Man who lost home in Camp Fire gets pardon from governor for old drug conviction

PARADISE, Calif. -- Exactly 24 years after he was sentenced to jail time and probation for a drug conviction as a teenager, a man whose home was destroyed in a deadly Northern California wildfire learned he had been granted a pardon.

Jason James Burnett received word of the pardon less than two weeks after the fire killed dozens and reduced the town of Paradise to rubble.

A spokesman for California Gov. Jerry Brown said in an email that the wildfire played no role in the decision to grant Burnett a pardon. She said the governor's office only learned Burnett had lost his home when they called to tell him the good news.

Burnett said getting the call from the governor's office was "the best news I'd had in a couple of weeks."