As firefighters gained ground on the Clayton fire Wednesday, some longtime locals, such as church pastor John Pavoni, have been left to chart a path out of the ashes.
A two-block long trail of destruction — scorched trees, collapsed walls and piles of rubble — ended at a 150-year-old United Methodist Church on 2nd Street in Clearlake.
“It’s a really small community. It has a downtown that’s one street long — and it lost half of it,” said Pavoni, the Methodist church pastor for the last three years. “I feel sad for my folks. Pastors come and go but these people stay here. Some called me — you could hear that their hearts were broken.”
The church was built with a redwood frame during Lower Lake’s farming days in the 1840s. Its roof was eventually improved to cover the small gaps between the wood planks. There were 20 hand-made wooden chairs with antique dowels in the attic, Pavoni said, and a communion table custom built by a congregate.
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