Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder is in contact with officials in Southern California to share insights on recovery efforts following a wildfire, drawing from his experience as a Camp Fire survivor and the rebuilding of the community.

Documentary filmmaker Tracy Droz Tragos, who highlighted life after the 2018 Camp Fire, lost everything in the Palisades Fire in a terrifying case of life imitating art.

Paradise is six years into rebuilding its town, and since then, leaders have improved on evacuation procedures, learned how to guide rebuilding, and set prospects for building fire-wise communities.

The home ignites, becoming the fire’s fuel. Soon, it puts off radiant heat that can ignite the exterior of the home next door, which then allows fire to penetrate to the neighbor’s carpets, furniture and appliances. In dense neighborhoods, the events play out like a contagion.

Jamie Johnston lived in a mobile home park known as Pacific Palisades Bowl. However, due to the rising cost of living, Johnston had to say goodbye

"The experience of losing your home is like a cleaver splitting life into two parts, the before and the after."

As fires continue to displace tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County, experts worry about the long-term effects on the already dire homelessness crisis.

Early estimates show that the total damage and economic loss due to the Los Angeles wildfires could be between $60 billion and $130 billion.

Droz Tragos is best known for her Grand Jury-winning Sundance documentary Rich Hill in 2014. Directed with her cousin Andrew Droz Palermo, the film looks at three working-class high schoolers in a small Missouri town and became a critical sensation when it was released a decade ago.

The Palisades and Eaton fires are now among the most destructive in California’s history in terms of the number of structures destroyed, according to Cal Fire.

Goodlin said while the damage in Southern California is reminiscent of that after the Camp Fire, with leadership she has the same hope for communities there as she did for Paradise — recovery.

Friday morning, taking a break from opening the shop with her husband, daughter and employees, Reynolds sat down for a half-hour to talk about her mayoral debut, what led to it and where she sees things headed.