Paradise : one town's struggle to survive an American wildfire / Lizzie Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Lizzie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pacific Gas and Electric Company--History--21st century.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Camp Fire, Calif., 2018.

Wildfires--California--Paradise.

Wildfires.

History.

Paradise (Calif.)--History--21st century.

Paradise (Calif.).

California--Paradise.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 416 pages : maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Crown, [2021]

Summary:

"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 unfolds. On 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 the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the residents trapped 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"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I KINDLING

ch. 1 Dawn At Jarbo Gap

ch. 2 All Its Name Implies

ch. 3 Red Flag Over Paradise

pt. II SPARK

ch. 4 Code Red

ch. 5 The Iron Maiden

pt. III CONFLAGRATION

ch. 6 Abandoning The Hospital

ch. 7 A Blizzard Of Embers

ch. 8 Saving Tezzrah

ch. 9 The Lost Bus

ch. 10 The Best Spot To Die

ch. 11 "The Safety Of Our Communities"

pt. IV CONTAINMENT

ch. 12 The Longest Drive

ch. 13 No Atheists In Foxholes

ch. 14 Paradise Ablaze

ch. 15 Promise

pt. V ASH

ch. 16 Unconfirmed Deaths

ch. 17 Mayor Of Nowhere

ch. 18 Secondary Burns

ch. 19 Rebirth

ch. 20 Reckoning.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Johnson, Lizzie. Paradise.

ISBN:

9780593136386

0593136381

OCLC:

1243908405