people to work restoring wetlands, removing invasive species and addressing the threat of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Vianni Ledesma, 27, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovementsandiego.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sunrise Movement San Diego\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the march is about encouraging policy leaders to not take incremental action.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change is always “in the back of my mind when I’m planning for my future,” she said. “If I can eliminate that and eliminate it for everyone younger than me, that’ll be a beautiful thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@sunrisegenonfire/video/6967427883618831621\" data-video-id=\"6967427883618831621\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@sunrisegenonfire\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@sunrisegenonfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - sunrisegenonfire\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6967427795559467781\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, the seven marchers will stop for events in Yuba City, Sacramento, Davis, Napa, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Novato and Mill Valley, before arriving in San Francisco on June 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re planning to meet them at the Golden Gate Bridge, and march across down to Nancy Pelosi’s office,” said Ahlad Reddy with \u003ca href=\"https://sunrisebayarea.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sunrise Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to KQED, Joy Lee, spokeswoman for House Speaker Pelosi, called the young marchers “courageous” and an “inspiration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Congressional Democrats support the goals of the Civilian Climate Corps and look forward to working with the Administration to enact it in the Jobs Plan,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office has yet to comment on the youth walk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahlad, 28, is creating art for when the marchers arrive in the Bay Area. He says his team plans to create posters and a street mural representing what they think a Civilian Climate Corps could look like: jobs, restored ecosystems and healthy people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not asking people to only reduce their individual consumption in order to tackle climate change,” he said. “We’re asking the government to invest in people, because that’s the only way we’re gonna rebuild a better future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Follow the youth as they march across California:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/smvmtgenonfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@smvmtgenonfire\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram – \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sunrisegenonfire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TikTok – \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@sunrisegenonfire?lang=en\">@sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n",
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"title": "A 266-Mile Walk: Youth Climate Activists March From Paradise to San Francisco | KQED",
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"headline": "A 266-Mile Walk: Youth Climate Activists March From Paradise to San Francisco",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Madeline Ruddell, 16, says she has long lived with the effects of climate change as a resident of Sonoma County, where wildfires have ripped across the landscape in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruddell, communications lead for the \u003ca href=\"https://hubs.sunrisemovement.org/sonoma-county\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sonoma County hub of the Sunrise Movement\u003c/a>, a national youth-led climate activist group, can’t remember a fall where she didn’t prep an evacuation bag, or take time off of school because of a big fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was eager for action because I’m watching fires consume my town and consume my county,” she said. “These fires … motivate me to work harder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is one of seven young activists marching 266 miles over 2 1/2 weeks in an effort to pressure California lawmakers to support the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilian Climate Corps\u003c/a> as part of a Green New Deal. She hopes work done by the corps could help reduce fire risk in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want ambitious progressive climate legislation passed by the end of summer 2021,” she said. “We only have one planet and my generation is gonna have to live on it for the rest of our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>They argue the $10 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proposal\u003c/a> could create \u003ca href=\"https://collaborative.evergreenaction.com/policy-hub/building-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.5 million jobs\u003c/a>, putting people to work restoring wetlands, removing invasive species and addressing the threat of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Vianni Ledesma, 27, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovementsandiego.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sunrise Movement San Diego\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the march is about encouraging policy leaders to not take incremental action.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change is always “in the back of my mind when I’m planning for my future,” she said. “If I can eliminate that and eliminate it for everyone younger than me, that’ll be a beautiful thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@sunrisegenonfire/video/6967427883618831621\" data-video-id=\"6967427883618831621\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@sunrisegenonfire\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@sunrisegenonfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - sunrisegenonfire\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6967427795559467781\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, the seven marchers will stop for events in Yuba City, Sacramento, Davis, Napa, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Novato and Mill Valley, before arriving in San Francisco on June 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re planning to meet them at the Golden Gate Bridge, and march across down to Nancy Pelosi’s office,” said Ahlad Reddy with \u003ca href=\"https://sunrisebayarea.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sunrise Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to KQED, Joy Lee, spokeswoman for House Speaker Pelosi, called the young marchers “courageous” and an “inspiration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Congressional Democrats support the goals of the Civilian Climate Corps and look forward to working with the Administration to enact it in the Jobs Plan,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office has yet to comment on the youth walk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahlad, 28, is creating art for when the marchers arrive in the Bay Area. He says his team plans to create posters and a street mural representing what they think a Civilian Climate Corps could look like: jobs, restored ecosystems and healthy people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not asking people to only reduce their individual consumption in order to tackle climate change,” he said. “We’re asking the government to invest in people, because that’s the only way we’re gonna rebuild a better future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Follow the youth as they march across California:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/smvmtgenonfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@smvmtgenonfire\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram – \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sunrisegenonfire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TikTok – \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@sunrisegenonfire?lang=en\">@sunrisegenonfire\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Frustration and Tears as Camp Fire Survivors Protest PG&E Fire Trust",
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"content": "\u003cp>Teri Lindsay said she had no intention of speaking at a fire survivors’ rally that drew about a hundred people to the Skyway in Paradise Saturday. But as her daughter, Erika, stood by her side — tears streaming down the young girl’s face — Lindsay voiced her frustration at her family’s living conditions 2.5 years after the 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Every time she sees smoke, she cries. She can’t heal until we can go home,\" Lindsay said of Erika, who was 7-years-old when the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed their house, and thousands of others in Paradise. The fire was caused by equipment belonging to PG&E. They’ve been living in a trailer overlooking a branch of Lake Oroville ever since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the vast majority of the 70,000 fire victims of PG&E fires caused between 2015 and 2018, Lindsay has not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust. The Trust was set up last year to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement between fire survivors and PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1904px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875095\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1904\" height=\"1004\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg 1904w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-800x422.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-160x84.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1904px) 100vw, 1904px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teri Lindsay with daughter Erika, speaks at a rally in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021. They lost their home in the 2018 Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lindsay said she was motivated to join this weekend’s rally after reading a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a>, published earlier this month, which showed that the Fire Victim Trust racked up $51 million in overhead costs last year while distributing $7 million to fire victims during that period. The investigation was based on KQED’s analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between the Fire Victim Trust and fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of last year, fire victims had received less than 0.1% of the approximately $13.5 billion they were promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought that I was healing. Until that report came out, it changed my life and took me back to the day. I did not realize how well they're being paid and we’re living in squalor still,” Lindsay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Teri Lindsay, Camp Fire Survivor\"]'I did not realize how well they're being paid and we’re living in squalor still.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Trotter, the retired California Appeals Court justice who runs the Fire Victim Trust, has declined KQED’s repeated interview requests. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX-ViYnWvfo\">YouTube video\u003c/a> released last week, he acknowledged the fire victims' frustration, but also predicted more delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The trust didn't create the settlement,\" Trotter said. \"We're still walking uphill on this. We're not near the top yet. We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Trust, the pace of payments is picking up, with about $255.4 million distributed as of May 19. But, even then, only 565 of nearly 70,000 eligible families had their claims processed and paid, according to the data. In addition, those families are getting 30% of what they're owed while the Trust collects its own fees in full. Every dollar spent on overhead comes out of the fund for fire victims. One court filing, unearthed by KQED, showed Trotter charged the Fire Victim Trust $1,500 an hour. In the video, he said he had taken a pay cut — to a \"very adequate\" salary of $150,000 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875085\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire gather in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021 to protest runaway overhead expenses by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. \u003ccite>( Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 30% payment structure is partly a result of the terms of PG&E’s settlement with fire victims. The company has funded the Trust half with cash and half with PG&E stock. The arrangement, which has few precedents, made the fire victims significant shareholders in the utility and has complicated the task of administering the Trust, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='fire-victims-trust']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since KQED’s investigation, members of Congress from both parties have demanded action. In separate emails, Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat, and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873721/cascade-of-outrage-follows-investigation-into-pge-fire-victim-trust-expenses\">both called\u003c/a> for faster payouts. James Gallagher, a state Assemblyman who represents Paradise, says KQED's investigation \"raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers.