May you find Paradise to be all its name implies

A blog for fire victims to share/submit their confessions and experiences. Runs on a queue.

[firevictimconfessions]

Rules/info:

This is a judgement-free blog. I am not here to place judgements on others and their experiences. I am here to listen and engage.

I created this blog mostly for confessions, but you can always talk about your experiences or anything else on your mind. It doesnt have to be a confession, but please clarify if your submission is not a confession so I know how to post/tag it properly.

I will tag triggering subjects to the best of my ability (ie: suicide; self harm; burn mentions) Please let me know if I missed a tag or if you need me to tag anything else in particular. (I'm gonna tag basically every post as "#fire" so you can black list if needed)

My name's Shaun. I use they/them pronouns. I grew up and lived in Paradise, California before the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed our home. I have post traumatic stress disorder and have been going to therapy since the fire. I created this blog to connect with other survivors or to scream into the void about my trauma.

[michaelblume]

This is your annual warning that *there will be no warning* when fire season is about to start. Nobody’s going to post “Hey everyone, remember, fire season starts next Friday!”. The state will just catch fire. You will wake up and the sky will be orange. It could be tomorrow, it could be July, it could be August, we could get incredibly lucky and skip it altogether. If you hope to buy an indoor air purifier before fire season, if you want to ensure everyone in your home has a P100 for going outside, if you want to stockpile water and you haven’t already, the time to do it is today.

[firevictimconfessions]

might starting sharing music related to my trauma/fire and what not. think that might be interesting.

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #20:

Feeling homesick for a place that doesnt exist anymore.

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #19:

Hating the phrase “spread this like wildfire”

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Fire victim confession #18:

Feeling like a stranger to yourself and like you’re just slowly watching your life pass by as you still attempt to comprehend and process a trauma that happened three years ago

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Fire victim confession #17:

Having an overattachment and loving your job too much because it’s the only thing and place that doesnt remind you of your town or your fire trauma or everything you lost

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Fire victim confession #16:

When people tell you “it’s just stuff”

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Fire victim confession #15:

When people say “I’m praying for you” or “you’re in my thoughts” but you dont want prayers or thoughts, you want people to donate to firefighters, you want people to give money to wildfire organizations, you want people to help out at homeless shelters, you want people to be educated and educate others on the effects of global warming and how serious and real it is.

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #14:

Wanting your house back. Wanting your innocence back. Wanting your things back. Wanting your life back.

[merelygifted]

New York air quality among worst in world as haze from western wildfires shrouds city | New York | The Guardian

[gwydionmisha]

California prepares to bury 10,000 miles of power lines as wildfires force new evacuations

Tamarack fire spreads from California to Nevada while weather aids firefighters in Oregon

[rjzimmerman]

Wildfires Have Changed. Why Hasn’t Firefighting?

Wildland firefighters sound the alarm on a system that leaves them underpaid and overworked

Excerpt from this story from Sierra Club:

Four months after retiring from a 31-year career in wildland firefighting, Riva Duncan addressed members of Congress while holding back tears.  

“I have grown weary of losing amazing friends and colleagues, and I have grown impatient with inaction,” she said, her voice wavering but clear. “The US is burning, wildland firefighters are struggling, and some are even dying. The time for reform is now.”

Duncan talked about the stress these federal employees face, about friends struggling with suicidal thoughts, and her experience bringing fallen firefighters home to their families. Some of the challenges she described stemmed from the unique conditions firefighters faced in 2020 as they dealt with COVID-19 while historically destructive fires spread across the West. Duncan was a chief fire staff officer at the time, and she says more firefighters in her program approached her with mental health distress and other issues than at any point in her career.

Those issues run deep, she explained. There’s the salary, which starts at $13.45 an hour for the seasonal workers that make up about 30 percent of the workforce. There’s the lack of benefits to address the physical and mental tolls of the job. And the job title isn’t even “wildland firefighter,” as they’re colloquially known, but the generic “forestry technician,” a description that does not even classify them as first responders or mention the word “fire.” All of that is against the backdrop of a worsening fire landscape, as conditions created by climate change and a century of suppression policies turn fire season into a year-round event.

GRWFF [Grassroots Wildlands Firefighters] is calling for structural shifts that would address this by giving wildland firefighters their own separate government classification and pay scheme. This would allow for new and specialized roles that prioritize both suppression and preventative work, rather than one coming at the expense of the other. They’re also asking for an across-the-board 50 percent pay raise, as well as increased health services and a reporting system to flag and track concerns.  

Some of these measures are in legislation that has been introduced in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. The White House has also taken temporary measures to address the salaries and staff shortages for the rest of the year. These include instituting a $15 per hour minimum wage and supporting the creation of more year-round federal firefighting roles, as well as bringing on new hires—if they can be recruited, of course.  

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #13:

Feeling exhausted all the time because you are in the constant state of grieving everything you lost in the fire

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #12:

Not being able to effectively put your grief into words or communicate to others how much you grieve

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #11:

Feeling like no one will understand just how much you grieve

[firevictimconfessions]

Fire victim confession #10:

Now hating the colors red and orange