Submitted Photos Kyle and Lynn Johnson and their children, 5-year-old Cameron and 3-year-old Sophie, enjoy spending time at the Children’s Museum of South Dakota in Brookings on Friday while the family, which lost nearly everything in the California wildfires, is home visiting loved ones for Christmas.

MARSHALL — Having lost their home and belongings in the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Lynn and Kyle Johnson are just trying to get through Christmas. The future beyond that includes a lot of question marks.

“We just have absolutely no idea what our future is going to hold,” said Lynn Johnson, a 2005 graduate of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton High School. “Our plan has been to make it through Christmas and take it day by day after that. We’re just going to do a lot of praying and see what happens.”

After spending Christmas with family in Minnesota and South Dakota, the couple and their two young children, Cameron and Sophie, will return to the Paradise, California, area and the 23-foot camper they borrowed from some friends.

“A 23-foot trailer is awesome if you’re camping, but when you’re living there, it does start to feel small,” Johnson said. “But we’re really grateful it’s dry and warm.”

The California family is currently spending time with Lynn’s parents, Sharon and the Rev. Wayde Kenneke, in Tyler. Before heading back to California shortly after Christmastime, they will also be visiting Kyle’s parents in Watertown, South Dakota.

“Every year since we moved to California four years ago, we’ve been able to come back home for Christmas,” Johnson said. “We’ve never been so excited to come back. It’s the first thing that’s felt normal since the fire.”

While the family is grateful to escape with their lives — at least 85 were killed and 11 are still reported to be missing — they have mixed feelings returning to the area and seeing the bare remnants of their former home.

“(Cameron) is 5 and he’s still processing what he’s lost,” Johnson said. “I think, even more than my husband and I, he is struggling with the loss of our house the most. Those are just things. We left with our family, our kids, and there’s a lot of people burying loved ones this Christmas, so we’re grateful we’re not in that position. We have so much to be thankful for.”

Paradise Mayor Jody Jones estimated that 90 percent of the town’s residential buildings and about 50 percent of businesses were destroyed in the Camp Fire.

The Johnson family wasn’t allowed to return to their home until that particular zone opened up on Dec. 15. By then, they were in Minnesota. So the first chance they’ll have to return to their property will be Dec. 28.

“It’s something so unique for all of us who were affected by the wildfires,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t just our homes we lost. It was everything — our jobs, where we take our kids to school, where we shop for groceries. Everything in our daily lives is gone. It’s hard to grasp. I feel like I really need to see it for closure. We need to walk on our property and look at the parks we used to play at for it to all sink in.”

The Day That Changed Their Lives

On the morning of Nov. 8, Kyle Johnson had just returned home after dropping his son off at kindergarten. Lynn Johnson said she was getting ready to go to the gym.

“Kyle said he just had a feeling that (the wildfires were) worse than people thought,” Lynn Johnson said. “Shortly after, I received a message from a friend who said Paradise was being evacuated. That triggered our evacuation. For us, there was no formal notification, so that message was a blessing.”

Johnson said her husband raced to pick up their son and that they quickly notified their immediate neighbors.

“The school is very old and was built for horse and buggy traffic,” she said. “My husband was the second one there for a pick-up of a child, so it only took 10 minutes. Then he came back and we put our kids in the car. After we left the house, we pounded on a neighbor’s door across the street and then a friend about a quarter-mile away. We asked if she was home alone. She said, ‘No, but the backyard was on fire.’ So we helped her pack up and leave. It was crazy seeing the ember fires being carried by the wind.”

Like so many who were trying to evacuate Paradise, a community of about 27,000, the Johnsons got caught in traffic.

“It was scary because we knew how close the fire was behind us,” Johnson said. “Normally, the drive to Chico takes 25 minutes and it took an hour and a half — and that was for people who left early. We were at the beginning. For some, it took 4-6 hours.”

Johnson said some people got out of their vehicles and tried to leave on foot. The abandoned vehicles ended up causing additional problems as the jammed up the roadway out of town.

“A lot of people abandoned their vehicles and left on foot,” she said. “They got to where traffic was moving and then hitched a ride. The wildfire came upon and spread with such speed. I feel like it took a lot of people by surprise.”

While it took less than two hours to get to safety that morning, the experience is one that the Johnsons will likely never forget.

“My husband and I have said to each other many times, that it feels like a movie,” Lynn Johnson said. “It doesn’t feel like real life. It was very dark when we were getting out of town. Even in the last picture we took standing in our house, looking out, it looked like it was midnight. You could see a red glow when you looked in the rear-view window and you could hear propane tanks exploding. It was surreal.”

