CHICO — A Cohasset family is recovering after six homes within their extended family were destroyed in the Park Fire.

They were on vacation when what’s now become the sixth-largest wildfire in California history broke out in Butte County last week. They started calling friends and loved ones to get their important belongings before it was too late.

Alida Markwood told CBS13 her family home, along with those of her mother, her grandmother, uncle, cousin and brother were all impacted. At least one of the homes was a rental and was the source of income for members of her family.

Now they’re focused on what is necessary to rebuild and find comfort again.

“We don’t have a place to go home to. We don’t have a home and so I guess (it’s) a just really hectic, really busy, kind of lost feeling. I know one of the other things you asked was, you know, how we’ve been feeling, and I tried to describe it to people as like a feeling of being lost,” Markwood said.

They are staying with another family member, which Markwood said is a blessing that others may not have.

“It’s somewhere to rest,” she told CBS13.

She said she knows her family is not alone in the impact of the Park Fire. While she hasn’t been able to go back to any of the family homes to see the damage with her own eyes, a neighbor sent photos of one of the homes.

“It was a very sentimental home. My mom and dad built it together, and he passed away a few years ago. So it was like the last of him that we lost. So the sentimental side, all the little things like socks and shoes and things you can go buy,” Markwood said. “But it’s the things that are part of him and part of our family history that we can’t get back. It’s probably the hardest part to wrap your head around.”

They’ve turned to the community for support, through the nonprofit GoFundMe. The company told CBS13 that the nonprofit side was established to provide families, like Markwood’s, with money quickly after a natural disaster. A spokesperson for GoFundMe told CBS13 they can fulfill grant requests as part of the Northern California Wildfire fund in one-to-three days at times.

Markwood said her family needs support in the day-to-day as they process the losses from the Park Fire. Other members of her family impacted by the fire have turned to GoFundMe for immediate support and rebuilding funds.

A former correctional officer at a federal women’s prison in California faces additional charges connected to allegations from inmates who say they were subjected to his rampant sexual abuse while they were incarcerated, starting as far back as 2016.

Darrell Wayne Smith, who worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, was arrested on May 11, 2023, in Florida on a 12-count indictment. At the time, he was accused of sexually abusing three women in their prison cells and in the prison’s laundry room between 2019 and 2021, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release Friday that a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment that now charges Smith with 15 counts of sexual abuse, including civil rights violations against five female victims in his custody and control at the prison.

“As alleged, Officer Darrell Smith engaged in appalling criminal acts when he sexually abused those in his care and custody,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “This superseding indictment is the latest product of the Department’s ongoing work to seek justice for victims of sexual assault at FCI Dublin. We remain steadfast in our commitment to root out sexual assault within the BOP and hold to account those who so egregiously violate their duty.”

FORMER CALIFORNIA PRISON OFFICER CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ABUSING 3 FEMALE INMATES

The initial indictment against 55-year-old Smith, who now lives in Florida, charged him with 12 counts that allegedly occurred between May 2019 and May 2021. Smith engaged in separate sexual conduct with each of the three female inmate victims, the DOJ said.

The superseding indictment issued last week identifies two additional victims and three additional charges, bringing the number of charges to 15 – two for each of the victims, plus one civil rights violation arising from aggravated sexual abuse Smith is alleged to have engaged in against one of the victims.

The DOJ said Smith’s alleged sexual conduct began as early as August 2016.

FEDERAL PRISON WORKER IN CA PLEADS GUILTY TO SEXUALLY ABUSING INMATES

Darrell Wayne Smith worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif. (Anda Chu/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)

“Federal prison guards must treat prisoners humanely,” U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey for the Northern District of California said. “Victimizing inmates sexually and denying them basic civil rights must end.”

Smith is now charged with six counts of sexual abuse of a ward, seven counts of abusive sexual contact, one count of aggravated sexual abuse, and one count of deprivation of rights under color of law.

His arraignment has not yet been set for the superseding indictment, though he is currently set to begin trial on March 17, 2025, in the Northern District of California.

If convicted, Smith faces a maximum penalty of life in prison for each count of aggravated sexual abuse and deprivation of rights under color of law.

