Coming Out of the Refiner's Fire
- Maria Hathcock
- Apr 2, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 5, 2021
From the December 2020 Ensign magazine: "It's a question as old as humanity: why do bad things happen to good people? Why are some spared (from the calamities) , while others must endure and overcome? Scriptures and Church leaders can provide a prospective. We can also gain understanding from survivors themselves. In November 2018, fire raced through the town of Paradise, California so rapidly that there wasn't time for most people to do anything but get out. When it was all over, 90% of the town was destroyed. More than 11,000 homes had burned to the ground." Carol Danz and her family lived in Paradise at that time. This is her story.
Thursday, November 8, 2018:
"Hey guys, put your phones down, would ya?" said Brother Doug Danz to his early morning seminary students. "But Brother Danz, there's a fire." "Hmmm. Okay, then you guys better head home." It was almost the end of the class anyway. Upon looking outside, Doug noticed that there were no immediate indicators of a fire. Besides, we'd received many fire warnings at other times, and we always ended up returning to our homes after evacuating for a short time.
Usually Doug continued down the mountain and headed towards his workplace in the valley. This time he thought he'd better call home first. He called home and got the family's answering machine, so he talked loudly into the machine, knowing someone would hear his voice in real time: "Hellooooo? Wake uuuuuuppp. There's a fire. Wake up you guys." After a few moments, I woke up and answered the phone. "What's up?" "There's a fire. You guys better pack up."
Instinctively from past fire warnings, I woke everyone up to pack enough stuff for a week or so, and immediately drove the truck to the gas station, knowing there would be a run on gas stations. When I drove to the gas station and saw the smoke and clouds overhead, I knew this fire was different. I filled up the truck, then headed back for the other car to get into the gas line. I only filled it halfway before the gas pump ran out of gas. Better than nothing, I thought.
On his way home, Doug stopped at an overlook and could see the red/yellow firesmoke coming up over the ridge toward our canyon. Upon finally returning home, Doug packed the truck. Our daughter and my mom were also packing up some things to take with us. We were still expecting to return. I immediately ran upstairs to pack up all of our family history stuff: journals, photos, yearbooks, etc. etc. About 12 full boxes of family history stuff were packed into the truck. As I went to pack my clothes and take a quick shower, Doug came up to me and said seriously, "Carol, we have to go NOW." No shower.
Although we saw no fire yet, he felt an urgent prompting. We said a prayer in the driveway before leaving. While praying we could hear the popping and pfffft of propane tank explosions. As we drove away we saw our neighbors' homes engulfed in flames. Thank heaven I didn't take those precious moments to take a shower! At that moment, we knew we'd never see our home again. Ninety percent of our mountain town of about 40,000 burned to the ground. Our home, our church, our neighborhood, our town. Gone in a matter of hours. Fear. Confusion. What to do now? Where to go? Why did this happen to so many of us?
Tender mercies awaited and spiritual courage was granted. Approximately four years earlier, our stake president had a prophetic dream warning him to prepare for a huge emergency. What kind of emergency, he didn't know. But when the Paradise saints came off our mountain to the stake center, our stake president was ready.
What awaited us at the stake center the week after the fire was amazing. There was a ton of decent clothing, all neatly folded, stacked and sorted on tables according to size, gender, clothing type, etc., whereas everywhere else in town, clothes were just depressingly thrown into giant piles. In adjacent rooms to the cultural hall there were endless snacks in one room, garments distributed in the high council room, and another room had baby items. There were shoes lining each of the hallways, hygiene items in another room, bedding items in another, and a table of hot food in the cultural hall. In the foyer there was one person at a laptop providing names and addresses of members' homes (who were not affected by the fire) where Paradise members could stay temporarily until we found our bearings. Another person was at a laptop ready to complete food orders from the bishop's storehouse and others were passing out desperately needed gift cards.
We wound up hanging out in the relief society room every day of that week where we set up our laptops and tried to prayerfully identify what to do next. We were guided and directed by God in each decision that we had to make. And that sort of personal revelation continued for the next two years. We look back and know that angels and spiritual direction guided and protected our family, the Church members and others on the mountain that day. Even after that November day when we fled from our home, He continued to provide for our needs. Though there were no rentals available two hours north and two hour south (including campgrounds, trailer rentals, hotels, rental homes, etc etc.), by the grace of God, we obtained hotel rooms for the next six months until we could find our feet...and a house to rent.
In the two plus years since the Paradise Camp Fire, we've learned to recognize the temporary immaterial nature of material things, the importance of God in every corner of our lives, the need for emergency preparation, and the kindness of other humans who aided us. We know, without a doubt, that personal revelation can guide us in our darkest moments and that God, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and family are EVERYTHING. I've also learned that things could always be worse. So many of my brothers and sisters in other parts of the world suffer unspeakable horrors that make my suffering seem minuscule, which it is by comparison.
After much prayer and inspiration, my husband and I chose not to rebuild in Paradise. We had lived a wonderful life there for many years, but it was time to move on. Interestingly, personal revelation led us to the little town of Aztec, NM. We had considered a number of places to live, however, one of my conditions was that we would move to an area where we would not have to deal with another forest fire. After we moved to Aztec, all the other places we had considered had major fires. I have seen God in my story this whole time, and I have been the beneficiary of His tender mercies. I know that God has placed me in this part of his vineyard for a purpose, and that I must spend the rest of my life paying His mighty blessings forward.
Story and pictures submitted by Carol Danz from Aztec, NM (formerly from Paradise, CA) April 2021
An amazing story. God is in our lives. I know He is in mine. So many evidences of it, I can't deny.