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The documentary filmmaker behind Paradise Reclaimed is now living the life she once documented after losing everything in Palisade fire.
Tracy Droz Tragas found herself and her family had to quickly evacuate their home Pacific Palisade On January 7, a date tree burned down. After documenting the aftermath of the 2018 camp fire, Droz Tregas knew you’d be stuck in limbo if you didn’t act fast. The family did not take anything with them.
“Honestly, I thought it was a run, I don’t know why,” Droz Tragas said The Hollywood Reporterp. “You really don’t think it’s going to happen to you.”
Droz Tragas lost everything and has been living in an Airbnb near her family in Santa Barbara ever since. “An entire community has been wiped off the face of the Earth,” she told the publication. “And it’s not just your house – it’s your neighbor’s house. This is the park where you walked and enjoyed the shade of the trees. This is where you drink coffee. Where your child goes to school. All this.”
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Tracy Droz Tragos lost her home in the Palisades fire. The director is known for her work documenting the aftermath of the 2018 campfire. (Getty Images)
Droz Tragos is known for her documentary “Reclaiming Paradise”. The film, directed by Ron Howard, used footage of her from the time she spent with residents affected by the Camp Fire in Butte County in 2018.
Fire place the entire city of Paradise, California, was almost destroyed – 95% of the territory was burned. Since then, most of the city has been rebuilt and thousands have returned to the city.
The documentary filmmaker’s time with residents who lost everything gave her unique knowledge about what to grab during a quick evacuation.
“The neighbors said, ‘Why are you bringing toilet paper?'” Droz Tragas recalls. “And I said, ‘Trust me, you can find yourself in a situation where you don’t have a bathroom and you really wish you had toilet paper.'”
Air tanker drops fire on Palisade. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Droz Tragos lived in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a coastal enclave for part of California’s elite. However, the director emphasized that not only the wealthy and famous live in the neighborhood.
“I know people think Pacific Palisades is fancy, but there’s a whole part of it that’s really not,” Droz Tragas told THR. “It’s intergenerational. The high school is a really cool place for my kid to go to school and meet people from all over.”
A man walks through the destruction left behind by the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on January 9. (AP/Jae C. Hong)
“But he is not there. The library is gone, the grocery store is gone. All points of contact with the community have disappeared. The place where the fancy 4th of July parade takes place is gone.”
“There’s a sign in the barbershop that doesn’t exist anymore: If you’re rich, you live in Beverly Hills, if you’re famous, you live in Malibu, and if you’re lucky, you live in Pacific Palisades.”
Droz Tragas shared some of her thoughts and news about her situation on her Instagram. Caption next to a photo of the board reads partially“I’ve been in survival mode – right now – 48 hours after learning about the loss of our home and Chris and my home offices (our only offices). We’ve moved on from what happened immediately after and are in a slightly different place.” what now.” All the former to-do lists suddenly lose their meaning – are replaced. We start creating completely new ones.”
She too shared a photo of herself holding a sign that reads, “You never know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. For example, toilet paper.”
In the caption, she wrote in part: “I don’t know what to do with the sadness that comes in waves. The mug I’ll never see again – the clothes I’ve collected for special occasions throughout my life that will never be replaced. Great-Great-Grandmother watch, when I see photos of our Christmas tree, my heart aches – it’s all gone.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Droz Tragos for further comment.
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On November 8, 2018, a home burned as the Camp Fire moved through Paradise, California. Fueled by high winds and low humidity, the fast-spreading fire engulfed the town of Paradise and quickly charred 18,000 acres, destroying dozens of homes in a matter of hours. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Camp Fire 2018 documented by Droz Tragas “Paradise Restored”, will be reviewed again with The Lost Bus by Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis’s Comet Pictures and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse have teamed up to make a movie based on Lizzie Johnson’s book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive America’s Wildfires.
Known as the deadliest wildfire in California history, the Camp Fire destroyed more than 18,000 homes and businesses, killing 85 people. “Lost Bus” will tell the story of Kevin McKay, a bus driver, and Mary Ludwig, a school teacher, who help save 22 children from a school during a flash fire.
Matthew McConaughey is in talks to star in the film to the deadline. However, sources say no deals have been done and the film still needs a green light from the studio.
Fox News Digital has reached out to a representative for McConaughey for comment.
Matthew McConaughey is reportedly in talks to star in Jamie Lee Curtis’ Lost Bus movie. (John Nation/Getty Images)
Aerial view of the devastation caused by the Camp Fire on November 15, 2018. in Paradise, California. Ninety-five percent of the city was destroyed by forest fire. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Destruction in Los Angeles began on January 7 following Palisade Fire started burning around 11 am local time. By the end of the day, three fires were completely extinguished in the region. Since then, more fires have broken out, prompting more evacuations.
Water is dropped from a helicopter on the Kennett Fire in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9. (Ethan Swope/AP)
Multiple fires burned for days and reduced 10,000 homes and businesses to ashes, killing 10 people and displacing thousands in the Los Angeles County area.
In total, as of Friday, the fires had burned about 56 square miles (142 square kilometers) — larger than the size of San Francisco.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
