Fire Relief -Stratta/Harbour Family
Donation protected
Our family lost our home and almost our lives in the Paradise Camp Fire of 11/8/18. We have minimal possessions, but blessed with life. We are in need of money to help get us back on our feet. It is myself Ali Stratta, (aka Atmoss Stratus), my beloved partner Jason Harbour, our beautiful now 6 month old baby girl Luca, my partner's two amazing seven and ten year old sons as well as our two cats, Sunshine and Mala, and our terrier, Flint.
These funds will go towards the acquisition of a place to call home for my family. And with that comes the sense of security and stability that we so desperately need to attain again. Each donation a shining light in our journey, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Our family's harrowing, near-death experience with the Paradise Camp Fire is below. Extremely personal and traumatic, it is the story of the day our lives were almost lost and changed forever. One love.
Woke up around 8 am Thursday morning, November 8, 2018 to a text message from the kids’ mom saying fire in Concow, may have to evacuate. At this point we stepped outside and the sky was orange and pink and the winds were epic, clearly a fire on the next ridge over. I told Jason to go unpack his truck from his previous excursions to prepare to repack it. Got a phone call twenty minutes later from her saying they were leaving now and their house will probably burn down. I yelled at Jason to go start packing it up with our favorite home goods. At this point, we realized the urgency of the situation, the sky was red and dark dark gray and the air was thick with smoke. I threw Luca’s clothes in a suitcase, threw Jason’s clothes in a suitcase, told the boys to go grab their favorite things, grabbed seven of my favorite books, a crystal, my baby carrier, 2 blankets, 2 pillows, our passports, a diaper bag, Luca’s favorite baby blanket, some jackets, 2 pairs of shoes, Jason’s DJ controller, my laptop, my sewing machine, a box of fabrics and a bottle of water. We frantically located our cats. All the while trying to pack I have a crying, hungry Luca I’m trying to calm and feed and try to organize my thoughts at the same time: what is the best direction to take to get off this hill? We decided to try to make it to Skyway Road. It is within the hour we got both cars packed up. I had the ten year old in my car holding Sunshine kitty and Luca in the back, car packed with what we thought was the best choice of goods at the time. Jason had his truck packed and has the seven year old boy with him holding Mala kitty and Flint, dog, riding in back. “We have to go, we have to go, leave it, we have to go!”, Jason is screaming. Within the hour we were packed up and out. Made it not more than a half a mile when we got stuck on Pentz Road. It is at this point we decided to take the Gate Lane shortcut. Traffic was slowly slowly moving, then at one point it just came to a halt. Cars on both sides of the road, a guy on a dirt bike was driving through telling people there was a fire on Skyway and Clark and they’re working to put out the fire before we can get off this road. We were stuck. Stuck in a residential road surrounded by homes and old, old trees. The fire was coming our way. The winds were so strong at one point when I stepped outside Jason had to hold me and block me from the wind I almost fell over. The sky was getting redder and redder and the air growing thick with smoke. We were hearing explosions all over the place, the sounds of the explosions getting closer. We started seeing actual fire in the trees of the homes just the road behind us. We were in imminent danger, stuck on a residential road, cars blocked in front of us and behind us. I start honking my horn seeing the fire, “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, this fire is coming”. I’m rocking back and forth in the seat of my car holding Luca focusing my energy on sending spirals of green love surrounding our immediate vicinity. Jason comes up to my window says he sees people starting their cars and to get Luca in her seat and ready to go. I do, we moved up several feet, just slightly farther from the encroaching fire. We hear no sounds of fire trucks anywhere, just explosions and the sounds of a fire raging all around us. Explosions behind us and to the side, the smoke growing thicker. We slowly made our way almost to the end of Gate Lane where it meets Cabernet Lane, the fire raging all around us. A police man finally rolls through on foot. “Abandon your vehicles and head to the Optimo parking lot! Abandon your vehicles and head to the Optimo parking lot!” We did. I got out and put Luca’s car seat on the stroller, threw my laptop and diaper bag and baby carrier underneath, and we ran. We made it almost to the Fast Trip gas station when some civilian said “turn around, go back to your cars, they are going to let us down Skyway”.. So this herd of people hear this and we all turn back around running to our cars. The police man sees this, “what are you doing??” I go, “someone told us to go back to our cars that we could drive out of here” he goes “no no, leave your cars, go to the parking lot, that man has the wrong information. Skyway is blocked”. So back again we turn around and head to the parking lot across the gas station that has three buildings surrounding it. Two empty new construction buildings and one Chinese restaurant (Optimo). The storage buildings behind Optimo were on fire, a propane yard to the left of us was exploding and ablaze. The fishing and AMMO store across the street wasn’t touched yet but the thrift store next to that was already thick in flames. We were surrounded by fire. A good 200 people were all stuck in this parking lot, many of them elderly and many of them with all their pets. The words from firefighters were they were gonna work on doing a water drop on the fire just next to us in the storage units. That water drop did not come very soon. Firefighters eventually broke the doors of the empty, new construction buildings and sent the disabled and elderly in there first saying they should be safe here that these buildings were new, had a metal roof, and were up to code. The fire was coming closer down Clark towards the gas station. The barber shop was burning, the lady standing next to me watched her truck burn on Clark. Firefighters were able to keep Fastrip gas station from sparking, now a fire next to it and behind it as well as across from it. We assumed we had lost our cars, in it the last of our physical possessions. “Why didn’t I grab more from my car???” Thinking of all the things I left behind while looking at my mostly empty stroller. You can’t really think straight with all the smoke and chaos going on around you, I later found out I actually left my window down in my car when I was trying to hear what the policeman was saying. We were here in this parking lot watching our town burn around us, listening to the sounds of propane tanks and pge transformers exploding.
