I was heading down to Chico on June 10th and decided to go down Centerville Road.
It's an alternate route that I regularly take to avoid driving through Paradise. As
I headed down I noticed a huge plume of smoke and stopped several places to take
photos. As I drove farther things started to get a little scary, but I wasn't in a dangerous
position so I continued. The fire grew to over 23,500 acres and spread from
Highway 32 in the north to Butte College in the south. The route I took on
the 10th is still closed. I don't know what the damage is but at this time, 74 homes
have been lost in Paradise and surrounding areas.