Camp Fire Claims Second Sunnyvale Native Home

CHICO, CA --Sunnyvale native Frank Matoes may as well play the lottery given how he appears destined to be singled out for playing the odds.

The Paradise resident lost his home in the Camp Fire – again. This disaster came 13 months after enduring having his Santa Rosa home burn down in the Tubbs Fire.

“I thought: ‘This isn’t happening again,’” Matoes said, while having breakfast at his temporary home at the Residence Inn in Chico.

Matoes takes it all in stride and often reflects back at these all-consuming catastrophies. Even little things come up. To think he unplugged his television to save it from power surges.

“I didn’t know it would be ash,” the De Anza College Cupertino graduate said.

California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire that killed 85 people, displaced hundreds, scorched 153,336 acres and destroyed 14,500 structures that are mostly homes provided no mercy. His upper Skyway home in Paradise was gone, but at least he had his life, his wife and their three dogs and a cat.

His wife equates their last two years to being struck by lightning.

“Friends say: ‘Tell us where you’re going, so we won’t go there,’” he said, chuckling. His sense of humor is still intact.

“It’s either laugh or cry,” he said.

Matoes jokes, smiles and offers advice to those who have developed a kinship and sense of community at the Marriott hotel where 90 percent of the occupancy consists of evacuees.

“I know the ropes,” he said.

Next door, the Marriott’s sister property – the Courtyard – has experienced the same dynamic. It’s booked through mid January.

This is just the dilemma three generations of an extended family face as they frantically search for a place to live.

“This is a hard thing, not knowing where to go,” Mark Lazzarino said, while gathering the family in the hotel lounge area. “It shouldn’t be this hard to find a home.”

Butte County rentals are about as scarce in the region as they can possibly be for he and his wife Stacy, who have shared their lives together for 13 years. The family of five with three children in preschool, third and fifth grade rented their Magalia home and had no insurance.

He’s scared about the future, admitting to having anxiety about what he will find when he returns to the site and angry about the circumstances.

Everyone copes in their own way.

His mother, Carol Manzo, lost her Bluehaven Estates mobile home she owned in Paradise. (Cal Fire put out a list and map, so residents could assess the damage.)

Manzo saw a scroll on television about a fire that started at 6:29 a.m. at Camp Creek and Pulga roads. It moved so fast that at one moment she was told by someone at Ace Hardware two blocks down that the blaze was far away. Minutes later, it was time to leave. Danny, her 83-year-old neighbor, had ashes in his hair. It was dark outside, so she grabbed a flashlight.

“It looked like it was midnight. I grabbed some clothes and tripped and fell on the concrete,” Manzo said, adding she knew she had to get up with scuffed up knees.

She was frantic to find others, scurrying through the neighborhood while holding down her panic button on her car key ring to alert neighbors.

A 15-minute drive turned into over two hours.

The whole ordeal seemed surreal. She even reflected on how PG&E texted her several times the day before to say her house would lose power on Nov. 8.

“I was so mad. I was trying to work,” she said. “Why were they telling me about a shutoff, then we have a fire the next day?”

She kept the text messages.

Her grandchildren looked on. They were trying to be oblivious to the situation, but they know their lives are different. In the meantime, they just try to carry on.

The staff at the Residence Inn isn’t immune to the tragedy. Heaps of clothes, toys and other miscellaneous donations dominate the conference room. A sign on the marker board informs those in need to take whatever they need.

Residence Inn worker Tamba Sellu appreciates the sentiment. His upper Magalia house still stands, but he believes he dodged a bullet. Like other workers, it’s difficult to watch others suffer.

But maintenance worker David Zabale has a philosophy.

“In times like these, the best thing to do is to remain calm, then (the survivors) will see everything’s going to be alright,” he said, while picking up the trash.

See also

Camp Fire Volunteer Will Never Be The Same

Camp Fire Out, But Paradise Into History Books Even After Drill

--Images via Sue Wood, Patch