Eventually she found an approximate location on a California history website. In the spring of 2014, with a not-quite-1-year-old baby in the backseat, Osborne drove south from Santa Barbara.

The most destructive California wildfire, when ranked by structure damage, is the Camp fire, which hit 18,804 structures in November 2018 with 85 deaths across 153,336 acres in Butte County.

Nic Arnzen, Victoria Knapp and Steve Crowder talk about the history of Paradise, California at the town's Community Park on Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record) ...

Nic Arnzen, Victoria Knapp and Steve Crowder talk about the history of Paradise, California at the town’s Community Park on Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record) ...

Nic Arnzen, Victoria Knapp and Steve Crowder talk about the history of Paradise, California at the town’s Community Park on Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record) ...

Paradise, Eaton wildfires among California’s 4 most destructive in history CalFire's Top 20 list shows this week's catastrophes are extremely late in a typical fire season.