\" In an interview on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883492/as-wildfire-survivors-await-settlement-fire-victim-trust-spends-51-million\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> this week, Gallagher said he and his colleagues were preparing a letter calling for more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire victims are making similar requests. \"Families are still living in cars, travel trailers and FEMA trailers,\" Kirk Trostle, a retired police chief who lost his home in Paradise in 2018, wrote to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20707787-kirk-trostle-letter-to-judge-montali-regarding-fvt-5-12-21-3\">Judge Dennis Montali\u003c/a> on May 12, citing KQED's reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Stating fire victims are languishing is an understatement,\" he added. \"I request you speed up the process to a sprint-like manner and direct the [Fire Victim Trust] to provide transparency and accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Saturday’s rally, Camp Fire victim Sasha Poe reiterated those calls, saying survivors have the right to know where all of those administrative dollars are going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Trust is set up for fire victims,\" said Poe, who joined the rally along with her husband and children. \"Yet so many months and years down the line, fire victims haven't seen much.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Teri Lindsay said she had no intention of speaking at a fire survivors’ rally that drew about a hundred people to the Skyway in Paradise Saturday. But as her daughter, Erika, stood by her side — tears streaming down the young girl’s face — Lindsay voiced her frustration at her family’s living conditions 2.5 years after the 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Every time she sees smoke, she cries. She can’t heal until we can go home,\" Lindsay said of Erika, who was 7-years-old when the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed their house, and thousands of others in Paradise. The fire was caused by equipment belonging to PG&E. They’ve been living in a trailer overlooking a branch of Lake Oroville ever since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the vast majority of the 70,000 fire victims of PG&E fires caused between 2015 and 2018, Lindsay has not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust. The Trust was set up last year to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement between fire survivors and PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1904px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875095\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1904\" height=\"1004\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg 1904w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-800x422.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-160x84.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1904px) 100vw, 1904px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teri Lindsay with daughter Erika, speaks at a rally in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021. They lost their home in the 2018 Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lindsay said she was motivated to join this weekend’s rally after reading a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a>, published earlier this month, which showed that the Fire Victim Trust racked up $51 million in overhead costs last year while distributing $7 million to fire victims during that period. The investigation was based on KQED’s analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between the Fire Victim Trust and fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of last year, fire victims had received less than 0.1% of the approximately $13.5 billion they were promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought that I was healing. Until that report came out, it changed my life and took me back to the day. I did not realize how well they're being paid and we’re living in squalor still,” Lindsay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Trotter, the retired California Appeals Court justice who runs the Fire Victim Trust, has declined KQED’s repeated interview requests. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX-ViYnWvfo\">YouTube video\u003c/a> released last week, he acknowledged the fire victims' frustration, but also predicted more delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The trust didn't create the settlement,\" Trotter said. \"We're still walking uphill on this. We're not near the top yet. We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Trust, the pace of payments is picking up, with about $255.4 million distributed as of May 19. But, even then, only 565 of nearly 70,000 eligible families had their claims processed and paid, according to the data. In addition, those families are getting 30% of what they're owed while the Trust collects its own fees in full. Every dollar spent on overhead comes out of the fund for fire victims. One court filing, unearthed by KQED, showed Trotter charged the Fire Victim Trust $1,500 an hour. In the video, he said he had taken a pay cut — to a \"very adequate\" salary of $150,000 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875085\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire gather in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021 to protest runaway overhead expenses by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. \u003ccite>( Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 30% payment structure is partly a result of the terms of PG&E’s settlement with fire victims. The company has funded the Trust half with cash and half with PG&E stock. The arrangement, which has few precedents, made the fire victims significant shareholders in the utility and has complicated the task of administering the Trust, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since KQED’s investigation, members of Congress from both parties have demanded action. In separate emails, Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat, and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873721/cascade-of-outrage-follows-investigation-into-pge-fire-victim-trust-expenses\">both called\u003c/a> for faster payouts. James Gallagher, a state Assemblyman who represents Paradise, says KQED's investigation \"raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers.\" In an interview on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883492/as-wildfire-survivors-await-settlement-fire-victim-trust-spends-51-million\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> this week, Gallagher said he and his colleagues were preparing a letter calling for more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire victims are making similar requests. \"Families are still living in cars, travel trailers and FEMA trailers,\" Kirk Trostle, a retired police chief who lost his home in Paradise in 2018, wrote to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20707787-kirk-trostle-letter-to-judge-montali-regarding-fvt-5-12-21-3\">Judge Dennis Montali\u003c/a> on May 12, citing KQED's reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Stating fire victims are languishing is an understatement,\" he added. \"I request you speed up the process to a sprint-like manner and direct the [Fire Victim Trust] to provide transparency and accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Saturday’s rally, Camp Fire victim Sasha Poe reiterated those calls, saying survivors have the right to know where all of those administrative dollars are going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Trust is set up for fire victims,\" said Poe, who joined the rally along with her husband and children. \"Yet so many months and years down the line, fire victims haven't seen much.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Survivors Stuck in Limbo as PG&E Fire Victim Trust Pays Out $50 Million in Fees",
"title": "Survivors Stuck in Limbo as PG&E Fire Victim Trust Pays Out $50 Million in Fees",
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"content": "\u003cp>Retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer Bill Cook lost his home in Paradise during the Camp Fire, the 2018 blaze \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11824596/pge-pleads-guilty-to-84-deaths-in-wildfire-that-destroyed-paradise\">sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. equipment\u003c/a> that ranks as the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than two years later, Cook, 70, and his family are barely scraping by. Like Cook, the vast majority of the 67,000 PG&E fire victims included in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11791785/pge-axes-requirement-for-newsom-to-ok-13-5-billion-settlement-with-wildfire-victims\">December 2019 settlement\u003c/a> with the company have yet to see a dime. That's as lawyers and administrators have been paid millions, with the money coming directly from funds set aside to help survivors like Cook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Bill Cook, Camp Fire survivor\"]'They're paying themselves very well... It’s like everything is a black hole and nothing moves, and there’s nothing you can do about it.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED investigation found that while they waited, a special Fire Victim Trust in charge of compensating survivors racked up $51 million in overhead costs last year. During that same period, the Trust disbursed just $7 million to fire victims – less than 0.1% of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/07/785775074/pg-e-announces-13-5-billion-settlement-of-claims-linked-to-california-wildfires\">$13.5 billion promised\u003c/a> – according to an analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between staff of the Fire Victim Trust and the victims themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During its first year of operation, the Trust spent nearly 90% of its funds on overhead, while fire victims waited for help, KQED found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Cook lives 100 miles away from Paradise in Davis, where he shares a three-bedroom rental with his 68-year-old wife, Leslie, their four adult children and three grandchildren. He’s eaten into his savings to pay rent, which costs triple what he paid for his mortgage in Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You’re stuck,\" Cook said. \"You can’t go anywhere. You can’t get anything. You can’t move forward.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11872334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1436\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-800x598.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-1536x1149.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill Cook sits at a table in the three-bedroom rental home in Davis where he now lives with his wife, Leslie, their four adult children including Evan (left) and their three grandchildren. The family used paper dividers in the den to create another bedroom. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Bill Cook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Representatives for the Fire Victim Trust declined to be interviewed. An \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698865-m034140771109-rep-2904080931?responsive=1&title=1\">annual report\u003c/a> filed in federal bankruptcy court last week by its trustee, John Trotter, reported $38.7 million spent on financial professionals, claims administrators, consultants and other operating expenses between July 1 and the end of 2020. Documents reviewed by KQED show the Trust took in an additional $12.7 million in funding provided by PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698873-m034139804869-rep-1404090738?responsive=1&title=1\">last Spring\u003c/a> – cash spent to set up the claims process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trotter, a retired California Appeals Court judge, charges $1,500 an hour, according to another court \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698873-m034139804869-rep-1404090738?responsive=1&title=1\">filing\u003c/a>, while claims administrator Cathy Yanni bills $1,250 an hour. Both work at Irvine-based JAMS, previously known as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc, one of the nation's largest private dispute resolution provider firms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're paying themselves very well. They have these enormous legal costs and there's not much to show for it,\" Cook said. \"It’s like everything is a black hole and nothing moves, and there’s nothing you can do about it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11872556\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1460\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpg 1149w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-800x1017.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-1020x1296.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-160x203.