Sarah here's some words to help you express what you have no words for. "How disastrous does such an utterly destructive environmental event have to be until we all join together and overcome GOP Trumpian resistence to acknowledging global warming as the root cause of this holocaust and all the types? Then work hard to rid our nation of these corrupt politicians that continue to defend the fossil fuel industry. Lastly initiate legislation to accelerate the end of fossil fuels, and the rapid initiation of green renewable energy in every sector of energy use."
3
Thank you for this story. We've had family in Chico and Paradise for several generations. Our retired cousins in Paradise made it out safely but lost their home . . . and their whole town and dozens of their neighbors. Their daily routines were wiped out in the space of 24 hours.
Is there a precedent in recent memory of an entire town burning down? I just read about the difficulty of identifying bodies with dental records when the dentist's office has also been reduced to ash. It must be similar to what happens to your coping skills when the power is off or the internet is down . . . everything you think of to occupy yourself turns out to involve electricity or google. I can only imagine what that must be like when every single thing is gone.
1
Thank you Sarah. You expressed exactly how I feel quite eloquently. Yes, for those of us in this part of California, we have a long road ahead of us. This disaster is only the beginning. It's the aftermath that will be truly challenging. In the meantime, the brave firefighters, recovery teams, and law enforcement, have their work cut out for them, and for that, we are truly grateful for all of their hard work, especially Sheriff Honea. He is the best example of honor, courage, and empathy, a great role model for these difficult times.
1
I moved here 12 years ago and I consider this my hometown as living in Chico has been the longest I've ever been in one place. I have so many mixed feelings of sadness, anger, and grief...I have friends and co-workers who have not only lost their homes, but their livelihoods. What will seem like forever
3
in terms of how this community will rebuild itself, my faith will never waver in terms of how we're all coming together as a community. What I cannot ignore is that we live in a region that is decimated by drought-like conditions with no relief in sight from mother nature. The rainfall comes later and later into the fall and winter year after year. While California is on the forefront of tackling climate change, we need to do more...if we don't, many more damning fires will happen and there will be nothing left to fight after they have ravaged through.
1
I'm retired from Paradise High but my wife still (?) teaches there. Last night we attended a event for displaced students at PV, a competing high school in Chico. The event was part rally, part donation distribution, part cementing contacts and accounting for students. The PV student had made posters, which lined the entire perimeter of the gym, and warmly greeted and cheered, when appropriate, the displaced PHS students. The assembly was explicitely told to empty the donation bins because "they would be immediately refilled" due to the overwhelming community response.
Many of our PHS students were wearing Sierra Nevada Brewery sweatshirts, gifts from the brewery along with the free meals they provided, on re-opening, to serve the displaced. This was a pleasant irony being that we had banned the wearing of alcohol related garments at the school years ago.
At this point I'm not sure if tears are more for the misery of the displaced or for the community outpouring of care.
8
I am hoping that under the new governor California will come up with some creative solutions. Heat, drought and asfierce downslope winds have always been a feature of California weather. Blaming it all on climate change is like burying one's head in the sand. There are vast livable areas where people could relocate to, with the right incentives. Save the foothills of the Sierras for recreation. Capture more of the Sierra snowmelt runoff. Improve the water works instead of fantasizing about bullet trains. Find ways to serve mountain communities with power without stringing lines through forested land. CLEAR the brush and dead wood instead of worshiping it. Widen access roads and make more of them.
3
Thank you, Sarah, for sharing this exceptional and poignant piece with us. Your talents and insights are truly needed, and welcomed, in your part, and in all parts of the world at this moment. Thank You.
2
Seriously, it does not make sense to rebuild fixed structures in areas ravaged by wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather events induced by climate change. There should be a new National Climate Insurance Program to replace the bankrupt National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to better manage the astronomical financial costs of weather disasters on homeowners and the government. Its war chest can be bankrolled by reallocating the federal subsidies of fossil fuel production at around $20 billion annually, and also regular home or business insurance premiums. The insurance holders can make claims on their destroyed structures by receiving replacement Mobile Units (imagine electric Recreational Vehicles). Instead of rebuilding on vulnerable areas and repeated insurance claims, the insurance holders can continue to live or operate in their Mobile Units on their properties and evacuate as needed, without expensive, repeated, and wasteful property repairs and insurance claims while supporting the victims' basic living needs. Such arrangement additionally alleviates a drastic and disruptive displacement and abandonment of disaster-prone communities and buys the government extra time to plan for eventual and permanent retreats.
