As the Camp Fire roared through Paradise, forcing evacuations in chaotic, bumper-to-bumper traffic, carpenter Brad Weldon stayed behind and picked up his hose.
His bedridden 89-year-old mother, Norma, was not going anywhere, so Weldon and his housemate, Mic McCrary, fought the flames with what they had — including the water from an aboveground swimming pool — to save their home and their lives.
Then, in the aftermath of the Nov. 8, 2018, conflagration that decimated the Butte County town and killed 85 people, the fifth-generation Paradise resident invited displaced neighbors — and many, many dogs — to share his home…