A sanctuary from the fires

Veterans' Section, Paradise Cemetery

Member Lorna Jones noticed a poignant detail in the coverage of the fires devastating California this week: in the town of Paradise, resident Mark Kirby found shelter in the historic cemetery. As reported in the Washington Post:

The lifelong Paradise resident had woken to the unnatural darkness outside at 8:30 a.m., and loaded up his trailer. He ended up parking in a cemetery in town — a “large area of green,” he said, where he felt he had room to move if he needed to, despite warnings from fire crews.

"I was totally surrounded at one point," he said. He spent the night there safely; the cemetery was relatively untouched.

It's a bittersweet story in the midst of our ongoing tragedy.

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