2
Not one journalist or opinion writer has had any interest in what the Representative of California's 1st District has to say about climate change, forest management and the federal budget for it, or a response to Trump's false claims and threats. He is their Representative. A Republican, re-elected in solid Trumpland. The writer raises serious concerns that the Representative is responsible for, but I have not been able to find Representative LaMalfa in any news about this on-going disaster. He represents these people. What does he have to say? I would be very interested in what this Republican has to say about how he plans to get help to his constituents, especially since their President threatened to punish them by withholding federal funds for forest management. LaMalfa is an expert on forest management.
8
Like Nero, Trump twitters while the earth cooks and burns!
Reading about these horrible fires with so many people dead and countless homes destroyed, would it not be better to rebuild using stone instead of the ubiquitous wooden houses? It must be possible to better protect fire-prone communities in California?
2
@Christoph
Possibly other materials, but not stone, because of earthquakes.
2
I am amazed at the awesome power of man, who can stop man made global climate warming change, but can't cut down enough trees to keep his home safe.
Maybe, there should be more tree harvesting. Regardless how the fire started, less fuel means less fire.
“Call some place Paradise and kiss it goodbye”. How prophetic and poignant. Could Don Henley and Glenn Frey have done a better job of framing this disaster? “As we search to satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds.” We are not masters of the planet, we are its stewards. These endless wildfires, hurricanes and other disasters will keep driving this truth home until we finally get it. If there’s anyone left to notice.
1
A heart-wrenching and moving article. Unfortunately it arouses distressing memories of Black Saturday 7 February 2009 a day which will forever be etched in the memories of all residents of the beautiful eucalypt forests north of Melbourne, Australia. The bushfires which destroyed over a million acres on this day almost 10 years ago in and around the townships of Kinglake and Marysville claimed 159 lives and destroyed over 3,500 buildings including 2,100 houses.
Scenes of the Camp Fire which engulfed Paradise are uncannily similar to the Black Saturday fires in Australia. Fierce (80mph) winds, walls of flames along escape routes, ember attacks causing panic and confusion and the almost unbelievable speed at which the fire fronts moved.
Australians hope that survivors of the Californian fires will receive the enormous community and government support so freely given following our tragedy. I am certain that our survivors were aided in their recovery by the knowledge that so many Australians offered financial and other assistance.
6
This is worse than anything that's happened in Bush fire-prone Australia, although the 2009 "Black Saturday" bushfires in Victoria, with 173 deaths, come close.
There's likely not just one single factor that caused the fires to be so destructive. Obviously climate change is one. There has been a suggestion that there haven't been enough smaller-scale fires allowed in forested areas as naturally were allowed to occur in the past.
Many communities here can emphasise with the victims of the California fires and understand what they are going through.
For some reason bushfires in Victoria are far more lethal than those in New South Wales. For example in 2013 fires in NSW destroyed about 360 buldings with one fatality, and in the March 2018 Tathra fire, 99 dwellings were destroyed with nil fatalities. It's probably worth the U.S. authorities studying this to see why this is so.
Most Sunday evenings I call my brother living in Santa Rosa. We are both over seventy and need to connect regularly. A year ago I had to wait a week before I found out that he and his wife were alive after their fire that destroyed everything around them. Last Sunday when I called he answered with a mask over his mouth because of air pollution.
I am beginning to understand I am talking to someone in a Third World country like when I talk to one of my granddaughters who is working in one. It breaks my heart to think this. Unfortunately, this article confirms my feeling.
5
Please run for office, Prof. Pape. America desperately needs principled people in touch with reality in leadership positions.
4
Those underinsured who cannot comeback, instead must opt for living in 15+ year old RV’s that are banned from safe RV parks because they are older than ten years of age. Some may drift into RV cities setup at old military bases that have long since been abandoned, where vagrants and violence cohabitate, to be unleashed on the unprepared. Some may think they can hang on to life in California, and may be too old or now, too poor to start over elsewhere. For those rebuildiing, hopefully their home owner’s insurance will not be through the roof, as they reclaim their lives amongst the freshly seeded ashes., where fresh green grass will quickly grow, in preparation for preventing mudslides. The wealthy will probably not miss a beat and new builders will come in and buy up charred lots on the cheap, for a new cycle of prosperity to appear.