US SENATORS DEMAND ANSWERS ON CLOSURE PLAN FOR CALIFORNIA WOMEN’S PRISON WHERE INMATES WERE SEXUALLY ABUSED

Smith could face life in prison on each count of aggravated sexual assault. (iStock)

He also faces a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for each count of sexual abuse of a ward and a maximum penalty of two years in prison for each count of abusive sexual contact.

Smith is at least the sixth employee at the Dublin prison charged with abusing inmates. An Associated Press investigation last year revealed a culture of abuse and cover-up that had persisted for years at the prison, about 20 miles east of Oakland. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the Federal Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.

The prison’s former warden, Ray Garcia, was convicted in December 2022 of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison.

Since the AP’s investigation, the Justice Department has moved more aggressively in recent months to prosecute federal prison employees who are accused of sexually abusing inmates. Deputy Attorney General Monaco and Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters visited the Dublin prison in March 2023 and met with advocates working to improve conditions there.

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James Theodore Highhouse, a former prison chaplain at Dublin who pleaded guilty to abusing an inmate in his chapel office and lying to authorities, was sentenced in August to seven years in prison. He is appealing the punishment, arguing it exceeded federal guidelines.

Enrique Chavez, a food service foreman, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Ross Klinger, a recycling technician, has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced. John Russell Bellhouse, a prison safety administrator, is scheduled to stand trial soon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From coastal redwoods and Joshua trees to golden poppies and sagebrush, California is a global botanical hotspot. It’s also a place confronted with extreme heat, wildfires and crumbling coastlines.

The state’s natural beauty and history of pioneering conservation efforts make it a test bed for protecting biodiversity in the face of current and future climate change, argues a study led by the University of California, Davis.

Published July 29 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study, “Climate Change and California’s Terrestrial Biodiversity,” is part of a special PNAS issue on California sustainability.

The study concludes that California’s 30 x 30 Initiative to preserve 30% of its lands and coastal waters by 2030, along with efforts to harmonize biodiversity conservation and renewable energy, is a promising step. It also highlights the need for California to shift away from its decades-long fire suppression policies and adopt fire strategies reflective of new fire regimes.

“California has had a history for over 100 years of being a leader in protecting the environment—from setting aside parks for people to climate adaptation,” said lead author Susan Harrison, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. “The threats are extreme and unprecedented, but California has always been a state where creative new solutions have emerged.”

California’s climate has become warmer, drier and more variable since the mid-1900s, the study noted. It examined major threats climate change poses to the state’s biodiversity and sustainability. These include the impacts of shifting plant biodiversity, land-use change, wildfire and renewable energy, and the policy responses to those challenges.

Hot spots on the move

The authors modeled the distribution of about 6,400 native plant species, identifying 15 regional plant biodiversity hot spots—from small areas, such as the Channel Islands, to vast parts of the Sierra Nevada and coastal ranges.

The models indicate these hot spots could lose an average of 19% of their native plant species by 2080 under current climate projections. California’s complex mosaic of microclimates means the state’s species could respond in a wide variety of ways to climate change. Some hot spots are expected to move toward the coast or upslope, while others remain or disappear.

Those stakes help outline the need for renewable energy projects to align with expected biodiversity shifts and needs. For example, Molok Luyuk, or Condor Ridge (formerly Walker Ridge), was slated for wind development projects along its blustery ridge despite its rich biodiversity, before earning protection as part of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.

“This paper is pointing out that we need to be proactive,” said co-author James H. Thorne, a research scientist with the UC Davis Environmental Science and Policy department. “We can’t be reactive like, ‘Oh, this wildfire is out of control. Oh, this species is disappearing. Oh, we misplaced where this green energy site should go.’ We have tools that can be used, some of which we discuss in this paper.”

A new mindset

Wildfire is a nearly year-round reminder of the state’s hotter, drier climate.

The authors write that fire management policies in California are less progressive than its policies for climate and conservation. The paper encourages the state to move away from its longstanding policy of fire suppression and adapt its strategies to use fire as an ecosystem management tool.

State and federal agencies have set ambitious targets to increase the use of fire in land management but have been stymied by bans on prescribed fire motivated by safety and air quality concerns.

Harrison calls wildfire and climate change “game-changers” for how we think about conservation.

“Traditionally, ‘conservation’ had a restrictive meaning—we try to keep things the same. If anything goes missing, we try to put it back,” Harrison said. “But now, we require a different mindset. We need to be willing to modify traditional views of conservation. We need continual innovation.”