Clean-up has started in Chinese Camp after the TCU September Lightning Complex Fire ripped through the Gold Rush town earlier this month.

"This has always been my home and now it's destroyed and there's absolutely nothing we can do right now except keep surviving," said Maryanne Martinez-Patrick, who lost her home in the fire. "We are going to make it."

She and her husband, Robert Patrick, may have lost everything on their property, but they are not losing hope.

"This is where the campians survive," said Robert.

The couple is living out of a trailer and tents on their burnt-out property, surrounded by blackened metal that is now only memories.

Tuesday marks the first phase of recovery, with state-certified cleanup crews searching for hazardous materials, such as propane tanks and batteries. They then place placards on properties, clearing the way for homeowners to move in and sift through the rubble.

The community still has a lot of questions about how they got here.

"Why? Why was the fire allowed to burn in the Red Hills for hours approaching town?" said Denise, who only wanted to be identified by her first name.

Denise's home survived, but her garage, which was full of decades of antiques and relics, is unrecognizable.

She said the Gold Rush town she grew up in and raised her children in now looks like a war zone.

"It was just block after block of smoldering ash and metal sticking up," said Denise. "I have never seen anything like that."

Non-hazardous debris won't be removed until phase two, when homeowners will have the option to pay to do it themselves or opt into a state program. That will require moving off the property for the clean-up.

"Every year, you could always rely on Chinese Camp being Chinese Camp, and now it's completely changed," Martinez-Patrick said.

The community is devastated but determined to recover.

"We will rebuild," Patrick said. "We are not going anywhere."

The Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services said it is trying to complete the cleanup before the first rainstorm of the season.