It was the worst wildfire in California's history as it blasted through the small community of Paradise, killing 86 people and erasing everything in its path.

But nearly one year after the inferno, the town in the northern California foothills that was home to 26,000 people is literally rising from the ashes.

"We're building a whole entire town pretty much from scratch," Mayor Jody Jones told AFP in an interview as she prepared to address a recent community meeting about reconstruction.

Barely 4,000 residents live in Paradise today as the town prepares to commemorate the deadly wildfire that erupted in the early hours of November 8 last year.

Nearly 19,000 structures, including 14,000 homes, were destroyed by the inferno that wiped out 90 percent of the town.

Those who have come back are living in the few structures still standing or in trailers parked on empty lots cleared of debris.

"The folks here who are coming back, who are rebuilding, view themselves not as victims, not even as survivors but as pioneers," Jones said.

The road to recovery, however, has been paved with many obstacles as reconstruction has been hampered by all the toxic debris that had to be removed and chemical contamination of the water supply.

Still, Jones said, local officials are forging ahead and have so far approved some 280 building permits while another 100 or so are under review.

"It's not going to happen overnight," she said of the rebuilding effort. "If we're lucky enough to issue 500 building permits each year, it's going to take five to 10 years.

"I think we're going to be a nice little town of about 5,000 people in a year and a half and we'll continue to grow."

But the town is unlikely to ever resemble the quaint little community in the Sierra Nevada Mountains that once attracted retirees because of its affordability.

"It's not going to be the same," said Jones. "For a lot of seniors, the rebuilding process is an arduous process, so a lot of them have chosen not to come back.

"Additionally, everything will be brand new," she added. "So I think it'll be attractive to young families and people who are looking for an affordable place to live."

- Preventative measures -

Jones, who lost her home in the flames, stressed that in order to make sure last year's calamity doesn't play out again, the town has enacted stringent regulations that go beyond standard guidelines.

That includes banning wood fences running up to a home, installing fire resistant gutters, burying electricity lines, improving emergency notifications and widening evacuation routes.

Crews have also been working nonstop to reduce the highly combustible vegetation that helped feed last year's fire which burned through 153,336 acres (62,053 hectares).

"100,000 trees have already been cut down on the ridge," said Jones. "We still have a lot of burnt trees, we estimate about 300,000 dead trees that still need to come out.

"So it will not be the same kind of forest that it was before," she added. "We do have a long-term recovery plan that covers all this."

As to what is sorely missing in the town for the 4,000 residents resilient enough to call Paradise home today?

"I think they would all say they'd like to see more restaurants open," said Jones, grinning. "And that's happening, we just had a new one open just last week."

'I'm not giving up': Survivors of US town destroyed by fire rebuild
Paradise, United States (AFP) Oct 23, 2019 - For Kevin Lundy, a land surveyor who lost his home last year in the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, there is no dwelling on the past.

"I'm looking forward now," said the 35-year-old as he adjusted his work gloves before thrusting a metal post into the earth -- yet another small step in rebuilding all he lost in the fire that devastated the small town of Paradise in the northern California foothills.

"I'll rebuild my home," Lundy told AFP on a recent sunny October afternoon as his eight-year-old son lent a hand. "I'm not giving up."

The so-called Camp Fire -- which struck in the early hours of November 8 last year -- killed 86 people and destroyed 19,000 structures, including 14,000 homes, among them Lundy's.

Many of the residents forced to flee the inferno will never come back, having moved to nearby towns or leaving the state entirely.

But about 4,000 have returned in the last several months after all the toxic debris that littered the town was removed, allowing for rebuilding to start.

"I've seen what it looked like, the day after the fire," recalled Lundy, showing pictures on his phone of the scorched remains of his home.

- 'A ton of progress' -

"And I see what it looks like now," he added, with a note of optimism, as he surveyed the empty lots that dot the town. "I see a ton of progress."

Following the fire, Lundy, his son Levi and their labrador lived in a trailer stationed on a parking lot in the nearby town of Chico, and finally moved their mobile home to Paradise several weeks ago.

There was still no electricity or potable water in his area of town when AFP visited him in October but that was due to change in the coming days.

Lundy said he was initially hesitant about setting roots in Paradise again.

"I went through a period where I was in denial," he said, recalling his depression and his son's frequent nightmares after the inferno. "So I had to see it firsthand, several times, before I could actually believe that the whole town where I grew up is gone."

Lundy's 67-year-old father Hollis, who lives outside of town and whose home was spared from the flames, appeared more skeptical.

"It's not a normal life, there's a lot of ghosts," he sighed. "It will never be the same and the history of the town is gone.

"It will be a new generation, a new town."

Kyla Awalt, a mother of two who was born and raised in Paradise, was among the first residents to return as her house was one of the few that survived the Camp Fire.

But she said the once-quintessential American town that lived up to its name before the blaze doesn't feel like home anymore.

- Christmas wish -

"We felt very fortunate because we had our possessions, but we lost our community and that's been really difficult for us," Awalt, 34, told AFP. "I was born and raised here, Paradise is all I've ever known.

She said the town has an eerie sense to it today amid all the empty burned-out lots and the lack of life.

"It's very quiet. It's very lonely," said Awalt. "We miss our neighbors, we miss our friends."

An 11:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew is still in place to deter vandals but is not strictly enforced given the lack of police officers, many of whom left after losing their own homes.

The town has also struggled to recruit employees given the lack of housing and adequate infrastructure.

Throughout the community, many empty lots are waiting for hard-to-come-by buyers and a few contractors have ventured back, building homes in the hope that will help spur the local economy.

"We're trying to get people back in town," said Carrie Keel, a building contractor who owned or rented out 10 houses in Paradise before the fire.

She and her husband are in the process of installing prefabricated homes in several of the lots, aiming to attract back residents.

"We feel it's really important to provide low rent and housing for people that really want to come back," she told AFP.

As for Lundy, he is hoping his new home will be ready within a little over a year.

"Not this December, but the next one," he said. "That would be my goal -- to have Christmas morning in our house in 2020."

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