Fire in Paradise

De: Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano

Narrado por: T. Ryder Smith

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, 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.

©2020 Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano (P)2020 Recorded Books

First rate.

Great history of California. Great Science book of Geology and Fire. Terrific fire story book.

A gripping view of an American tragedy

I decided to listen to this audiobook because I have a therapy client who lived through the experience. I watched a lot of the coverage of the event at the time it happened, including some of the harrowing videos made by people in the process of trying to get away from the fire. The book was well-written on many levels. It was the story of what happened on the day of the fire, both in terms of the movement of the fire and the personal stories of several individuals who lived in Paradise. The description of the decisions that people made about whether to leave or "wait it out" were interesting examples of how people weigh various kinds of information versus going with their gut feelings. There were tragic stories of people who stayed behind, including because they thought that they could save some of the homes, and the regret and guilty feelings of people who wish that they had insisted that their loved one leave while there was time. There were many stories of how people helped one another, some in heroic ways. And a description of the immediate and longer-term aftermath of the fire. Several aspects of this were, of course, very sad. I came away with an appreciation of the people who lived in Paradise, in their fierce independence, caring and respect for one another, and their love of their natural surroundings. Another layer of the book involved the political and economic aspects of the management and mismanagement of the fire by the electric company along with the inadequacy of the federal response in terms of emergency management. This information was woven throughout the story without detracting from it. The narrator was an excellent choice for this book. He had a sort of "grizzled" voice that fit perfectly with the story. He was able to convey the urgency of the situation during the suspenseful passages describing the height of the emergency and to adjust his pace and delivery for other sections. I listened to the book straight through.

Very informative

The narrative was easier to follow because of player’s storylines, but still dove into causes of fire, and what came after.

Very Good Narrative

The book was well written, and the narrator did an excellent job. The characters were well developed.

Paradise Native

A great informative read of the events. David Hawks was my neighbor and I am so proud of his heroic deeds that day. I am a Paradise native who's been physically away for years but my parents lived there for 45 years ( mom did, dad passed away before her) and my brother lived in Magalia so I visited often an my heart was, and still is, rooted in Paradise. This was a very interesting read. I knew the roads, schools, and landmarks. Growing up in Paradise was like growing up in Mayberry, USA in the 1970's So many of us went to school together from K-12 and were all friends. I graduated in 1985 so Paradise had about 18,000 people and was still considered a small town. It was the best childhood you could have asked for. Swimming at the public pool, in the rivers and creeks, fishing in the Feather River, water skiing in Lake Oroville, running around barefoot, riding bikes all over town, our canyon swing (a rope on a tall oak and a single board that swung out off a sheer drop off of Butte Creek Canyon that was behind my best friends house) and hiking anywhere.