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, Yanni told KQED she expected it would take two years to pay all victims with claims. Some fire survivors fear it will take much longer. The longer it takes, the higher the cost of overhead will be. Trotter wrote in April, in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20699521-letter_from_the_trustee_4-12-21?responsive=1&title=1\">letter addressed to fire victims\u003c/a>, that past claims processes he’s overseen ended up costing between 2% and 4% of overall funds, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My goal is to keep the cost of administration below or as close to 1% as possible,\" Trotter wrote of the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E announced its plans to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2019, 10 weeks after its equipment sparked the Camp Fire, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11824596/pge-pleads-guilty-to-84-deaths-in-wildfire-that-destroyed-paradise\">killed at least 85 people\u003c/a> and destroyed almost 19,000 homes and businesses in and around Paradise. The settlement with tens of thousands of fire victims resulted from those proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11833283 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/PGE-Subcontractors-Inspect-1038x576.jpg']There were concerns about overhead expenses as early as last Spring, when U.S. bankruptcy judge Dennis Montali mulled whether to approve startup costs for the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Tell me why I shouldn't think this is just a risk to have a very large amount of money be paid out without any kind of control over what happens,\" Montali said at a hearing last April. Attorneys representing fire victims pleaded with Montali to approve Trotter’s appointment. Minutes later, Montali relented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montali was encouraged to greenlight the overhead by some of the fire victims’ own attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gerald Singleton, an attorney who represents 6,500 fire victims and sits on the Fire Victim Trust Oversight Committee’s budget subcommittee, said he’s not concerned about the Trust’s overhead. \"When you’re talking about what they have to do, I certainly think the money is reasonable,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The amounts they make are phenomenal. They're just incredible amounts,\" Singleton said. \"But that's what people at their level make.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singleton agreed that the payments to victims have trickled out slowly, but he said the pace is picking up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Scott McNutt, a former California State Bar governor and veteran bankruptcy attorney told KQED the amounts are excessive for the meager results obtained so far and that the Trust \"has been completely non-transparent about what it’s doing for this money.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the hallmarks of the bankruptcy process is transparency,\" he said. \"One of the hallmarks of trust administration is transparency. That’s why they’re called trusts.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process has been complicated by the terms of PG&E’s settlement with fire victims, which was funded half with cash and half with PG&E stock. The complicated arrangement, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11805766/pge-victims-weigh-rare-stock-funded-trust-amid-market-turmoil\">which has few precedents\u003c/a>, made the fire victims major shareholders in the utility and made administering the Trust far more complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Fire Victims Trust told KQED the Trust had increased its payments to families this year and had now put $195.2 million into the hands of those who lost loved ones, homes and businesses lost to fires caused by PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That figure still comes to less than 2% of the amount promised to families when they voted on the settlement last year. The spokesman also said the Trust had begun to make partial payments to a small percentage of families. Those partial payments, which average approximately $13,000, have gone to 9,532 of the 67,170 eligible families, a spokesperson for the Trust said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only 334 families have had their claims fully processed. Those families are \u003ca href=\"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210312005517/en/Fire-Victim-Trust-to-Begin-Making-First-Pro-Rata-Payments-to-Fire-Victims\">getting 30% of what they’re owed\u003c/a>, the Trust said, while the Trust collects its own fees in full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872435\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11872435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pre-fire-Exterior-cook.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pre-fire-Exterior-cook.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pre-fire-Exterior-cook-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior of Bill Cook's family home in Paradise before it was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018. Two and a half years later, Cook and his family are barely scraping by, and haven't seen a dime from the Fire Victim Trust. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Bill Cook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Who's Getting Paid\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Trust’s annual report is short on details about who got paid, and how much. It reports operating expenses solely by category – $16.3 million “claims processor fees and expenses,” for example, and $6.8 million for “insurance, data and other expenses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust declined to provide KQED with a list of companies it is working with and what it has paid them. But KQED’s review of documents identified more than half a dozen law firms and financial institutions that have profited off the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, the Trust told fire victims in an April letter that it had retained Richmond, Virginia-based BrownGreer for claims processing. John Trotter, the trustee, wrote that the firm, which specializes in resolving complex legal settlements, had 300 staff members \"committed to this project, including attorneys, project managers, analysts, claim reviewers, and software developers,\" and was adding staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust also tallied $6.2 million in legal fees during the period. Again, the Trust refused to provide an accounting of this work. Last year, Trotter retained the firm \u003ca href=\"https://restructuring.primeclerk.com/pge/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NDAxNjA3&id2=0\">Brown Rudnick\u003c/a> to represent him in bankruptcy court, and \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M344/K182/344182620.PDF\">Morgan Lewis\u003c/a> to represent him at the CPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='pge']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Financial advisers have been paid $3 million. The Trust has retained the services of \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee.pdf\">Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey\u003c/a> to monetize its vast holdings of PG&E stock, according to a January letter Trotter wrote to fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust also listed $303,706 in unspecified consulting fees. The Trust’s public relations firm, Zumado, would not elaborate on what those fees entailed. Zumado also refused to comment on how much it has been paid by the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The accounting firm BDO \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Fire_Victim_Trust_Annual_Report_2020.pdf\">prepared\u003c/a> the Trust’s annual report. Again, no one was willing to share any records about how much they were paid for that work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED contacted all the firms, seeking confirmation that they received money from the Trust, and asking how much. BDO was the only one to respond but declined to answer questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Falling Short by Design?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As PG&E approached the end of its bankruptcy last year, Singleton and several other mass tort attorneys were busy persuading their fire victim clients to vote in favor of the complicated part-stock settlement. Some fire survivors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801571/fire-victims-ask-judge-to-reconsider-13-5-billion-pge-settlement\">wrote to Judge Montali\u003c/a> expressing outrage at the idea of accepting stock in the company that harmed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the stock component, the value of the Trust fluctuates every day. So far, the Fire Victim Trust’s financial advisers haven’t liquidated any shares as the stock price has languished. Today, the Trust holds almost a quarter of all PG&E shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camp Fire survivor Mary Wallace was among a group of fire survivors who fought against the stock component last year. At the time, she argued in court it would slow down the process of compensating victims. To her, those concerns have come home to roost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re still living in squalor,\" said Wallace, who lives in a shed with no insulation on her property in Paradise. \"We still don’t have anything. It’s beyond belief. I am thoroughly disappointed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wallace said she grew so disillusioned with the process, she abandoned her claim altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is a collaborative project of NPR’s California Newsroom, including Northern California Public Media, CapRadio and KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer Bill Cook lost his home in Paradise during the Camp Fire, the 2018 blaze \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11824596/pge-pleads-guilty-to-84-deaths-in-wildfire-that-destroyed-paradise\">sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. equipment\u003c/a> that ranks as the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than two years later, Cook, 70, and his family are barely scraping by. Like Cook, the vast majority of the 67,000 PG&E fire victims included in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11791785/pge-axes-requirement-for-newsom-to-ok-13-5-billion-settlement-with-wildfire-victims\">December 2019 settlement\u003c/a> with the company have yet to see a dime. That's as lawyers and administrators have been paid millions, with the money coming directly from funds set aside to help survivors like Cook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED investigation found that while they waited, a special Fire Victim Trust in charge of compensating survivors racked up $51 million in overhead costs last year. During that same period, the Trust disbursed just $7 million to fire victims – less than 0.1% of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/07/785775074/pg-e-announces-13-5-billion-settlement-of-claims-linked-to-california-wildfires\">$13.5 billion promised\u003c/a> – according to an analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between staff of the Fire Victim Trust and the victims themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During its first year of operation, the Trust spent nearly 90% of its funds on overhead, while fire victims waited for help, KQED found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Cook lives 100 miles away from Paradise in Davis, where he shares a three-bedroom rental with his 68-year-old wife, Leslie, their four adult children and three grandchildren. He’s eaten into his savings to pay rent, which costs triple what he paid for his mortgage in Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You’re stuck,\" Cook said. \"You can’t go anywhere. You can’t get anything. You can’t move forward.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11872334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1436\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-800x598.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Cook-Living-Room-Davis-1536x1149.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill Cook sits at a table in the three-bedroom rental home in Davis where he now lives with his wife, Leslie, their four adult children including Evan (left) and their three grandchildren. The family used paper dividers in the den to create another bedroom. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Bill Cook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Representatives for the Fire Victim Trust declined to be interviewed. An \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698865-m034140771109-rep-2904080931?responsive=1&title=1\">annual report\u003c/a> filed in federal bankruptcy court last week by its trustee, John Trotter, reported $38.7 million spent on financial professionals, claims administrators, consultants and other operating expenses between July 1 and the end of 2020. Documents reviewed by KQED show the Trust took in an additional $12.7 million in funding provided by PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698873-m034139804869-rep-1404090738?responsive=1&title=1\">last Spring\u003c/a> – cash spent to set up the claims process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trotter, a retired California Appeals Court judge, charges $1,500 an hour, according to another court \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698873-m034139804869-rep-1404090738?responsive=1&title=1\">filing\u003c/a>, while claims administrator Cathy Yanni bills $1,250 an hour. Both work at Irvine-based JAMS, previously known as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc, one of the nation's largest private dispute resolution provider firms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're paying themselves very well. They have these enormous legal costs and there's not much to show for it,\" Cook said. \"It’s like everything is a black hole and nothing moves, and there’s nothing you can do about it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11872556\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1460\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpg 1149w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-800x1017.