Johnson and her family made it to Chico before Interstate 99 was closed. They stayed in Roseville for a week before they were able to find housing courtesy of the borrowed trailer. Then for a week, the family stayed with friends in Arizona.

“We always had plans to visit friends there, so we kept those plans,” Johnson said. “We were able to escape the smoke for a week. The smoke was so intense. We drove for several hours after leaving Roseville before we saw fresh air. So going to Arizona for that week was such a blessing.”

The Aftermath

Johnson said she is very grateful that Anderson Brothers are allowing several displaced families to park their campers in the industrial lot.

“They’re a construction company and it’s the lot where they store their equipment,” Johnson said. “They have the space and are graciously letting us all park there. There were 13 or 14 of us. When we left, there were still nine families there who haven’t found more permanent housing.”

Johnson said her son’s elementary school was relocated, but that many of the former students did not return when classes started back up on Dec. 3.

“Cameron’s school was completely burned down,” she said. “They relocated to Oroville, which is 30 minutes from where we are living so we drive him. Four different classrooms are using one room. He only had six to eight classmates return of the original 24. There are now 45 kindergarten students when there were over 90 before. It’s because people have had to relocate all over the place.”

Other schools have relocated to different communities and that some school are meeting in churches, while others have portable classrooms being brought in, Johnson said.

“People are meeting anywhere they can,” she said. “The school system has been working really hard to find spaces for schools to continue.”

Adventist Health — the hospital where Johnson worked as a nurse — was partially ravaged by the wildfire. While she’s currently jobless, she said the hospital is committed to finding employment for everyone who worked there.

“The hospital has been amazing,” Johnson said. “They’ve gone above and beyond. All their clinics are up and running and all the Adventist Health partners from across the nation have raised over $6.5 million to support families who are affected by the wildfires. So I couldn’t be more proud to work for them.”

Kyle Johnson is continuing his work as a young adult ministry pastor at Paradise Alliance Church.

“Neighborhood Church in Chico is allowing us to use their facility on Sundays and they’re sharing office space there as well, so Kyle has a job right now,” Lynn Johnson said. “He’s been trying to connect with all the members and see if they’re OK and to see what their needs are and go from there.”

The Future

While there is plenty of smoke damage, Johnson said the Paradise Alliance Church is still standing and will be able to be used in the future.

“I think it’s the largest structure still standing,” she said. “They’re planning to hold a Christmas Eve service there.”

The Johnson family’s faith is strong and they attributed that faith, as well as the support from family and friends, for helping them get through the life-changing struggles.

“We’ve seen God’s provision through our family’s generosity,” Lynn Johnson said. “It’s been undeniable, the presence we felt that day and how he’s provided for us every day since. That’s been getting us through each day.”

Johnson said the outpouring of support, especially from people in the midwest, has been overwhelming but in the best way possible.

“People have been very generous, not just financially, but by letting us know they’re thinking of us and praying for us,” she said. “It’s been really encouraging.”

Johnson admits the experience has not been easy.

“Occasionally, Sophie will cry over a toy she no longer has,” Johnson said. “But for the most part, the kids are doing OK.”

Several other children Cameron’s age are also living in trailers, so playing outside with them provides a good distraction.

“It’s our rainy season now, so even though there’s this giant mud hole, they’re in Heaven,” Johnson said. “While he’s struggling with the loss of the house, he’s having the most fun.”

Johnson is optimistic that Paradise will be rebuilt, but she knows it will take a long time.

“There’s definitely talk of rebuilding Paradise,” she said. “Their focus now is just clearing the debris. It’ll take 9-12 months to clear. It’s going to be a slow process. I’m not sure to what capacity the town will be rebuilt, but there seems to be a lot of people who want to see that through.”

Johnson said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a presence in California now and that several non-profit groups are also there offering help to people affected by the wildfires. She and her husband are especially grateful to learn through the Red Cross website that their neighbors also evacuated safely.

Right now, Johnson said they are working with their insurance company and that it’s all new territory for them.

“It’s the biggest learning curve we never wanted to learn about,” she said. “But the insurance company has been phenomenal. We have a lot of big decisions to make, but they’ve been really helpful.”

Extended family has always been important to them, but they’re especially appreciative of family at Christmas and after a near-death encounter.

“Both of our parents do a great job coming out here to visit, so we’d love to maybe have an extra bedroom if we decide to rebuild,” Johnson said. “That would be a silver lining.”