Let me tell you a little bit of irony here. The Fastrip gas station we were across from, one week prior I was there filling up my gas reading a PG&E ad at the tank that read: “Wildfire Will Strike”. I thought that was a little harsh at the time, how bout like “wildfire MAY strike?” It was all too coincidental that I ended up across this gas station not knowing whether or not we would ever make it out. No way to go up the hill and no way to go down. Trapped in the town of Paradise, California with 2 kids, 2 cats, a 5-month old baby, a dog and me and my partner. I had Luca in her carrier strapped to me, with a scarf and a light blanket covering her. It was cold and windy, the sun being blocked by all the smoke. A family offered me a blanket. There I stood rocking Luca with my body her fully covered by a blanket, sleeping peacefully on my chest. I rocked this baby for hours. It was all I could do to stand there and remain calm. Worrying and panic wasn’t going to help anyone and I think the majority of the people there stuck also understood this. The energy was pretty calm considering the situation, a reverend came by offering group prayer. Jason calmed a lady next to us crying about the situation, she goes “how are you so calm?” He looks over at our family, “I have to be”. We were probably in this parking lot about 6 hours, around 5 o clock they made an announcement saying to get to your cars if they are still there and make your way to kmart parking lot. This was after they said they were gonna send up buses for us hours prior. A little bit before they made this announcement, I had Jason holding Luca cause I had to go pee so I dipped to our cars to check on them (the fire had already been that way), even though they said do not go to your cars. They were still standing. The truck in front of Jason’s literally burned to a crisp, the house and land next to where Jason parked, gone. My window, all the way down, my car full of ash. But both cars still standing! Praise!!! Around that 5 o clock time they made that announcement Jason came back to me telling of the new kmart plan, I was feeding the baby, I’m like “can’t I just feed her really quick” (thinking I’d rather have a baby full on breastmilk in these harsh conditions than not) and he’s like “no, no, we need to go NOW”. I’m running and feeding baby Luca at the same time. We make it to our car, can’t find my keys. Finally find them, get in our cars, I pass up the abandoned ones in front of me and dip to Clark Road. Everything was pretty much gone on Clark Road house wise, the empty vacant old positive I bank still standing, chase bank still standing, movie theater still standing, as well as kmart and savemart. About to turn into the kmart parking lot a cop points straight ahead “clark is open take it NOW”, but Jason wasn’t behind me. I pull into the parking lot get out my car and signal to Jason and yell across the road “GO TO CHICO”. I get back in my car and head down Clark Road, traffic moving pretty good till we come to a stop next to a burning home and burning power line. It was pretty scary, cars were already abandoned and burnt on Clark Road. We were stalled for just a little bit when the traffic started moving again. This was around 5:30pm, we made it out of Paradise only to see all of lower paradise was burnt to a crisp too and Butte Valley, we were gonna make our way to Durham-pentz road to hop on highway 99 to chico but they closed it off, fire was there. We made it all the way to the 70. I think this is when I finally breathed. We made our way to my ex’s house off 20th street in Chico where we had our first meal of the day apart from a slice of bread. We decided to dip from that spot after they gave an evacuation order for 20th street and fled to Yuba City to be with family. We are strong, we are resilient, we heal, we love, we will survive, we will thrive.
The kids brought two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, a shirt, a jacket, a drawing book, a sewing kit, a knife, their sleeping bags and a hammock. They really thought we were going to be returning back to our home. We didn’t let them in on the severity of the situation but we didn’t hide it either. I am so proud of these boys and how well they handled themselves holding the cats almost the entire time in that parking lot. Our extended family here in Butte County has lost just about everything. The boys’ mom lost their home, their uncle lost their home, their grandma lost their home, we most definitely lost our home. But what we lost most was a sense of stability and security for our family. Send your love please, I will be accepting charitable donations for our family to help get us back on our feet. Thank you.