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-1020x1296.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-160x203.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, Yanni told KQED she expected it would take two years to pay all victims with claims. Some fire survivors fear it will take much longer. The longer it takes, the higher the cost of overhead will be. Trotter wrote in April, in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20699521-letter_from_the_trustee_4-12-21?responsive=1&title=1\">letter addressed to fire victims\u003c/a>, that past claims processes he’s overseen ended up costing between 2% and 4% of overall funds, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My goal is to keep the cost of administration below or as close to 1% as possible,\" Trotter wrote of the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E announced its plans to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2019, 10 weeks after its equipment sparked the Camp Fire, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11824596/pge-pleads-guilty-to-84-deaths-in-wildfire-that-destroyed-paradise\">killed at least 85 people\u003c/a> and destroyed almost 19,000 homes and businesses in and around Paradise. The settlement with tens of thousands of fire victims resulted from those proceedings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There were concerns about overhead expenses as early as last Spring, when U.S. bankruptcy judge Dennis Montali mulled whether to approve startup costs for the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Tell me why I shouldn't think this is just a risk to have a very large amount of money be paid out without any kind of control over what happens,\" Montali said at a hearing last April. Attorneys representing fire victims pleaded with Montali to approve Trotter’s appointment. Minutes later, Montali relented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montali was encouraged to greenlight the overhead by some of the fire victims’ own attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gerald Singleton, an attorney who represents 6,500 fire victims and sits on the Fire Victim Trust Oversight Committee’s budget subcommittee, said he’s not concerned about the Trust’s overhead. \"When you’re talking about what they have to do, I certainly think the money is reasonable,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The amounts they make are phenomenal. They're just incredible amounts,\" Singleton said. \"But that's what people at their level make.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singleton agreed that the payments to victims have trickled out slowly, but he said the pace is picking up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Scott McNutt, a former California State Bar governor and veteran bankruptcy attorney told KQED the amounts are excessive for the meager results obtained so far and that the Trust \"has been completely non-transparent about what it’s doing for this money.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the hallmarks of the bankruptcy process is transparency,\" he said. \"One of the hallmarks of trust administration is transparency. That’s why they’re called trusts.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process has been complicated by the terms of PG&E’s settlement with fire victims, which was funded half with cash and half with PG&E stock. The complicated arrangement, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11805766/pge-victims-weigh-rare-stock-funded-trust-amid-market-turmoil\">which has few precedents\u003c/a>, made the fire victims major shareholders in the utility and made administering the Trust far more complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Fire Victims Trust told KQED the Trust had increased its payments to families this year and had now put $195.2 million into the hands of those who lost loved ones, homes and businesses lost to fires caused by PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That figure still comes to less than 2% of the amount promised to families when they voted on the settlement last year. The spokesman also said the Trust had begun to make partial payments to a small percentage of families. Those partial payments, which average approximately $13,000, have gone to 9,532 of the 67,170 eligible families, a spokesperson for the Trust said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only 334 families have had their claims fully processed. Those families are \u003ca href=\"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210312005517/en/Fire-Victim-Trust-to-Begin-Making-First-Pro-Rata-Payments-to-Fire-Victims\">getting 30% of what they’re owed\u003c/a>, the Trust said, while the Trust collects its own fees in full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872435\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11872435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pre-fire-Exterior-cook.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pre-fire-Exterior-cook.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pre-fire-Exterior-cook-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior of Bill Cook's family home in Paradise before it was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018. Two and a half years later, Cook and his family are barely scraping by, and haven't seen a dime from the Fire Victim Trust. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Bill Cook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Who's Getting Paid\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Trust’s annual report is short on details about who got paid, and how much. It reports operating expenses solely by category – $16.3 million “claims processor fees and expenses,” for example, and $6.8 million for “insurance, data and other expenses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust declined to provide KQED with a list of companies it is working with and what it has paid them. But KQED’s review of documents identified more than half a dozen law firms and financial institutions that have profited off the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, the Trust told fire victims in an April letter that it had retained Richmond, Virginia-based BrownGreer for claims processing. John Trotter, the trustee, wrote that the firm, which specializes in resolving complex legal settlements, had 300 staff members \"committed to this project, including attorneys, project managers, analysts, claim reviewers, and software developers,\" and was adding staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust also tallied $6.2 million in legal fees during the period. Again, the Trust refused to provide an accounting of this work. Last year, Trotter retained the firm \u003ca href=\"https://restructuring.primeclerk.com/pge/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NDAxNjA3&id2=0\">Brown Rudnick\u003c/a> to represent him in bankruptcy court, and \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M344/K182/344182620.PDF\">Morgan Lewis\u003c/a> to represent him at the CPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Financial advisers have been paid $3 million. The Trust has retained the services of \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee.pdf\">Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey\u003c/a> to monetize its vast holdings of PG&E stock, according to a January letter Trotter wrote to fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust also listed $303,706 in unspecified consulting fees. The Trust’s public relations firm, Zumado, would not elaborate on what those fees entailed. Zumado also refused to comment on how much it has been paid by the Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The accounting firm BDO \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Fire_Victim_Trust_Annual_Report_2020.pdf\">prepared\u003c/a> the Trust’s annual report. Again, no one was willing to share any records about how much they were paid for that work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED contacted all the firms, seeking confirmation that they received money from the Trust, and asking how much. BDO was the only one to respond but declined to answer questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Falling Short by Design?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As PG&E approached the end of its bankruptcy last year, Singleton and several other mass tort attorneys were busy persuading their fire victim clients to vote in favor of the complicated part-stock settlement. Some fire survivors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801571/fire-victims-ask-judge-to-reconsider-13-5-billion-pge-settlement\">wrote to Judge Montali\u003c/a> expressing outrage at the idea of accepting stock in the company that harmed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the stock component, the value of the Trust fluctuates every day. So far, the Fire Victim Trust’s financial advisers haven’t liquidated any shares as the stock price has languished. Today, the Trust holds almost a quarter of all PG&E shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camp Fire survivor Mary Wallace was among a group of fire survivors who fought against the stock component last year. At the time, she argued in court it would slow down the process of compensating victims. To her, those concerns have come home to roost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re still living in squalor,\" said Wallace, who lives in a shed with no insulation on her property in Paradise. \"We still don’t have anything. It’s beyond belief. I am thoroughly disappointed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wallace said she grew so disillusioned with the process, she abandoned her claim altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is a collaborative project of NPR’s California Newsroom, including Northern California Public Media, CapRadio and KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "As PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Deaths in Camp Fire, Report Says It Put Profits Over Safety",
"title": "As PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Deaths in Camp Fire, Report Says It Put Profits Over Safety",
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"content": "\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric confessed Tuesday to killing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11710884/list-of-those-who-died-in-butte-county-paradise-camp-fire\">84 people\u003c/a> by causing the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in modern California history during a dramatic court hearing Tuesday, punctuated by a promise from the company's outgoing CEO that the utility will never again put profits ahead of safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E CEO Bill Johnson appeared in a Butte County courthouse to plead guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the November 2018 Camp Fire, which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747485/cal-fires-official-finding-pge-equipment-touched-off-camp-fire/\">ignited by the utility's crumbling electrical grid\u003c/a>. The blaze nearly wiped out the entire town of Paradise and drove PG&E into bankruptcy early last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides the mass deaths it caused, PG&E also pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/b9a1b0ea20a2f76307cafcc6c64000bc\">agreement\u003c/a> with District Attorney Mike Ramsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems read the names of each victim, Johnson acknowledged the horrific toll of PG&E's history of neglect while solemnly staring at photos of each dead person shown on a screen set up in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No words from me could ever reduce the magnitude of that devastation or do anything to repair the damage,\" Johnson said in a statement afterward. “I hope the actions taken today bring some measure of peace.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11710884 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/GettyImages-1070764466-e1544221282927-1038x576.jpg']He also assured the judge that PG&E took responsibility for all the unnecessary devastation that it caused “with eyes wide open to what happened and to what must never happen again.