5
A year ago, we lost our wonderful home on a hillside overlooking the Napa Valley. We escaped with the clothes on our back, and watched from a distance as hurricane winds blew flaming cinders at random targets, and helicopters pulled others to safety. Thanks to wonderful friends and community, and not a little luck, we are back on our feet. We have lived in seven different places, and the plumber assured us that tomorrow we will have hot showers in what I hope is our final home. We knew that there was a risk of fire, since the mountain had burned in the past, but I have absolutely no regrets about spending a dozen wonderful years among massive oak trees, assorted birds and wild animals, sunsets and starry nights. Oddly, one of the things I miss most is going to sleep to a symphony of crickets and frogs.
I moved to California in 1969, and couldn’t love it more if I were born here. There is skiing, surfing, rock climbing, river rafting, dodging drunk drivers....many wonderful ways to risk life and limb. It is obvious that global warming is here, and we can either change our ways or accept the consequences. Watching the news of the losses in Paradise and Malibu is heart wrenching, like learning that a beloved parent has had yet another heart attack.
I love California, and except for an occasional week in France or Italy, I don’t plan to live anywhere else. Hang on, friends. The future is what we make it.
5
"In Butte County, we are flailing, trying to find the words to express what has happened, and that it’s still happening."
There are no words, neither to explain nor to comfort.
I'll make do with a "best of luck to you and your neighbors in your impossible situation. May you persevere. Condolences to the families of those who died."
8
Sixty some years ago, when I was a child, my maternal grandparents lived in Paradise. To me Paradise literally was a Paradise.
It was much smaller then. It was a wonderful place to visit and explore, with beautiful landscape complete with wild animals and grandma's backyard chickens.
After retiring from Pacific Gas and Electric in the 1940's, grandpa built four or five houses in Paradise. He would build a house, live in it for a year or two, sell it, move into a large Army field tent, then build another one. They truly loved the area and lived there for over 40 years.
My parent and grandparents have passed away and I haven't actually been to Paradise in over 55 years, but I go there often in my dreams. My family's many visits there are some of the most pleasant memories I have of my long ago childhood.
I sincerely hope that those who have survived this disaster will someday be able to look back on their time in Paradise with the same fondness. My heart goes out to them all.
12
This is a terrific article. It brings home the consequences of human-created global warming that's creating the horror of 21st century mega fires. We humans seem to often kill the things we love.
One correction: The Skyway isn't the only route to Chico from Paradise. It's the most direct route. Another way leads off the Paradise Ridge to zigzag through forested layers of ancient lava flows, down into Butte Creek Canyon into Chico.
Until the fire, that route led past the historic Honey Run Road Covered Bridge, which I first visited 50 years ago as a Chico State University student. It's a bridge I've revisited many times, usually on my bicycle. While a bike ride up to Paradise from the bridge isn't easy, it was always beautiful.
The bridge is no more. The next time I visit Chico, I'm probably not going to pedal up the charred canyon past where the bridge stood, and certainly not up to what was once Paradise.
38
@Emonda
The focus on "human-created" is the problem.
Nobody knows that. Climate is too complex.
And attempting to change it is futile.
Efforts should be directed at adapting--or dying.
Large clear-cuts of forest lands would maybe be
a start. Think about that.
2
@Emond California has always had droughts and fires. The global warming that has been measured is largely noticed in the higher latitudes where winters and nights have been less cold. California's temperature and rainfall over the last hundred years actually have not changed all that much.
Recently there has been a serious drought and a lot of dead trees have resulted. Also, the prevention of fire over many years has allowed a great deal of undergrowth to accumulate. All communities will need to be much more proactive to prevent tragedies such as occurred in Paradise.
1
@Eda The extent of human involvement is unclear, but I can tell you that if the GHG levels were what they are in the 1800s, we would not be having this discussion. Excess GHGs (what we call "pollution" but water vapour is the primary GHG) is a problem, and there was a time when we could've done something about it. I think it may even be possible to do something about it, and we'd still have to adapt.
