Paradise residents observed Veterans Day on Sunday: A Tale of the Paradise Fire

On November 8 the Camp wildfire wiped out in a few hours 90 percent of the homes in Paradise, a town of more than 26,000 people, and burned down about half of the rest of the town. So one would think all the residents, most of whom are in evacuation shelters, would forgo the Veterans Day observance just this one November 11. But nope:

Michael Zuccolillo, a town councilman, would not let the fire ruin a town tradition Sunday.

Paradise has been celebrating Veterans Day with the Paradise Parade of Flags since 1999. Typically about 1,100 flags line the Skyway road. But the flags were destroyed when the Elks Lodge burned down.

Zuccolillo went on social media asking for help to celebrate the holiday and about 30 flags were donated. He and others put the flags up Sunday morning along Skyway.

“I decided as a sign of unity and hope that we’d still do the parade of flags,” he said. “It’s a sign of showing some normalcy in a sea of chaos. And just to show the hope that we are going to rebuild.”

 Mr Zuccolillo's home was among those burned down as were the homes of all other town council members. But the town hall itself did survive the inferno.    

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