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson was hired about six months after the Camp Fire and plans to step down as CEO on June 30, when PG&E hopes to have won court approval for its plan to get out of its second bankruptcy case in 16 years. A mostly new board of directors recently announced by PG&E as part of a deal with California will hire his replacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday's extraordinary court hearing was set up to publicly shame PG&E for past practices that emphasized boosting profits to keep investors happy instead upgrading and maintaining its crumbling equipment to protect the 16 million people who rely on the utility for power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the fire's victims were elderly or disabled. They took desperate measures to save themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dennis Clark, Jr., 49, was found in the passenger seat of a car his 72-year-old mother was driving. Their car was in a line of three other vehicles with bodies of victims in each one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sara Magnuson, 75, was found inside her home, wrapped in a wet carpet in the bathtub in a futile attempt to save herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 20 family members of the people killed are expected to make statements in court Wednesday. Deems is expected to formally sentence PG&E either Thursday or Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors said they discussed charging utility individuals but decided they lacked the evidence to do so, which means no one will go to prison for the crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mike Ramsey, Butte County district attorney\"]'We show that [PG&E] was absolutely criminally responsible for the death and destruction visited upon our friends, family and neighbors here in Butte County.'[/pullquote]PG&E has agreed to pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million in addition to $500,000 for the cost of the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proceeding unfolded as PG&E approaches the end of a complicated bankruptcy case that it used to work out $25.5 billion in settlements to pay for the damages from the fire and others that torched wide swaths of Northern California and killed dozens of others in 2017. The bankruptcy deals include $13.5 billion earmarked for wildfire victims. A federal judge is expected to issue a final decision on PG&E’s plan by June 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>PG&E Put Profits Over Safety, Grand Jury Report Says\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Butte County's district attorney also released a summary of a scathing grand jury report Tuesday, finding that PG&E officials repeatedly ignored warnings about its failing power lines, performed inadequate inspections to focus on profits and refused to learn from past catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We show that [PG&E] was absolutely criminally responsible for the death and destruction visited upon our friends, family and neighbors here in Butte County,\" District Attorney Mike Ramsey said. \"We uncovered a corporate culture that started sometime back, but specifically in the mid '90s, to squeeze every dime they could with creative risk management mumbo jumbo, and to find creative financing to get as much profit as they could. They basically put profit above safety.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E exhibited “a callous disregard” for the life and property of residents before its equipment ignited the Camp Fire, the 92-page summary said. “Through a corporate culture of elevating profits over safety by taking shortcuts in the safe delivery of an extremely dangerous product – high-voltage electricity – PG&E certainly lead otherwise good people down an ultimately destructive path.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report paints a damning picture of PG&E as an entity that regularly shirked accountability and was shameless in its unwillingness to learn from past failures. The San Francisco-based utility was convicted in 2016 of multiple federal felonies after one of its gas transmission lines exploded in San Bruno in 2010, killing eight people. That tragedy resulted in a criminal conviction that put PG&E on a five-year probation that ends in January 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators determined the cause of the Camp Fire was a suspension “C” hook on a transmission tower that had worn through after decades hanging in the Feather River Canyon. The report notes PG&E would have known had it bothered to inventory the hook, maintain thorough inspections with qualified inspectors or even listened to its own employees. But its line inspections were designed not to detect flaws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11759835\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11759835\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679.jpg\" alt=\"PG&E transmission line towers on the Caribou-Palermo line are seen adjacent to the Feather River in Butte County, near the spot where the Camp Fire began. In February, PG&E said it's "probable" that its equipment caused the blaze, the deadliest and most destructive in modern California history. Cal Fire investigators later confirmed that to be the case.\" width=\"1020\" height=\"679\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transmission towers on PG&E's Caribou-Palermo line are seen adjacent to the Feather River in Butte County, near the spot where the Camp Fire began. In February, PG&E said it's \"probable\" that its equipment caused the blaze, the deadliest and most destructive in modern California history. Cal Fire investigators later confirmed that to be the case. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP-Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>PG&E acquired the transmission line from the Great Western Power Company in 1930 and, despite realizing it was likely at the end of its life, did minimal maintenance and repair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In essence, in 1930 PG&E blindly bought a used car. PG&E drove that car until it fell apart,\" according to the report. “A reasonable person has the common sense to know that service and maintenance become more important as the car ages and the miles accumulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Catastrophic failure ... was not an ‘if' question; it was a ‘when’ question.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, the report notes, a PG&E engineer requested $800,000 to replace a section of the Caribou-Palermo line, writing of “multiple conductor failures” because of aging equipment. The engineer noted “the probability of that failure is imminent due to the age of both the towers and the conductor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Utility officials allocated $200,000 to the project, but the work was scrapped in 2009 against the project manager’s concerns that without upgrades, “we could be picking up these towers out of the Feather River Canyon when they fall over.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"pge\" label=\"related coverage\"]In December 2012, a transmission tower on the line collapsed, dragging down four other towers and damaging a fifth. A PG&E engineer recommended inspecting the other towers, which did not happen “consistent with PG&E’s practice of not following up on clearly established potential safety and/or maintenance issues,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors found the inspections and patrols of the Caribou-Palermo line were hastily done and conducted by inexperienced, untrained and unqualified “troublemen.” The company also routinely moved money for repairs to its capital budget so it could pass the costs to consumers rather than shareholders, the grand jury found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite being on probation that meant the company must not commit another crime, investigators said its negligence resulted in multiple wildfires in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although it acknowledges it still has a lot of catching up to do after years of neglecting its equipment, PG&E maintains its electrical grid is far less dangerous than before the Camp Fire. Under a judge's orders, it says it has spent more than $1 billion trimming 1.3 million trees near its power lines and conducting exhaustive inspections for potential trouble spots. PG&E has budgeted another $1.3 billion this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are intently focused on reducing the risk of wildfire in our communities,” PG&E CEO Bill Johnson pledged after pleading guilty on behalf of the utility Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson also indicated in court that the grand jury findings wouldn't say anything PG&E doesn't already know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our equipment started that fire,” Johnson ruefully acknowledged. ”PG&E will never forget the Camp Fire and all that it took away from the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite PG&E’s pledge, critics fear more danger looms during an upcoming wildfire season after an unusually dry winter in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED's Lily Jamali.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "'Our equipment started that fire,' said PG&E CEO Bill Johnson, who apologized directly to families of Camp Fire victims in a hearing on Tuesday.",
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"title": "As PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Deaths in Camp Fire, Report Says It Put Profits Over Safety | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric confessed Tuesday to killing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11710884/list-of-those-who-died-in-butte-county-paradise-camp-fire\">84 people\u003c/a> by causing the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in modern California history during a dramatic court hearing Tuesday, punctuated by a promise from the company's outgoing CEO that the utility will never again put profits ahead of safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E CEO Bill Johnson appeared in a Butte County courthouse to plead guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the November 2018 Camp Fire, which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747485/cal-fires-official-finding-pge-equipment-touched-off-camp-fire/\">ignited by the utility's crumbling electrical grid\u003c/a>. The blaze nearly wiped out the entire town of Paradise and drove PG&E into bankruptcy early last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides the mass deaths it caused, PG&E also pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/b9a1b0ea20a2f76307cafcc6c64000bc\">agreement\u003c/a> with District Attorney Mike Ramsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems read the names of each victim, Johnson acknowledged the horrific toll of PG&E's history of neglect while solemnly staring at photos of each dead person shown on a screen set up in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No words from me could ever reduce the magnitude of that devastation or do anything to repair the damage,\" Johnson said in a statement afterward. “I hope the actions taken today bring some measure of peace.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He also assured the judge that PG&E took responsibility for all the unnecessary devastation that it caused “with eyes wide open to what happened and to what must never happen again.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson was hired about six months after the Camp Fire and plans to step down as CEO on June 30, when PG&E hopes to have won court approval for its plan to get out of its second bankruptcy case in 16 years. A mostly new board of directors recently announced by PG&E as part of a deal with California will hire his replacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday's extraordinary court hearing was set up to publicly shame PG&E for past practices that emphasized boosting profits to keep investors happy instead upgrading and maintaining its crumbling equipment to protect the 16 million people who rely on the utility for power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the fire's victims were elderly or disabled. They took desperate measures to save themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dennis Clark, Jr., 49, was found in the passenger seat of a car his 72-year-old mother was driving. Their car was in a line of three other vehicles with bodies of victims in each one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sara Magnuson, 75, was found inside her home, wrapped in a wet carpet in the bathtub in a futile attempt to save herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 20 family members of the people killed are expected to make statements in court Wednesday. Deems is expected to formally sentence PG&E either Thursday or Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors said they discussed charging utility individuals but decided they lacked the evidence to do so, which means no one will go to prison for the crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'We show that [PG&E] was absolutely criminally responsible for the death and destruction visited upon our friends, family and neighbors here in Butte County.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>PG&E has agreed to pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million in addition to $500,000 for the cost of the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proceeding unfolded as PG&E approaches the end of a complicated bankruptcy case that it used to work out $25.5 billion in settlements to pay for the damages from the fire and others that torched wide swaths of Northern California and killed dozens of others in 2017. The bankruptcy deals include $13.5 billion earmarked for wildfire victims. A federal judge is expected to issue a final decision on PG&E’s plan by June 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>PG&E Put Profits Over Safety, Grand Jury Report Says\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Butte County's district attorney also released a summary of a scathing grand jury report Tuesday, finding that PG&E officials repeatedly ignored warnings about its failing power lines, performed inadequate inspections to focus on profits and refused to learn from past catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We show that [PG&E] was absolutely criminally responsible for the death and destruction visited upon our friends, family and neighbors here in Butte County,\" District Attorney Mike Ramsey said. \"We uncovered a corporate culture that started sometime back, but specifically in the mid '90s, to squeeze every dime they could with creative risk management mumbo jumbo, and to find creative financing to get as much profit as they could. They basically put profit above safety.