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CHICO, Calif. – After Jarrad Winter escaped on foot from the wildfire that destroyed his home in Magalia, California, and then took a short-lived ride with a neighbor through the flames and out of the hills to get into security in Chico, he is exhausted. Like dozens of other survivors, he found refuge on the ground at the local Walmart.
"I never thought I'd live in a tent city," said Winter, a Marine Corps veteran and software developer recently released from a homeless area, and then lost everything. what he owned in the devastating fire of Camp Fire. the deadliest fire ever recorded in California. "I mean, it's America; we are not supposed to live that way. But here we are, man, the new normality.
Firefighters are still battling the huge fires in California that have killed 80 people, 77 of them in Butte County, north of Sacramento, where the campfire burned. Nearly 1,300 people are still missing and missing.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the campfire, which has already burned nearly 150,000 acres, was controlled to about 65% Sunday night.
As the fight to contain the fires continues, many evacuees gather in makeshift camps outside the burn zones and wonder how they will recover the pieces to get out of this tragedy.
Some people who have fled Magalia, Paradise and other towns burned in the forested foothills of Sierra Nevada, in eastern Butte County, are lodged in the tents town at Chico Walmart. Others sleep in their car on the Target parking lot. Then there are those who rely on the kindness of strangers or who go from one shelter to another.
Officials made it clear on Sunday that they did not want Walmart's tented camp to become a permanent facility in Chico. While stressing that no one in the camp would be forced to leave, they said in a a statement that they were assisting people who wanted to leave by relocating them to a county fairground site. There are six American Red Cross shelters for fire evacuees, county officials said.
California is the richest state in the country, home to tech giants like Google and Facebook, as well as multimillionaires who have lost luxury homes around Malibu due to forest fires this month. But torches also lay bare the economic inequality that distinguishes the state, which the shallow pocket survivors seize for the type of ad hoc strategies typically observed after disasters in the developing world.
"We've always been a city to another," said Anjeanette Ramey, 30, who worked for Magalia's customer service but was unemployed at the time of the fire.
"I only knew the clothes on my back," she said Sunday morning as she watched the town of Walmart tents, where she stayed for several days. "My house, my car, part. No money, no work. I have no idea what will happen next.
His boyfriend's reaction was more related to suspicion and anger. He refused to give his name, saying that he did not want to be recognized as a victim, and that the couple were avoiding official shelters because he thought that they were not safe for people like him and his neighbors, who, according to him, counted little for the rich and powerful.
Reliable information is scarce, so dark rumors and speculation spread easily in the tent city and other places where evacuees camp.
The people in the tents said that there had been discussions a few days ago about the authorities planning to clean them up. Guards at the private security company patrolling the Walmart property said there was no plan to evict the evacuees.
Dressed in bullet-proof vests, they pointed to the portable toilets in the parking lot, as well as the food offered and the clothes made available to the occupants of the tents.
The Walmart lot, which had become an unofficial aid distribution site, also offers a whiteboard with the names of people missing from the fires and a list of shelters with beds.
Some people in the tent say that they have not gone to shelters because they find security in numbers at Walmart; others say they like being close to friends and neighbors who have also lost their homes.
"It's my home now," said James Reed, 65, a retired tow truck driver, showing his 1968 Chevrolet El Camino. His Magalia home, bought two years ago, was destroyed, he said. "Being here, on this parking lot, I remember that I'm not the only one."
Mr. Reed, wearing an AC / DC baseball cap, said that he was still trying to understand what had happened. He added that he was used to sleeping in his car and withstanding temperatures that plunged most of the night.
"Right now, I'm like a snake on a rock, I'm warming up a bit," said Mr. Reed around noon. "Getting out of this fire was like a horror movie rated B. I had never thought of seeing anything like it in this country. "
The Walmart camp has become a gathering place for fire evacuees who wish to exchange information with another group with whom they suddenly have much in common. People already living on the streets of Chico before the start of the fires flocked to the car park, especially to take part in free food.
Robert Talk, 61, a former laborer at an amusement park, said he liked telling jokes and sharing gossip with the evacuees. He said his little dog, Princeton Peabody, interacted effortlessly with strangers, facilitating conversations with people living in the camp.
"We are all just in the same boat now, is not it?" Said Mr. Talk. "It's good for normal people to realize that we are like them. Many of us are in this situation without any fault on our part. Maybe it's going to open your eyes, so we can start helping each other more. "
A new resident of the tent camp, Kelly Clark, said she enjoyed meeting Mr. Talk and his dog and telling that fires were still raging around them. With a smile, she showed her tent and said, "Look at my new apartment. Luxurious, is not it?
Mrs. Clark, 39, said that money had become a problem after the destruction of the house where she lived with her boyfriend. She said that she was unemployed and asked how long they could sleep outside of Walmart. She also feared going to one of the shelters, claiming that she had heard that viruses were spreading there.
"I feel freer here, as if I'm not locked inside with a group of other people crying about what they've lost," Ms. Clark said. "When it starts to rain, we may be able to act. But until then, we remain on the spot.
There is rain in the forecast for Wednesday.
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