Fire in Paradise

February 15, 2020
How climate change and corporate irresponsibility fueled a disaster. Making a powerful book debut, Bay Area-based Guardian journalists Gee and Anguiano draw on their extensive reporting to produce a tense, often moving narrative about the fire that destroyed the northern California town of Paradise. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of residents of Paradise and neighboring towns, public officials, first responders, and scientists, the authors reconstruct a tight chronology of events from the time the fire broke out on the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, through Nov. 25, when it was finally contained, to the weeks and months afterward, when evacuated residents sifted through the debris. The authors focus on many individuals who heroically fought the blaze and helped struggling evacuees and on many whose experiences were emblematic of the community: an elderly man who lived, with his daughter, in the house in which he grew up; a woman who had just given birth by caesarean, evacuated from a hospital tethered to an IV bag, her newborn son on a pillow on her lap; a man so disabled that he was essentially marooned in his own living room. When told to evacuate, the challenge for the town's disabled and elderly residents "was not simply getting out of Paradise. It was getting out of their own homes." The town's evacuation plan proved woefully inadequate: No one had foreseen a fire that would impact the entire town, but the Camp Fire, as it became known, continually jumped firebreaks, whipped by unusual wind patterns. Downed power lines and abandoned, charred cars blocked roads; heavy smoke impeded visibility; embers--"it looked like rain coming down of red and blue," one woman observed--ignited houses, and entire neighborhoods were quickly reduced to rubble. The fire gained notoriety as "the most expensive natural disaster of 2018" and incited anger against Pacific Gas & Electric for its inadequate oversight of its infrastructure. PG&E became "a byword for negligence and corporate greed," and Paradise became synonymous with tragedy and resilience. A riveting narrative that provides further compelling evidence for the urgency of environmental stewardship.

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March 16, 2020
Guardian journalists Gee and Anguiano deliver a tense and detailed account of the 2018 Camp Fire, which devastated the town of Paradise, Calif. The deadliest fire in California history began in the early morning hours of November 8, when high winds snapped a power line, shooting off sparks that ignited the underbrush. The fire rushed through the community of Concow and into Paradise, where it destroyed 6,000 acres by 10 a.m. and ultimately killed at least 85 people. Gee and Anguiano’s interviews with residents feature stories of survival and disaster, including a family and their pets swimming to safety as their home burned behind them, the evacuation of a hospital, and an 82-year-old former volunteer firefighter’s efforts to save local landmarks from the blaze. The authors also report on search-and-recovery missions, relief efforts, and lawsuits filed against utility company Pacific Gas & Electric by victims. Gee and Anguiano vividly describe the conflagration without sensationalizing it, and their blow-by-blow reconstruction is balanced by background information on the history of wildfires and the links between their proliferation and climate change. This impressive report makes a convincing case that such tragedies as the Camp Fire are not a freak occurrence, but a glimpse of the future.

April 1, 2020
The November 2018 Camp Fire devastated Paradise, California, killing at least 85 people and destroying 90-percent of the town nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Gee and Anguiano both live in San Francisco and covered the unfolding tragedy for the Guardian. Drawing heavily on the powerful interviews they conducted at the time and in the stunned aftermath, they have created a gripping account of the fire and how it affected the community. The narrative is bolstered by regional history, an awareness of the increasing prevalence of California wildfires, and the culpability of the giant power company, Pacific Gas and Electric, in the state's unfolding climate crisis. By providing readers with such an intimate chronicle of the fire and curating a nearly overwhelming cascade of stories from those at the center of the disaster, the authors do an important job of establishing a time line of the destruction. There will likely be many more books about the Paradise fire, especially investigations into PG&E's role, but Fire in Paradise is a powerful start.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from April 1, 2020

Gee and Anguiano, Guardian reporters from the San Francisco Bay area, have penned a gripping, in-depth account of the Camp Fire that devastated Paradise, CA, on November 8, 2018, killing at least 85 people. The authors interviewed hundreds of residents, some with relatives who died in the fire, along with first responders, local officials, and scientists, to uncover the events leading up to and during the fire. They document the almost total destruction of Paradise, then cover the aftermath of the fire and the start of the town's recovery. They provide information about fire science and the drought-stricken vegetation as well as weather conditions and other factors that fed the Camp Fire. Telling the story from myriad points of view as events unfold, Gee and Anguiano share the actions of fire and police department personnel and citizens such as employees of the local hospital who evacuated patients in their personal vehicles as the fire closed in on the town. Gee and Anguiano also expose the culpability of Pacific Gas and Electric, whose aging infrastructure has led to numerous costly wildfires, including the Camp Fire. VERDICT A vividly descriptive, compelling, well-researched, page-turning work of narrative nonfiction, both heartbreaking and uplifting.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2019

On November 8, 2018, the terrible Camp Fire swooped down like a dragon and destroyed nearly all of Paradise, CA, taking at least 85 lives. Bay Area-based reporters for the Guardian, Gee and Anguiano here expand on their coverage of the fire and its aftermath.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.