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E exhibited “a callous disregard” for the life and property of residents before its equipment ignited the Camp Fire, the 92-page summary said. “Through a corporate culture of elevating profits over safety by taking shortcuts in the safe delivery of an extremely dangerous product – high-voltage electricity – PG&E certainly lead otherwise good people down an ultimately destructive path.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report paints a damning picture of PG&E as an entity that regularly shirked accountability and was shameless in its unwillingness to learn from past failures. The San Francisco-based utility was convicted in 2016 of multiple federal felonies after one of its gas transmission lines exploded in San Bruno in 2010, killing eight people. That tragedy resulted in a criminal conviction that put PG&E on a five-year probation that ends in January 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators determined the cause of the Camp Fire was a suspension “C” hook on a transmission tower that had worn through after decades hanging in the Feather River Canyon. The report notes PG&E would have known had it bothered to inventory the hook, maintain thorough inspections with qualified inspectors or even listened to its own employees. But its line inspections were designed not to detect flaws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11759835\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11759835\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679.jpg\" alt=\"PG&E transmission line towers on the Caribou-Palermo line are seen adjacent to the Feather River in Butte County, near the spot where the Camp Fire began. In February, PG&E said it's "probable" that its equipment caused the blaze, the deadliest and most destructive in modern California history. Cal Fire investigators later confirmed that to be the case.\" width=\"1020\" height=\"679\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/07/PGE-Transmission-Line-Camp-Fire-1-1020x679-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transmission towers on PG&E's Caribou-Palermo line are seen adjacent to the Feather River in Butte County, near the spot where the Camp Fire began. In February, PG&E said it's \"probable\" that its equipment caused the blaze, the deadliest and most destructive in modern California history. Cal Fire investigators later confirmed that to be the case. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP-Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>PG&E acquired the transmission line from the Great Western Power Company in 1930 and, despite realizing it was likely at the end of its life, did minimal maintenance and repair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In essence, in 1930 PG&E blindly bought a used car. PG&E drove that car until it fell apart,\" according to the report. “A reasonable person has the common sense to know that service and maintenance become more important as the car ages and the miles accumulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Catastrophic failure ... was not an ‘if' question; it was a ‘when’ question.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, the report notes, a PG&E engineer requested $800,000 to replace a section of the Caribou-Palermo line, writing of “multiple conductor failures” because of aging equipment. The engineer noted “the probability of that failure is imminent due to the age of both the towers and the conductor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Utility officials allocated $200,000 to the project, but the work was scrapped in 2009 against the project manager’s concerns that without upgrades, “we could be picking up these towers out of the Feather River Canyon when they fall over.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In December 2012, a transmission tower on the line collapsed, dragging down four other towers and damaging a fifth. A PG&E engineer recommended inspecting the other towers, which did not happen “consistent with PG&E’s practice of not following up on clearly established potential safety and/or maintenance issues,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors found the inspections and patrols of the Caribou-Palermo line were hastily done and conducted by inexperienced, untrained and unqualified “troublemen.” The company also routinely moved money for repairs to its capital budget so it could pass the costs to consumers rather than shareholders, the grand jury found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite being on probation that meant the company must not commit another crime, investigators said its negligence resulted in multiple wildfires in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although it acknowledges it still has a lot of catching up to do after years of neglecting its equipment, PG&E maintains its electrical grid is far less dangerous than before the Camp Fire. Under a judge's orders, it says it has spent more than $1 billion trimming 1.3 million trees near its power lines and conducting exhaustive inspections for potential trouble spots. PG&E has budgeted another $1.3 billion this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are intently focused on reducing the risk of wildfire in our communities,” PG&E CEO Bill Johnson pledged after pleading guilty on behalf of the utility Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson also indicated in court that the grand jury findings wouldn't say anything PG&E doesn't already know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our equipment started that fire,” Johnson ruefully acknowledged. ”PG&E will never forget the Camp Fire and all that it took away from the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite PG&E’s pledge, critics fear more danger looms during an upcoming wildfire season after an unusually dry winter in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED's Lily Jamali.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "In Final Days of PG&E Fire Settlement Vote, Hundreds of Survivors Still Had No Ballots",
"title": "In Final Days of PG&E Fire Settlement Vote, Hundreds of Survivors Still Had No Ballots",
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"content": "\u003cp>On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, PG&E released results of a vote crucial to its exit from bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors with wildfire-related claims against PG&E had overwhelmingly approved a multi-billion dollar compensation deal with the utility \"by in excess of 85 percent,\" PG&E reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a KQED investigation found a larger subset of fire survivors than \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11819900/crucial-vote-on-pge-settlement-marked-by-late-ballots-high-emotion-for-some-fire-survivors\">previously reported\u003c/a> got their ballots weeks after the dates by which PG&E said they were mailed out, raising continued questions about the integrity of the voting process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is racing to have its bankruptcy plan confirmed by June 30 so that it can tap a state wildfire insurance fund in time for the peak of this year's fire season. For that to happen, two-thirds of the fire survivors who voted on the settlement deal had to approve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 45,000 of the 51,000 fire claimants who voted supported the deal, according to Prime Clerk – the company PG&E hired to manage the process – but approximately 36,000 others either did not vote or had their ballots discarded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What remains unclear is how many of those 36,000 fire survivors were impacted by issues with the voting process – a margin large enough to potentially sway the vote's outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Late Ballots for Hundreds of Fire Survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While PG&E maintains that all voting materials were sent out by April 8, more than 200 fire survivors interviewed by KQED said they didn't receive their packets until May. A substantial portion got their packets less than a week before May 15, the deadline they were due to be received by Prime Clerk to be counted. Some got their ballots after that deadline had passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors were supposed to have six weeks to read through the complex materials, a timeframe agreed on by PG&E and several other parties, including the official committee for fire survivors – and approved by U.S. Judge Dennis Montali, who is presiding over PG&E's bankruptcy trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The interviews were conducted with a cross-section of fire victims, holding claims of various sizes from various fires, and expressing a range of opinions on the settlement. Claimants had the option to vote by phone, email or by mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camp Fire survivor Amy Byrd received her packet on May 18 – three days after the deadline. That left her scrambling to figure out how to make her vote count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I did it online and tried to find a way to put in a comment letting them know I had just received the ballot, but they would not let me do that,\" Byrd told KQED in a phone interview. In a recent court filing, Prime Clerk included Byrd's name on a list of about 1,000 votes discarded because they arrived after the deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think they dropped the ball,\" Byrd said of PG&E, despite her position in support of the settlement deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11822717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots.jpg\" alt=\"Camp Fire survivors Amanda Michaels and Eric Forrester noted the dates they received their voting packets on the PG&E fire settlement from Prime Clerk. Michaels reported she got her mailing on May 14, the day before the deadline to vote. Forrester said he received his on May 17, two days after ballots were due back.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1321\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11822717\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots-160x110.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots-800x550.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots-1020x702.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camp Fire survivors Amanda Michaels and Eric Forrester noted the dates they received their voting packets on the PG&E fire settlement from Prime Clerk. Michaels reported she got her mailing on May 14, the day before the deadline to vote. Forrester said he received his on May 17, two days after ballots were due back. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Amanda Michaels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tom Hess, another Camp Fire survivor, agreed. He got his voting packet on May 15, the day it was due back to Prime Clerk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I just assumed that my vote did count and they would recognize my issue,\" said Hess, who noted the problem on his ballot, which he mailed to Prime Clerk in New York. Like many fire survivors, Hess learned that his vote had been discarded during his interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't have a ton of confidence in the whole system,\" Hess said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Court Weighs Integrity of Voting Process\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The integrity of the voting process has emerged as a central theme in PG&E's bankruptcy confirmation trial, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821101/pges-bankruptcy-trial-opens-with-attacks-on-wildfire-settlement-voting-process\">began last week\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prime Clerk has documented 10,000 holders of fire claims who were not included in the final voting tally for reasons including late receipt, lack of signature or no vote indicated. Some opponents of the deal are calling for an independent examiner to be appointed to audit the vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That request will be the subject of a hearing Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent testimony, Prime Clerk Vice President of Global Corporate Actions Christina Pullo, who supervised the voting process, acknowledged she knew some fire survivors had gotten the mailing days after the vote had ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We received inquiries from people stating that they had just received voting packages,\" Pullo told Camp Fire victim Mary Kim Wallace, who cross-examined her during the trial on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo estimated that \"a handful\" of people had complained. All voting materials were served by first-class mail, but envelopes were not postmarked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I can only say we sent out materials,\" Pullo testified. \"I can't speculate as to why they did not receive them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11819900 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/Camp-Fire-Aftermath-1038x576.