At some point, the only thing left to do would be to adapt. But until then it's worth doing all we can to minimise the damage.
When you or your loved ones are dying, do you say "it's too futile, you should just adapt"? Or do you ask for every possible medical intervention? Most people would do their best to not die. The human civilisation is in that stage now. It will become extinct if we go about BAU.
4
When I left California ten years ago, I believed that the places I had lived and worked -- Agoura, Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Malibu, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, and Paradise -- would by heavily impacted by drought and fire within 20 years. In half that time, every one of those places has been ravaged by fire storms that destroyed entire communities and took numerous lives. My sense, now, is that this is only the beginning of a trend that is accelerating faster than we can comprehend.
In most of these fires, including the ones burning today, overhead power lines in remote, tinder-dry areas are known or suspected to have been sources of ignition in high wind events. It would be very expensive to place those lines underground and maintain them. Not doing so is proving to be catastrophic.
Ultimately, the land will dry and burn. For now, however, the burning comes at the worst possible times and overwhelms evacuation and fire fighting efforts on a grand scale. From my perspective, paying to remove vulnerable power lines from what will otherwise be disaster areas is a worthwhile investment, just as repairing and improving the levy system was a prudent undertaking that was neglected prior to Hurricane Katrina.
Take care, California. I am so sorry for your mounting losses and miserable grief.
84
There are upgrades to power lines that can be implemented to reduce fire risk, which were addressed in a court case in one of the recent horrific fires caused by utility lines. PG&E needs to do this first in rural areas. Paying contractors to clear brush isn't adequate. Placing utilities underground is also problematic. Consider water seepage.
I'm assuming those who live in wilderness areas will be faced with higher insurance premiums, which might in itself reduce the population. Seems that Paradise evolved into a suburb (from the businesses lining the main route), but wasn't situated in the geography or have the emergency services typical of a suburb.
7
Last week before the fires, when red flag warnings and high wounds were forecast, So Cal Edison announced that they would de-energize their high tension lines to prevent any blown down from starting fires.
1
@CBAll new utility wires are underground. They've solved the water seepage issue.
2
We have a fire prone second home in Socal and were evacuated in July for a few days. Living in a town in forestlands is risky as is living in earthquake country. We survived 1989 in San Francisco. So, while we've survived both thus far, there are no guarantees except that both will threaten and worsen as time goes on.
Firefighters should not die for property period.
Abatement would improve the risk factors but those well heeled folks and others who want privacy in the woods do not merit extraordinary effort to save their property and lives if they choose to remain. This is the new "abnormal."
10
@Frank Jay
I'm one who lost a home in Paradise, and in fact I agree with you vis a vis fighting to save such properties. A less tidy problem is how to protect lives (not property, mind you) in such events.
Such towns as Paradise exist for many reasons, and one important one is that it offers somewhat affordable housing. Butte County already had a critical shortage of such housing, and this has only worsened with this fire.
32
Paradise was a low income town located in one of the poorest congressional districts in CA. It was historically a retirement community attractive for low housing costs, an unpretentious town of mostly modest older ranch style homes and mobile home parks. Neither a wilderness refuge or a wealthy enclave. At the crisis shelter, 80% of the evacuees are seniors with few resources. So, skip the innuendos about wealth and escape to nature. They make you appear uninformed and callous.
71
@dl I'm sorry, but I'm glad you are all right enough to read the paper and make a comment.
Poverty Ridge is where I called home for five years during the Poppy/Slick Willie transition. The house I lived in and repaired was built by a Dust Bowl refugee who made the cement blocks by hand. He was crippled while working on Shasta Dam. We were under the power lines in back of the high school next to the bike path. The hum from the transformers was an ominous sound and the man, who had built a better house next to his original one, expressed his concern that maybe the sub-station had something to do with his wife’s cancer. People ought not to have to worry and struggle like those folks did yet I’ve met people with a thousand times as much good fortune who were a thousand times more miserable than that couple. The experience of meeting them and hearing their story was like reading a chapter right out of “Grapes of Wrath”.
