Paradise, Calif. • Joe McNally and Anne Benoit fled their home here through a gauntlet of flames, speeding away with one dog, three cats and a black box labeled “EVAC.”
Left behind were McNally's wallet, Benoit's wedding ring and one of the last Christmas tree farms in Butte County.
The Camp Fire destroyed this town and killed at least 86 people last month, one of the worst wildfires in U.S. history. Many of the things it stole will not be replaced, including a local landmark, Mountain View Christmas Tree Farm.
McNally, 71, and Benoit, 70, said they are too old to replant and start over, and so their scorched-earth farm joins hundreds of others that have closed in recent years, most of which were felled by economic forces, retiring proprietors and America's affinity for fake trees.