A California man was forced to watch two of his homes burn to the ground over the past six years due to devastating wildfires that also killed his cat.
Rick Pero’s Forest Ranch property has been devastated by the Park Fire, the massive wildfire currently raging through Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties.
But it’s déjà vu for Pero, who had to leave his previous home in Paradise six years earlier when the Camp Fire devastated the area in November 2018.
The two-week-long blaze was the deadliest in California history, killing 85 people and destroying more than 18,000 structures, including the home where Pero lived with his wife. Sadly, his cat did not survive the recent inferno.
“There was a chair that he loved to hide under because he was a little bit shy. Sure enough, they found out he was probably curled up there,” Pero said. Action News Now as he recalled how first responders found his beloved pet, named Catmandu.
Californian Rick Pero (pictured left) has revealed he was forced to leave his home after it was destroyed by wildfires on two separate occasions.
“There was a chair that he loved to hide under because he was a little bit shy. Sure enough, they found out that he was probably curled up there,” Pero told Action News Now as she recalled how first responders found her beloved pet, named Catmandu.
A California man has revealed he was forced to leave his home on two separate occasions over the past six years after it was destroyed by wildfires.
“We need to let him go and close that chapter and appreciate the years we had him and now he’s at peace.”
“He had a pretty crazy life,” Pero said, adding that they also had another cat named Riley.
‘Our two cats were rescue cats and he had been found at Scotty’s house. We found him at the SPCA and he just hugged us. He was part of the family.
‘Neither my wife nor I had children, so he was our little furry one, our furry boy.’
The couple is receiving support from the nonprofit disaster response organization Team Rubicon, who are helping them unearth all surviving possessions, such as jewelry, from the slaughterhouse.
But he said that like all of his neighbors, his home was also completely destroyed by the Camp Fire.
“There was a chair that he loved to hide under because he was a little bit shy. Sure enough, they found out that he was probably curled up there,” Pero told Action News Now as she recalled how first responders found her beloved pet, named Catmandu.
The Park Fire, which started in Chico on Wednesday, has grown into a 307,368-acre behemoth as it rages across two counties in Northern California.
But he revealed that he is considering leaving the state for safer territory.
And they are not the only ones.
A new report shows how climate change will transform American cities in the coming years as people increasingly abandon “danger zones” of flooding, heat and wildfires, such as Northern California, in favor of calmer climes.
Scientists told DailyMail.com that several cities are “dying slowly” as residents flee popular waterside destinations that are prone to flooding, with many metropolises predicted to look “dramatically different” in just a few decades.
The Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Providence and Las Vegas areas are cited as major metropolitan regions predicted to experience the largest proportional exodus due to flood risk.
Meanwhile, relatively ‘safe’ areas such as Jefferson County in Louisville, Kentucky, is experiencing an influx of new residents.
Dr Jeremy Porter, director of climate implications at the First Street Foundation, which produced the peer-reviewed report, told DailyMail.com that people are increasingly basing their relocations on climate factors.
In 2023, the United States experienced 23 disasters in an eight-month period, resulting in losses of at least $1 billion each (on map), eclipsing the previous annual record of 22 events with a 10-figure cost in 2022.
“In the last five years, people have really started paying attention to climate data as something that impacts their movements,” he said.
Polls support him. A recent one Zillow A report found that 80 percent of Americans consider climate risks when looking for a new home, while Forbes published a study showing that 30 percent of homeowners say climate change was the reason for their move.
First Street’s study identifies the top ten “climate departure zones” in the United States: metropolitan areas where people are leaving in droves due to the increasing risk of climate events disrupting their lives and businesses.
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