Woman who escaped California wildfire just before son’s birth is forced to flee another while pregnant again

When 24-year-old Arielle Penick fled her home in Oroville, California, from the Thompson Fire Tuesday, she says it brought back memories of evacuating Paradise during the 2018 Camp Fire.

When 24-year-old Arielle Penick fled her home in Oroville, California, from the Thompson Fire Tuesday, she says it brought back memories of evacuating Paradise during the 2018 Camp Fire. “We just see a pummel of smoke in the sky. And the PSTD from the Camp Fire kicked in instantly, especially with how big the cloud of smoke was,” Penick said. The Camp Fire was the deadliest wildfire in California’s history. Before the Maui fires, it was the deadliest wildfire in the US in more than a century as well, according to the National Fire Protection Association. On Tuesday around 2:30 p.m. PT, Penick packed up her things in Oroville with her 5-year-old son, her fiancé and her fiancé’s two kids. The family is among the thousands of residents evacuated as the Thompson Fire continues to burn in Butte County, just about 20 miles south of Paradise. “By then, you could just see the cloud of smoke right there behind my house. And it started to get orange,” Penick said. “We gathered as much stuff as we could. Our three dogs, our dog crates, all the dog food, my kids’ favorite toys, all their diapers and wipes, their favorite bedding, their chairs.” After the Camp Fire, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) reached an $11 billion settlement with insurance companies and admitted it was “probable” that its equipment started the 2018 Camp Fire.