He was certain the Bear Fire destroyed his dream home. Then, his cellphone rang

Martin Sudicky knew his dream home was gone.

There was no chance the house he bought 11 years ago with his wife had survived the Bear Fire as it swept through the Butte County community of Berry Creek late Tuesday, so he posted a farewell photo on Facebook and the couple drove 11 hours to a home they have near Parker, Arizona, to plan what to do next.

Sudicky, a 61-year-old retired Realtor, had heard from a deputy friend that the community had been obliterated, much like Paradise was a few years back.

“I heard virtually nothing made it,” he said. “Everything burned to the ground, and my wife and I worked hard with the defensible space probably for a month. We’ve been raking for a month and taking stuff out.”

But when the order came to get out at about 3 p.m. Tuesday, the couple didn’t hesitate, heading off to Arizona while Sudicky listened to fire scanners the entire drive.

On Wednesday afternoon, he was in a Walmart parking lot preparing to go inside to buy notebooks to start making a list of the items he believed he had lost when The Sacramento Bee called to ask if he owned a home on Pine Ridge Lane.

The house was one of three structures still standing in the town of about 525 residents, which lost its elementary school, laundromat, village market, bar and nearly every other building in town.

“Oh, my God,” Sudicky said after seeing a photo emailed to him that showed his house still safe. “This is absolutely mind-blowing.”

After years of living in the area and being subjected to wildfire evacuations, Sudicky gets it. Every year, he and his wife pack suit cases and leave them in their vehicles in case there is a fire.

This week, before he left, he took about 100 cellphone photos of the items inside his home so he could list them for insurance. And when they left they carried only a large photo from their wedding and a letter from former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger congratulating his wife on becoming a U.S. citizen.

“We were just looking at each other thinking we lost our dream home,” he said. “I’m beyond words.”

Sudicky was one of only a few people with such luck.

Most of the town burned to the ground, some of it while residents watched from down the road before leaving for good.

Others did not find out what had happened until hours after Berry Creek was destroyed.

Robert Peifer, who has had a home in Berry Creek for about six years less than 3 miles from Sudicky’s, had no idea the town had burned until he got a call from The Bee.

Peifer, who spends time between working in the Bay Area and visiting his Berry Creek home, said he was last there over the weekend and had no idea the fire had destroyed almost the entire town, and his belongings and animals.

“It’s probably everything I’ve got,” he said. “A cat and four chickens, so that’s not good.

“I’ve lost my library and everything, my personal tools. Well, I’ve got to find out sometime.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 5:37 PM with the headline "He was certain the Bear Fire destroyed his dream home. Then, his cellphone rang."