num_pages: 432
description: The definitive firsthand account of California's Camp Fire--the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century--and a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies as the climate crisis unfoldsOn November 8 2018 the people of Paradise California awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire was upon them gobbling an acre a second. Less than two hours after it ignited residents were trapped in flames cremated in their homes and cars. By the next morning eighty-five people were dead.San Francisco Chronicle reporter Lizzie Johnson was there as the town of Paradise burned. She saw the smoldering rubble of a historic covered bridge and the beloved Black Bear Diner and she stayed long afterward visiting shelters hotels and makeshift camps. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and reams of public records including 911 calls and testimony from a grand jury investigation Johnson provides a minute-by-minute account of the Camp Fire following residents and first responders as they fight to save themselves and their town. We see a young mother fleeing with her newborn; a school bus full of children in search of an escape route; and a group of paramedics patients and nurses trapped in a cul-de-sac fending off the fire with rakes and hoses.Johnson documents the unfolding tragedy with empathy and nuance. But she also investigates the root causes from runaway climate change to a deeply flawed alert system to Pacific Gas and Electric's decades-long neglect of critical infrastructure. A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires Paradise is the gripping story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again.
language: English
title: Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire
publisher: Crown