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo also stated that Prime Clerk emailed claimants on April 3. Wallace, who received her packet on the day after the deadline, explained that she lives without reliable internet access or cell service, as do other survivors living in the footprint of the Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo and Prime Clerk's CEO, Shai Waisman, did not reply to phone calls and emails requesting comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has declined to acknowledge that delays took place despite several inquiries since early May, when KQED first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11815472/as-pge-fire-survivors-near-deadline-to-vote-on-settlement-some-still-dont-have-ballots\">reported\u003c/a> the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We very much want to do right by the people and communities who have suffered so much as a result of wildfires in recent years,\" said PG&E spokesperson Andrew Castagnola in a statement. \"Our Chapter 11 process is intended to get them paid fairly and quickly, and we are in the final stages of being able to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='pge']PG&E needed support from two-thirds of fire claimants who vote. But the company failed to secure enough of a margin of \"Accept\" votes to decisively dismiss questions about the role that mailing delays may have played in the vote's outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo wrote in a court filing Tuesday that the outcome was unlikely to change because only one in six claims received late were from opponents of the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared Ellias, who teaches bankruptcy law at UC Hastings College of the Law, told KQED he's not sure if the result would change if all survivors had received their voting materials on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The goal of the voting process was to bring everybody in, and it seems like they have fallen a little bit short,\" Ellias said. \"People voting in bankruptcy processes are often sophisticated hedge funds, and I think what we're seeing is that we may need a different paradigm when you have large numbers of disaster or tort victims.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Camp Fire survivor Theresa McDonald wrote the court to register her support for an examiner of voting irregularities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In explaining why it matters to fire victims, she wrote: \"It is a necessary piece of the puzzle I am trying to put together to understand the entire Camp Fire event. And make no mistake; these proceedings are part of the event.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, PG&E released results of a vote crucial to its exit from bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors with wildfire-related claims against PG&E had overwhelmingly approved a multi-billion dollar compensation deal with the utility \"by in excess of 85 percent,\" PG&E reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a KQED investigation found a larger subset of fire survivors than \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11819900/crucial-vote-on-pge-settlement-marked-by-late-ballots-high-emotion-for-some-fire-survivors\">previously reported\u003c/a> got their ballots weeks after the dates by which PG&E said they were mailed out, raising continued questions about the integrity of the voting process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is racing to have its bankruptcy plan confirmed by June 30 so that it can tap a state wildfire insurance fund in time for the peak of this year's fire season. For that to happen, two-thirds of the fire survivors who voted on the settlement deal had to approve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 45,000 of the 51,000 fire claimants who voted supported the deal, according to Prime Clerk – the company PG&E hired to manage the process – but approximately 36,000 others either did not vote or had their ballots discarded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What remains unclear is how many of those 36,000 fire survivors were impacted by issues with the voting process – a margin large enough to potentially sway the vote's outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Late Ballots for Hundreds of Fire Survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While PG&E maintains that all voting materials were sent out by April 8, more than 200 fire survivors interviewed by KQED said they didn't receive their packets until May. A substantial portion got their packets less than a week before May 15, the deadline they were due to be received by Prime Clerk to be counted. Some got their ballots after that deadline had passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors were supposed to have six weeks to read through the complex materials, a timeframe agreed on by PG&E and several other parties, including the official committee for fire survivors – and approved by U.S. Judge Dennis Montali, who is presiding over PG&E's bankruptcy trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The interviews were conducted with a cross-section of fire victims, holding claims of various sizes from various fires, and expressing a range of opinions on the settlement. Claimants had the option to vote by phone, email or by mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camp Fire survivor Amy Byrd received her packet on May 18 – three days after the deadline. That left her scrambling to figure out how to make her vote count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I did it online and tried to find a way to put in a comment letting them know I had just received the ballot, but they would not let me do that,\" Byrd told KQED in a phone interview. In a recent court filing, Prime Clerk included Byrd's name on a list of about 1,000 votes discarded because they arrived after the deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think they dropped the ball,\" Byrd said of PG&E, despite her position in support of the settlement deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11822717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots.jpg\" alt=\"Camp Fire survivors Amanda Michaels and Eric Forrester noted the dates they received their voting packets on the PG&E fire settlement from Prime Clerk. Michaels reported she got her mailing on May 14, the day before the deadline to vote. Forrester said he received his on May 17, two days after ballots were due back.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1321\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11822717\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots-160x110.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots-800x550.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/PGE-late-ballots-1020x702.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camp Fire survivors Amanda Michaels and Eric Forrester noted the dates they received their voting packets on the PG&E fire settlement from Prime Clerk. Michaels reported she got her mailing on May 14, the day before the deadline to vote. Forrester said he received his on May 17, two days after ballots were due back. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Amanda Michaels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tom Hess, another Camp Fire survivor, agreed. He got his voting packet on May 15, the day it was due back to Prime Clerk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I just assumed that my vote did count and they would recognize my issue,\" said Hess, who noted the problem on his ballot, which he mailed to Prime Clerk in New York. Like many fire survivors, Hess learned that his vote had been discarded during his interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't have a ton of confidence in the whole system,\" Hess said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Court Weighs Integrity of Voting Process\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The integrity of the voting process has emerged as a central theme in PG&E's bankruptcy confirmation trial, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821101/pges-bankruptcy-trial-opens-with-attacks-on-wildfire-settlement-voting-process\">began last week\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prime Clerk has documented 10,000 holders of fire claims who were not included in the final voting tally for reasons including late receipt, lack of signature or no vote indicated. Some opponents of the deal are calling for an independent examiner to be appointed to audit the vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That request will be the subject of a hearing Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent testimony, Prime Clerk Vice President of Global Corporate Actions Christina Pullo, who supervised the voting process, acknowledged she knew some fire survivors had gotten the mailing days after the vote had ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We received inquiries from people stating that they had just received voting packages,\" Pullo told Camp Fire victim Mary Kim Wallace, who cross-examined her during the trial on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo estimated that \"a handful\" of people had complained. All voting materials were served by first-class mail, but envelopes were not postmarked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I can only say we sent out materials,\" Pullo testified. \"I can't speculate as to why they did not receive them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo also stated that Prime Clerk emailed claimants on April 3. Wallace, who received her packet on the day after the deadline, explained that she lives without reliable internet access or cell service, as do other survivors living in the footprint of the Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo and Prime Clerk's CEO, Shai Waisman, did not reply to phone calls and emails requesting comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has declined to acknowledge that delays took place despite several inquiries since early May, when KQED first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11815472/as-pge-fire-survivors-near-deadline-to-vote-on-settlement-some-still-dont-have-ballots\">reported\u003c/a> the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We very much want to do right by the people and communities who have suffered so much as a result of wildfires in recent years,\" said PG&E spokesperson Andrew Castagnola in a statement. \"Our Chapter 11 process is intended to get them paid fairly and quickly, and we are in the final stages of being able to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>PG&E needed support from two-thirds of fire claimants who vote. But the company failed to secure enough of a margin of \"Accept\" votes to decisively dismiss questions about the role that mailing delays may have played in the vote's outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullo wrote in a court filing Tuesday that the outcome was unlikely to change because only one in six claims received late were from opponents of the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared Ellias, who teaches bankruptcy law at UC Hastings College of the Law, told KQED he's not sure if the result would change if all survivors had received their voting materials on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The goal of the voting process was to bring everybody in, and it seems like they have fallen a little bit short,\" Ellias said. \"People voting in bankruptcy processes are often sophisticated hedge funds, and I think what we're seeing is that we may need a different paradigm when you have large numbers of disaster or tort victims.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Camp Fire survivor Theresa McDonald wrote the court to register her support for an examiner of voting irregularities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In explaining why it matters to fire victims, she wrote: \"It is a necessary piece of the puzzle I am trying to put together to understand the entire Camp Fire event. And make no mistake; these proceedings are part of the event.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last week, Camp Fire survivor Robert Bean received a thick, battered envelope in the mail at his property in Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The return address on the package was PG&E Ballot Processing, care of Prime Clerk, the company hired by the utility to send detailed informational packets and voting ballots on its multibillion-dollar settlement to 70,000 fire survivors like Bean, who have wildfire-related claims against PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outcome of the settlement vote is crucial for PG&E, which is racing to have its bankruptcy plan confirmed by June 30 so that it can tap a state wildfire insurance fund in time for the peak of this year’s fire season. For PG&E’s bankruptcy plan to move forward, two-thirds of the fire survivors who vote on the settlement deal must approve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bean’s package arrived at the address of his former home, burned when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808166/pge-pleads-guilty-to-involuntary-manslaughter-in-deadly-camp-fire\">PG&E equipment sparked the Camp Fire,\u003c/a> leveling Paradise and killing 85 people in November 2018. It came on May 14, just one day before the deadline for fire survivors to vote on the high-stakes settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was too late to mail in – ballots had to be received by Prime Clerk by May 15 – let alone to read the dozens of pages of complex legal documents explaining the agreement. In the final hours, Bean called Prime Clerk and cast his vote by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one hell of a way to do business,” Bean told KQED. “I feel the integrity of the vote was violated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a court hearing last week, PG&E bankruptcy lawyer Stephen Karotkin told Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali, who is overseeing the PG&E bankruptcy case, that dissemination of voting materials took place between March 30 and April 8.