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Title details for Fire in Paradise by Alastair Gee - Available

Fire in Paradise

by Alastair Gee
Dani Anguiano
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The harrowing story of the most destructive American wildfire in a century.
There is no precedent in postwar American history for the destruction of the town of Paradise, California. On November 8, 2018,
the community of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire, which razed virtually every home and killed at least 85
people. The catastrophe seared the American imagination, taking the front page of every major national newspaper and top billing on
the news networks. It displaced tens of thousands of people, yielding a refugee crisis that continues to unfold.
Fire in Paradise is a dramatic and moving narrative of the disaster based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents,
firefighters and police officers, and scientific experts. Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano are California-based journalists who have
reported on Paradise since the day the fire began. Together they reveal the heroics of the first responders, the miraculous escapes of
those who got out of Paradise, and the horrors experienced by those who were trapped. Their accounts are intimate and unforgettable,
including the local who left her home on foot as fire approached while her 82-year-old father stayed to battle it; the firefighter who
drove into the heart of the inferno in his bulldozer; the police officer who switched on his body camera to record what he thought
would be his final moments as the flames closed in; and the mother who, less than 12 hours after giving birth in the local hospital,
thought she would die in the chaotic evacuation with her baby in her lap. Gee and Anguiano also explain the science of wildfires, write
powerfully about the role of the power company PG&E in the blaze, and describe the poignant efforts to raise Paradise from the ruins.
This is the story of a town at the forefront of a devastating global shift—of a remarkable landscape sucked ever drier of moisture
and becoming inhospitable even to trees, now dying in their tens of millions and turning to kindling. It is also the story of a lost
community, one that epitomized a provincial, affordable kind of Californian existence that is increasingly unattainable. It is, finally, a
story of a new kind of fire behavior that firefighters have never witnessed before and barely know how to handle. What happened in
Paradise was unprecedented in America. Yet according to climate scientists and fire experts, it will surely happen again

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 5, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781980047711
      • File size: 220028 KB
      • Duration: 07:38:23

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With his seasoned voice and theatrical timing, narrator T. Ryder Smith presents this comprehensive study of the devastating 2018 Northern California fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed more than 14,000 homes. Smith utilizes dramatic pacing--speeding up during the nail-biting personal stories and slowing down when explaining the fire's causes (Pacific Gas & Electric failed to maintain equipment) and behaviors (it was hot enough to melt underground watering systems). The audiobook contains a remarkable weaving together of California history, fire science, climate change, individual accounts of heroism and horror, and fire trivia. (If you live in fire country, you're better off without a long beard or more than two pets.) The result is, among other things, an outstanding study of how humans create and respond to disaster. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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