These funds will go towards the acquisition of a place to call home for my family. And with that comes the sense of security and stability that we so desperately need to attain again. Each donation a shining light in our journey, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Our family's harrowing, near-death experience with the Paradise Camp Fire is below. Extremely personal and traumatic, it is the story of the day our lives were almost lost and changed forever. One love.
Woke up around 8 am Thursday morning, November 8, 2018 to a text message from the kids’ mom saying fire in Concow, may have to evacuate. At this point we stepped outside and the sky was orange and pink and the winds were epic, clearly a fire on the next ridge over. I told Jason to go unpack his truck from his previous excursions to prepare to repack it. Got a phone call twenty minutes later from her saying they were leaving now and their house will probably burn down. I yelled at Jason to go start packing it up with our favorite home goods. At this point, we realized the urgency of the situation, the sky was red and dark dark gray and the air was thick with smoke. I threw Luca’s clothes in a suitcase, threw Jason’s clothes in a suitcase, told the boys to go grab their favorite things, grabbed seven of my favorite books, a crystal, my baby carrier, 2 blankets, 2 pillows, our passports, a diaper bag, Luca’s favorite baby blanket, some jackets, 2 pairs of shoes, Jason’s DJ controller, my laptop, my sewing machine, a box of fabrics and a bottle of water. We frantically located our cats. All the while trying to pack I have a crying, hungry Luca I’m trying to calm and feed and try to organize my thoughts at the same time: what is the best direction to take to get off this hill? We decided to try to make it to Skyway Road. It is within the hour we got both cars packed up. I had the ten year old in my car holding Sunshine kitty and Luca in the back, car packed with what we thought was the best choice of goods at the time. Jason had his truck packed and has the seven year old boy with him holding Mala kitty and Flint, dog, riding in back. “We have to go, we have to go, leave it, we have to go!”, Jason is screaming. Within the hour we were packed up and out. Made it not more than a half a mile when we got stuck on Pentz Road. It is at this point we decided to take the Gate Lane shortcut. Traffic was slowly slowly moving, then at one point it just came to a halt. Cars on both sides of the road, a guy on a dirt bike was driving through telling people there was a fire on Skyway and Clark and they’re working to put out the fire before we can get off this road. We were stuck. Stuck in a residential road surrounded by homes and old, old trees. The fire was coming our way. The winds were so strong at one point when I stepped outside Jason had to hold me and block me from the wind I almost fell over. The sky was getting redder and redder and the air growing thick with smoke. We were hearing explosions all over the place, the sounds of the explosions getting closer. We started seeing actual fire in the trees of the homes just the road behind us. We were in imminent danger, stuck on a residential road, cars blocked in front of us and behind us. I start honking my horn seeing the fire, “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, this fire is coming”. I’m rocking back and forth in the seat of my car holding Luca focusing my energy on sending spirals of green love surrounding our immediate vicinity. Jason comes up to my window says he sees people starting their cars and to get Luca in her seat and ready to go. I do, we moved up several feet, just slightly farther from the encroaching fire. We hear no sounds of fire trucks anywhere, just explosions and the sounds of a fire raging all around us. Explosions behind us and to the side, the smoke growing thicker. We slowly made our way almost to the end of Gate Lane where it meets Cabernet Lane, the fire raging all around us. A police man finally rolls through on foot. “Abandon your vehicles and head to the Optimo parking lot! Abandon your vehicles and head to the Optimo parking lot!” We did. I got out and put Luca’s car seat on the stroller, threw my laptop and diaper bag and baby carrier underneath, and we ran. We made it almost to the Fast Trip gas station when some civilian said “turn around, go back to your cars, they are going to let us down Skyway”.. So this herd of people hear this and we all turn back around running to our cars. The police man sees this, “what are you doing??” I go, “someone told us to go back to our cars that we could drive out of here” he goes “no no, leave your cars, go to the parking lot, that man has the wrong information. Skyway is blocked”. So back again we turn around and head to the parking lot across the gas station that has three buildings surrounding it. Two empty new construction buildings and one Chinese restaurant (Optimo). The storage buildings behind Optimo were on fire, a propane yard to the left of us was exploding and ablaze. The fishing and AMMO store across the street wasn’t touched yet but the thrift store next to that was already thick in flames. We were surrounded by fire. A good 200 people were all stuck in this parking lot, many of them elderly and many of them with all their pets. The words from firefighters were they were gonna work on doing a water drop on the fire just next to us in the storage units. That water drop did not come very soon. Firefighters eventually broke the doors of the empty, new construction buildings and sent the disabled and elderly in there first saying they should be safe here that these buildings were new, had a metal roof, and were up to code. The fire was coming closer down Clark towards the gas station. The barber shop was burning, the lady standing next to me watched her truck burn on Clark. Firefighters were able to keep Fastrip gas station from sparking, now a fire next to it and behind it as well as across from it. We assumed we had lost our cars, in it the last of our physical possessions. “Why didn’t I grab more from my car???” Thinking of all the things I left behind while looking at my mostly empty stroller. You can’t really think straight with all the smoke and chaos going on around you, I later found out I actually left my window down in my car when I was trying to hear what the policeman was saying. We were here in this parking lot watching our town burn around us, listening to the sounds of propane tanks and pge transformers exploding.