Paradise was a lovely place but I don’t think it should be rebuilt, not with the way the climate’s going. Where are all the millions of people, in or out of fire zones, going to live when most of the country’s households don’t have enough money to cover anything other than a minor emergency? A New Deal is what this country needs and our next Manhattan Project needs to come up with a way to save the planet. We already know how to destroy it.
88
@I been everywhere, man—we also, very, very, very seriously, need to start controlling our population. Not by hating and deporting immigrants, but by self-control;no more fundamentalist (so-called) christians having as many babies as possible so that they can establish their "kingdom" christian government, or Mormons (please don't forget that second "m") who have as many children as possible because...well that's what Mormons do. We truly need to meet the no-more-than 1.5° C standard for climate change, whether it's "real" or just the globe heating up because we keep burning carbon based fuels. But, we also need to rethink the idea that the earth should play host to an ever increasing population. Is 8 billion more than enough; how about 10 billion? Or...
Maybe, let's try to decrease to, say, 5 billion due to intelligent breeding and attrition.
Right, it'll never fly. —sad.
34
and switch to a plant-based diet
7
@Eric Berendt-Then support birth control, for heaven sakes! And candidates who protect it, a women's right to choose, sensible family planning, sex education, and aid the promotes the same abroad--rather than shutting it all down.
14
Thank you Sarah for finding the words to succinctly express what it has been like here in Chico (15 miles from Paradise). There are so many people who have lost not only their homes, belongings, but also their livelihoods. Schools, parts of the hospital, over 260 businesses destroyed. People with no where to go left with only the clothes on their backs. And where will they go...there are very few affordable places similar to Paradise left in California. It's heartbreaking!
It is imperative that we as humans stop destroying the planet and begin to deal with climate change!
56
The fact is that California is a very high risk area to live in: earthquakes, severe droughts, very little groundwater, forest and wildfires, volcanoes, tsunamis possible....
Not a major problem when few people live there, like a 100 years ago or more, but a monumental problem when almost 40 millions people call it home. The problem are not the calamities, they are us, people — way too many for such a natural disaster prone area. Florida is a similar case.
22
@Denis Pelletier
Agreed. Population growth is the greatest problem.
But it is almost never mentioned. Tighter emissions
won't solve a thing. Climate change is too big to
predict or understand. Fewer people, Many fewer
people. New anti-Sierra Club ideas. I guess.
All of those trees. They caused more global
warming this past week, burning as they were.
2
@Denis Pelletier
I guess you've seen CHINATOWN about the link between the canals and pipeline from the Colorado river and electricity from Boulder dam making the semi-desert area of Los Angeles habitable?
Near the end of the film there is a shot of new developments going up. Water + Electricity + corrupt developers and officials......the story of California.
@Cali SolWell, you surely are correct about water and population growth in California. Not just LA, but massive growth in all of Southern California was made possible by the theft of water from Owens Valley, the Colorado River, etc. Massive dam-building, all the way from Shasta County in the far north. And we can't forget Hetch Hetchy, the water source for San Francisco.
Sarah, I send you my most serious condolences. I was raised in California and I consider it my home state. But, please, also remember that these disasters are tied to years and years of citizen and government—citizen enforced?—stupidity. Look at Prop 13 and it's aftermath.
I learned early-on that nature is, indeed, "red in tooth and claw." To expect urban class services in an ex-suburban area should require the citizen to cough-up a substantial amount in "prophylactic " service taxes. Do you remember a lot of your city/county officials propounding this? The real issue here is a rational understanding of community and the government thereof. Freedom is not just an other word for nuthin' left to lose. Freedom—even the mundane freedom of choosing ex-suburban over suburban means being not only responsible, but savvy enough to assume the responsibilities inherent in living away from the centers of civilization.
All too may of us believe that buying a 4 wheel drive SUV makes us sons and daughters of the pioneers. All it really means it that we are delusional followers of pop culture. If Paradise was a center for low income housing, would a different economic regime—higher minimum wage and higher taxes on the guilty...I mean super rich—made it unnecessary or financially feasible?
Red or blue, we are responsible .
I mourn your losses. I hope you and your neighbors are doing some soul searching to create a future.
16
Sarah, thank you for writing this. It brings tears, as does the smoke filling our air reminding us of the destruction that is continuing now. Do not read the comments that blame anyone. This is due to climate change and we are all complicit. What we do collectively is what matters. The Earth is not well and we must all unite in demanding urgent policies to stop what we can stop. However I fear that what is happening is baked in already. We need leaders that understand how absolutely urgent this is, and who will be brave enough to take immediate and drastic action.
