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Nicholas Lal

My name is Nicholas Lal and I've lived in Greenville California my entire life. My family has been in Greenville for 40+ years, and I was raised there for 18. It’s where my mom, dad, aunts and uncles were all raised. I worked at Riley's Jerky and lived with my dad nearby.

Living in Greenville was just so unique and rare. I’ll forever miss the town and area. My friends were always around and if you needed someone’s help, there would always be someone willing.

Going to high school in Greenville is an awesome part of my life I’ll never forget. After a long school day, me and my best friend Gary would load up in his truck and go explore the woods and trails. There was so much to do. We didn’t have a lot of stuff downtown, but there were always trails to explore. I could go all day long about such amazing times I had in our beautiful little town. Friends, family, there are just so many memories that got made in town.

Everyone knew everyone, anytime you went into Evergreen or Dollar General you’d always run into someone you know. Greenville had the grocery stores, the gas stations, the pharmacy. Greenville supported Indian Valley- Taylorsville, Gennesee, even Canyon Dam.

During the whole entire fire season, I was stressed out. It was like living in a nightmare I never thought would end.

When the first evacuation alert came for Greenville, me and my grandpa and two other people had just arrived back from moving vehicles to Portola just in case something happened, thank God we did! My grandpa asked me and my brother to help load up his Harley bike so of course we helped him out.

Afterwards we ran up to our house and began packing. Well, I did because my little brother was smart and packed the day before. When I got home my mind was running a million miles a second. What to grab, what do I need, what isn’t replaceable? Unfortunately I wasn’t able to grab a lot from my mom’s house. She was worried about the roadways getting backed up for miles and she wanted us out safe and sound. Things are all replaceable besides your life. To this day my mom wishes she would have given us more time to load stuff, but mom you made the right choice and I love you so much. I am forever thankful for you keeping us safe.

My family and I evacuated down to Red Bluff. My mom Monica works for the Greenville Rancheria so they were able to help with getting us a room until we thought the madness would be over.

I’ll forever remember the day Greenville burned. My mom and everybody had just left our hotel room and went down to a restaurant for dinner and to get the fire stuff out of our heads. When we arrived at the restaurant, I saw Dixie’s cloud. It looked as if somebody dropped a nuke over the hill and it sat there all day not moving- still and horrifying. Days before Greenville actually burned, I’d prayed that the winds and weather would be on our side so our beautiful town wouldn’t get destroyed.

August 4th, I had a bad/nervous feeling waking up. When we went inside the restaurant, all hell broke loose. My dad, who stayed in Greenville the entire time, texted me and said “I'm leaving Greenville now, the fire is at the bottom of round valley and is burning homes.” That's when the tears began to fill up my eyes. I sat there thinking about how people’s homes and their whole lives were getting burned away and becoming memories.

I tried to keep my cool and remain calm, I didn’t want to scare my little brother and have him think we're gonna lose our home. I went on social media to see if anyone knew how Greenville was doing, and that’s when a friend of mine posted a picture of a sign near my friend's house in Greenville that was on fire, and everything in the background was thick gray smoke with flames everywhere. That’s when it really hit me and the tears started flowing. My dad’s house was behind my friend’s house in a straight line across a field. That picture told me that my dad’s house and Kinder Avenue were destroyed by the Dixie.

I had to step outside because so much emotion and so much was going on. My mom tried to settle me down but I know how deadly and devastating wildland fires can be.

When I was outside I called my girlfriend and told her “Greenville is on fire, my dad’s was destroyed along with so much more.” After finding out that the fire reached town I wanted to stay updated but my phone died. My feelings on August 4th were so rough and depressing it was just a hot mess. So many emotions and questions flowing through my mind, it is a day I'll truly never forget.

We stayed in Red Bluff and didn’t come back for quite some time. We didn’t know what to do after losing our home. It was very stressful being away from home and watching updates from USFS, Cal-Fire etc. I would like to give a big thank you to Daniel Kearns. His updates were the best source, and it was awesome having a local who knew the area helping everybody out, thank you! I would also like to thank everyone and everybody who has helped out the Dixie Fire survivors. Everyone is truly blessed.

The Dixie Fire has left everyone shell shocked and adapting to a new life. As of now I am up in Grangeville, Idaho. A beautiful little town that’s like Greenville’s brother. We visited up here in November. Being with my family and away from the Dixie was really nice. It gave me some time to take a breather and relax. I'm not employed as I just moved. I am trying new things out. I am okay and not needing any supplies.

After Greenville burned and everything was lost, it was hard to stay positive. But we had to do the best that we could.