Mattier, whose home survived, plans to stay, and so does her sister, Flo Beauchemin, 66, who was in the process of buying a house in Paradise with her husband when the fire struck. The house remained intact and they later moved in.

"The whole street behind me burned, every house is gone," Mattier said.

Keith Means, 22, who lives in the neighboring community of Magalia, which also burned, said this week that the area feels empty. Firefighters saved his home, although the outside was burned.

"It's like a funeral," Means said, standing outside an AutoZone. "You remember everything that was alive, and it's all gone."

For some who are rebuilding, the decision wasn't clear cut. Alan and Lisa Waelbrock's home was destroyed.

"It was dust," Alan said, but they are almost ready to begin building a new house.

"What's going to prevent it from happening again?" asked Lisa Waelbrock. "I think if we had been retired, we strongly would have thought about moving somewhere else."

But they work in Chico, 20 minutes away, and their family lives in the area. They decided to rebuild because Paradise feels like home. They could walk out onto their back porch and breathe mountain air, hear crickets, frogs and birds and watch deer.

"We don't see that in Chico," Alan Waelbrock said.

Their new home will be built with fires in mind. Instead of a wood exterior, it will be concrete. The eaves will be sealed, sprinklers will be installed and the landscaping will be fire-resistant.

Sloan said he isn't worried about another Camp Fire.

"I think it's a one-in-a-lifetime event," he said. "And there's nothing else to burn."

He said he prefers to look at what Paradise will be like in five years rather than now.

"I think it will be better," Sloan said. "It's just going to be a new town."

It's also unknown whether the blaze will again deny the Paradise High School football team a chance to appear in the playoffs.

The Bobcats made the playoffs last year, but the Camp Fire forced the team to cancel the season, and they forfeited their playoff opener. This year, officials weren't even sure there would be a season because it was unclear whether there would be enough players.

Last Friday, the Bobcats completed an undefeated season, winning all 10 of their games. But because so many pupils had relocated, Paradise High School dropped to a lower classification and cobbled together an independent schedule, unable to join a conference.

Only three of the team's 48 members still live in Paradise, said Anne Stearns, athletic director of the Paradise Unified School District. Some lost their homes and are staying in surrounding communities, like Chico and Magalia.

In the division the Bobcats are in, playoff teams aren't chosen based just on their records but by a complicated points system, a big part of which is based on conference standings. As an independent, Paradise tallied no conference points.

Eight teams make the playoffs. The Bobcats are ranked ninth. There's hope they can still qualify, if certain other teams lose and if division officials decide to make a special exception, but that's a long shot.

"Last year, because of the fire, we weren't able to go to the playoffs," Stearns said this week. "And for the fire to stop us again from going to the playoffs — I mean, it can't happen. It just can't."

Even if it does happen, the Bobcats' season will have been a smashing success. The community rallied around the depleted team, which in turn helped Paradise proclaim to the world that it is still here and that it is still strong.

Trisha and Mark Floyd, whose son plays for the Bobcats, lost their home in the fire. Last Friday, they were cheering in the stands as Paradise beat Enterprise High School, 48-26, to complete its perfect season.

"It's emotional," Trisha Floyd told NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento during a break in the action. "I'm really proud to be here and to have my son on this team. We've been through a lot.

"With all the anxiety from coming up here and seeing the devastation, this is the one place that feels normal — coming here and being with all the people that we hold dear to our hearts," she said. "It's amazing."

There will likely be more construction in Paradise. Jones, the mayor, said the city has received 450 applications for building permits and about 300 have been issued. They are on track to receive 500 applications by year's end, she said.

Driving on Skyway Road into Paradise, a rocky, tree-dappled canyon plunges to the north, and a sign reading "Rebuilding the Ridge" welcomes travelers, followed by others with slogans like "We're in this together," "Don't stop believing" and "We are Ridge strong."

Almost 200 businesses are open in Paradise and surrounding communities, said Monica Nolan, executive director of the Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

Yet the town still faces challenges. School district enrollment is down about 50 percent, and the Paradise Irrigation District has lost about 90 percent of its rate-payers, forcing it to explore other business models. Clearing dead and dying trees remains an issue.

But at a community update meeting Tuesday attended by some 200 people, Nolan bristled at the "language of fear and destruction" that she said the media often uses to describe Paradise.

"It's beyond painful and not at all funny to hear that Paradise was lost. Paradise was never lost. The ridge was not obliterated," she said. The rest of her words could scarcely be heard because of all the clapping.

"We are a strong community of pioneers who look after one another," she said before eliciting an even more enthusiastic response by borrowing a line from Mark Twain:

"Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated."

Phil Helsel reported from Paradise, Alex Johnson from Los Angeles.