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire survivors were supposed to have six weeks to read through the complex materials and vote, a timeframe agreed on by PG&E and several other parties, including the official committee for fire survivors – and approved by Montali.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a dozen PG&E fire survivors told KQED they didn’t get their materials in the mail until May, in the final days of the six-week voting period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email sent in early April, some fire survivors were also given the option of receiving an electronic ballot. They just had to email Prime Clerk directly to receive one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for some, like Camp Fire survivor Mary Kim Wallace of Magalia, reliable cell service and internet access are luxuries they don’t have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After making daily trips to the post office looking for her materials in the run up to the deadline, Wallace finally got her packet on May 16, the day after voting ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve got a weak population here. We’re taking care of ourselves off the grid,” said Wallace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='pge']Less than a week before the deadline, Wallace sent a letter to Judge Montali asking him to extend the voting period by 45 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like all of the 12 fire survivors interviewed by KQED about the delays, Wallace doesn’t have a lawyer representing her in the PG&E bankruptcy case, a group PG&E has stated in Montali’s court could comprise as many as 18,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E and Prime Clerk are overseeing the voting, and didn’t answer specific questions about why some survivors got their materials well after the dissemination date the utility’s lawyers stated in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While we can’t speak to those incidences or circumstances surrounding them, the court’s balloting agent — Prime Clerk — will make a filing later this week to communicate the final voting results,” said PG&E spokeswoman Ari Vanrenen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The voting process has been contentious, with fire survivors opposed to the deal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11817486/pge-bankruptcy-judge-weighs-potential-conflict-of-interest-of-fire-survivors-lawyer\">taking issue with lawyers\u003c/a> who have encouraged their clients to support it. The timing of payment and final amount of the settlement – which on paper is worth $13.5 billion in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11805766/pge-victims-weigh-rare-stock-funded-trust-amid-market-turmoil\">combined cash and PG&E stock\u003c/a> – is still being negotiated with the utility, even now that voting is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11819194/fire-survivor-vote-on-huge-pge-settlement-can-stand-says-judge-despite-concern-over-lawyers-potential-conflict\">said this week\u003c/a> that preliminary results show overwhelming support from fire survivors. Approval from two-thirds of them would give PG&E the support it needs to move forward with its Chapter 11 exit plan on time. But only those who successfully cast ballots will count in the final tally, which is set to be released on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A source familiar with the voting process said it’s not clear if people will be able to view their ballots afterwards to ensure that their votes were accurately counted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reaching 70,000 people was never expected to be easy, according to UC Hastings bankruptcy professor Jared Ellias, who said the challenge has been exacerbated by the enormous spectrum of circumstances that PG&E fire survivors now find themselves in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the one hand, you have people who are so highly connected and sophisticated that they’re actively participating in the bankruptcy process,” Ellias said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the other hand, you have people who haven’t necessary recovered personally or financially from the tragedy. Some are living in places that are on the frontier of American settlement where internet and cell service is slow, where it’s hard to participate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reaching and engaging that whole community is a monumental challenge,” Ellias added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Michelle Smith, who is still rebuilding after the 2017 Nuns Fire, getting her ballot on May 8 prompted her to vote online in hopes that it will be counted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have my current address. There was no problem in finding me,” Smith said. “I feel for the people who they haven’t found yet. We were all displaced. Some left the county, I don’t have a sense of how many haven’t received one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voting online presented challenges for Camp Fire survivor Karen Masterson, who received her packet around the same time as Smith. Masterson and her husband now live in South Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After I submitted it, I realized I never accepted or rejected the proposal. It’s just frustrating,” Masterson said. Masterson called tech support at Prime Clerk to try again with a new ballot identification number but isn’t sure if it worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s trying to stay patient, even though voting on the settlement triggered emotions in ways she hadn’t expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know the bankruptcy takes time,” Masterson said. “But having to keep scratching at the scab – I can’t think of anybody who hasn’t fallen apart in the last week because of all these feelings coming back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last week, Camp Fire survivor Robert Bean received a thick, battered envelope in the mail at his property in Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The return address on the package was PG&E Ballot Processing, care of Prime Clerk, the company hired by the utility to send detailed informational packets and voting ballots on its multibillion-dollar settlement to 70,000 fire survivors like Bean, who have wildfire-related claims against PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outcome of the settlement vote is crucial for PG&E, which is racing to have its bankruptcy plan confirmed by June 30 so that it can tap a state wildfire insurance fund in time for the peak of this year’s fire season. For PG&E’s bankruptcy plan to move forward, two-thirds of the fire survivors who vote on the settlement deal must approve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bean’s package arrived at the address of his former home, burned when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808166/pge-pleads-guilty-to-involuntary-manslaughter-in-deadly-camp-fire\">PG&E equipment sparked the Camp Fire,\u003c/a> leveling Paradise and killing 85 people in November 2018. It came on May 14, just one day before the deadline for fire survivors to vote on the high-stakes settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was too late to mail in – ballots had to be received by Prime Clerk by May 15 – let alone to read the dozens of pages of complex legal documents explaining the agreement. In the final hours, Bean called Prime Clerk and cast his vote by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one hell of a way to do business,” Bean told KQED. “I feel the integrity of the vote was violated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Less than a week before the deadline, Wallace sent a letter to Judge Montali asking him to extend the voting period by 45 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like all of the 12 fire survivors interviewed by KQED about the delays, Wallace doesn’t have a lawyer representing her in the PG&E bankruptcy case, a group PG&E has stated in Montali’s court could comprise as many as 18,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E and Prime Clerk are overseeing the voting, and didn’t answer specific questions about why some survivors got their materials well after the dissemination date the utility’s lawyers stated in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While we can’t speak to those incidences or circumstances surrounding them, the court’s balloting agent — Prime Clerk — will make a filing later this week to communicate the final voting results,” said PG&E spokeswoman Ari Vanrenen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The voting process has been contentious, with fire survivors opposed to the deal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11817486/pge-bankruptcy-judge-weighs-potential-conflict-of-interest-of-fire-survivors-lawyer\">taking issue with lawyers\u003c/a> who have encouraged their clients to support it. The timing of payment and final amount of the settlement – which on paper is worth $13.5 billion in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11805766/pge-victims-weigh-rare-stock-funded-trust-amid-market-turmoil\">combined cash and PG&E stock\u003c/a> – is still being negotiated with the utility, even now that voting is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11819194/fire-survivor-vote-on-huge-pge-settlement-can-stand-says-judge-despite-concern-over-lawyers-potential-conflict\">said this week\u003c/a> that preliminary results show overwhelming support from fire survivors. Approval from two-thirds of them would give PG&E the support it needs to move forward with its Chapter 11 exit plan on time. But only those who successfully cast ballots will count in the final tally, which is set to be released on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A source familiar with the voting process said it’s not clear if people will be able to view their ballots afterwards to ensure that their votes were accurately counted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reaching 70,000 people was never expected to be easy, according to UC Hastings bankruptcy professor Jared Ellias, who said the challenge has been exacerbated by the enormous spectrum of circumstances that PG&E fire survivors now find themselves in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the one hand, you have people who are so highly connected and sophisticated that they’re actively participating in the bankruptcy process,” Ellias said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the other hand, you have people who haven’t necessary recovered personally or financially from the tragedy. Some are living in places that are on the frontier of American settlement where internet and cell service is slow, where it’s hard to participate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reaching and engaging that whole community is a monumental challenge,” Ellias added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Michelle Smith, who is still rebuilding after the 2017 Nuns Fire, getting her ballot on May 8 prompted her to vote online in hopes that it will be counted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have my current address. There was no problem in finding me,” Smith said. “I feel for the people who they haven’t found yet. We were all displaced. Some left the county, I don’t have a sense of how many haven’t received one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voting online presented challenges for Camp Fire survivor Karen Masterson, who received her packet around the same time as Smith. Masterson and her husband now live in South Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After I submitted it, I realized I never accepted or rejected the proposal. It’s just frustrating,” Masterson said. Masterson called tech support at Prime Clerk to try again with a new ballot identification number but isn’t sure if it worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s trying to stay patient, even though voting on the settlement triggered emotions in ways she hadn’t expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know the bankruptcy takes time,” Masterson said. “But having to keep scratching at the scab – I can’t think of anybody who hasn’t fallen apart in the last week because of all these feelings coming back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"radiolab": {
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"reveal": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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