Let me tell you a little bit of irony here. The Fastrip gas station we were across from, one week prior I was there filling up my gas reading a PG&E ad at the tank that read: “Wildfire Will Strike”. I thought that was a little harsh at the time, how bout like “wildfire MAY strike?” It was all too coincidental that I ended up across this gas station not knowing whether or not we would ever make it out. No way to go up the hill and no way to go down. Trapped in the town of Paradise, California with 2 kids, 2 cats, a 5-month old baby, a dog and me and my partner. I had Luca in her carrier strapped to me, with a scarf and a light blanket covering her. It was cold and windy, the sun being blocked by all the smoke. A family offered me a blanket. There I stood rocking Luca with my body her fully covered by a blanket, sleeping peacefully on my chest. I rocked this baby for hours. It was all I could do to stand there and remain calm. Worrying and panic wasn’t going to help anyone and I think the majority of the people there stuck also understood this. The energy was pretty calm considering the situation, a reverend came by offering group prayer. Jason calmed a lady next to us crying about the situation, she goes “how are you so calm?” He looks over at our family, “I have to be”. We were probably in this parking lot about 6 hours, around 5 o clock they made an announcement saying to get to your cars if they are still there and make your way to kmart parking lot. This was after they said they were gonna send up buses for us hours prior. A little bit before they made this announcement, I had Jason holding Luca cause I had to go pee so I dipped to our cars to check on them (the fire had already been that way), even though they said do not go to your cars. They were still standing. The truck in front of Jason’s literally burned to a crisp, the house and land next to where Jason parked, gone. My window, all the way down, my car full of ash. But both cars still standing! Praise!!! Around that 5 o clock time they made that announcement Jason came back to me telling of the new kmart plan, I was feeding the baby, I’m like “can’t I just feed her really quick” (thinking I’d rather have a baby full on breastmilk in these harsh conditions than not) and he’s like “no, no, we need to go NOW”. I’m running and feeding baby Luca at the same time. We make it to our car, can’t find my keys. Finally find them, get in our cars, I pass up the abandoned ones in front of me and dip to Clark Road. Everything was pretty much gone on Clark Road house wise, the empty vacant old positive I bank still standing, chase bank still standing, movie theater still standing, as well as kmart and savemart. About to turn into the kmart parking lot a cop points straight ahead “clark is open take it NOW”, but Jason wasn’t behind me. I pull into the parking lot get out my car and signal to Jason and yell across the road “GO TO CHICO”. I get back in my car and head down Clark Road, traffic moving pretty good till we come to a stop next to a burning home and burning power line. It was pretty scary, cars were already abandoned and burnt on Clark Road. We were stalled for just a little bit when the traffic started moving again. This was around 5:30pm, we made it out of Paradise only to see all of lower paradise was burnt to a crisp too and Butte Valley, we were gonna make our way to Durham-pentz road to hop on highway 99 to chico but they closed it off, fire was there. We made it all the way to the 70. I think this is when I finally breathed. We made our way to my ex’s house off 20th street in Chico where we had our first meal of the day apart from a slice of bread. We decided to dip from that spot after they gave an evacuation order for 20th street and fled to Yuba City to be with family. We are strong, we are resilient, we heal, we love, we will survive, we will thrive.
The kids brought two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, a shirt, a jacket, a drawing book, a sewing kit, a knife, their sleeping bags and a hammock. They really thought we were going to be returning back to our home. We didn’t let them in on the severity of the situation but we didn’t hide it either. I am so proud of these boys and how well they handled themselves holding the cats almost the entire time in that parking lot. Our extended family here in Butte County has lost just about everything. The boys’ mom lost their home, their uncle lost their home, their grandma lost their home, we most definitely lost our home. But what we lost most was a sense of stability and security for our family. Send your love please, I will be accepting charitable donations for our family to help get us back on our feet. Thank you.
Organizer
Atmoss Stratus
Organizer
Paradise, CA