Cohasset father looks back on community after losing home in park fire

“The forecast said it was going to be windy,” Austin Petersen said. “I just thought, ‘I think this could be the summer that Cohasset burns.’

COHASSET, Calif. — Petersen is one of many Cohasset residents who evacuated their homes on July 24 after the Park Fire broke out and returned to find devastation.

He says he lost his RV, where he lived with his six-year-old daughter. Petersen says he helped his neighbor with children evacuate before eventually driving to Chico.

It has always been my lifelong dream to live in Cohasset among tall trees and wildlife.

“(My daughter and I) have camped out in the front yard a few times, it’s one of our favorite things to do,” Petersen said of his life before the fire. “My vision became a reality.”

Petersen said the fire burned not only his tools but also some of his musical equipment. He plays bass in the Chico-based band Debajito.

“I brought enough music equipment in my car to be able to continue making music with my band,” he said. “I became more and more aware of what it meant to have no home, no place to go home at the end of the day, and no place for my daughter to come home to after school.”

Petersen says that with the help of one of his bandmates, he was able to contact a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, who offered Petersen his trailer to stay in—the same trailer he had lived in during the rebuilding effort.

“He said, ‘I want to pass this on to you. I heard you lost your home,'” Petersen said. “Suddenly I thought, ‘Wow, people really care.'”

Petersen says he plans to return to Cohasset once he finds a place for the trailer before eventually building his own home.

“I hope I get the opportunity to pass the pendant on to someone who needs it,” he said.

To help Petersen with his expenses, visit his GoFundMe link here.