Abrupt and irreversible (currently) climate change will bring extremes to all places. No one and nothing will be unaffected. Share all the love you can while you can. And take action.
37
Consider Al Gore.
1
@joyce
Consider studying the ecological history of California, where you'll find out these wild fires and droughts are long standing features of the climate. Nothing new; just ignored by those who believe humans can conquer nature.
Al Gore grew up in a coal mining family, 'owned' share croppers, loves flying in jets to environmental conferences, and lives in mansions.
The weather patterns and ecologies of California vary so much, that what is true about much of the state is completely unrelated to the rest of it. The Gold country is completely different from the coastal areas and the inland chaparral and Great Basin areas and the mountain forested areas. Fire has a different role to play in each.
Thanks. Great writing with an open heart. The challenge before us is unprecedented: stay calm in the face of catastrophe.
These fires are not a good forecast for the west where the confluence of an unusually wet 20th century is in the rear view mirror. Rapid climate destruction and the return of normal drier burns where we have built settlements is a recipe for more disasters.
We're going to have to shed the false gods of capitalism with this new world being born, and learn to take care of each other better. Other= all beings.
Cities like Seattle are going to see millions of climate refugees, and we will welcome you.
The tricky part is we have ignored nature's boundaries for 500 years, accelerating that kind of crazy in the last 50 years as our population explode around the world.
There is enough, but only if we leave the myth of scarcity behind and declare this and live it.
I've read that we need to invest $26 trillion to restore ecosystems, shift energy systems, and start to create a carbon negative biosphere. So there is clearly enough work ahead.
This New Green Deal will mean a WW II mobilization with our own woman president helping guide a new way economy that isn't driven by hoarding billionaires and their allies.
The revolution under way cannot be avoided. I hope we find the courage to connect, to deepen in conversations about our path forward, and build a community of all beings, fulfilling our role as stewards of this beautiful blue planet.
20
@Tim C
We lived in Seattle for all our working years and when we come back to visit we are horrified at the traffic. There may be plenty of water, but what if Mt. Rainier wakes up and blows up? Who though Mt. St. Helens would do the damage it did? And if you don't already live there housing prices are out of sight.
5
I was born in California and I have been to a lot of it. I am familiar with Paradise. It is an old town, it was a town that was established during the gold rush years. Most people are middle income. The retirees are mostly middle income and a lot of them are conservatives. It’s also a rural community with lots of low income residents as well. Most roads are country type roads without sidewalks. The roads don’t neatly crisscross into a nice grid pattern. It’s one of those places where without a good map and sense of direction you can get lost. Call somebody to come find you, lost. There is one four lane road down to the main highway and a couple of two lane roads that wind around the sides of hills, down from the butte. Making an emergency evacuation under the conditions of a fast moving fire with 27,000 other people who had no warning? Not something you would expect to work out well. It probably worked out much better than anyone would have expected but it still cost a lot of lives and that will haunt everyone who remembers.
17
This is my biggest worry about climate change - millions of homeless, uprooted fellow citizens and refugees from southern countries - who have lost everything. What structures can we put in place now, to ensure they are treated with compassion and caring? (Forget about Trump and his followers - hateful and self-absorbed.) We can do this, but planning must start now!
5
Sarah, Thank you for writing this, it adds the most personal and compassionate touch to the News.
4
See this very good article by a fire scientist who explains WHAT caused and continues to cause the California wildfires.
(To Donald Trump: they aren't forest fires).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/donald-trump-wildfires-science-forest-management
9
If I had lived my life in California, I think I’d be leading the charge to Secede from the USA. Why not ??? You get little respect from any GOP Administration, and the Trump Regime goes out of its way to insult and demean the State at every opportunity. Want to slow Climate Change and protect your Environment??? You’re on your own. BUT, you could actually succeed. I’ll be glad to join you. Seriously.
17
When we brand refugees as "the other" and send military troops to our border to confront destitute people fleeing poverty and violence, I ask you -- what happens when the refugees are us?
49
of course, absolutely no one will send a thank-you note to the oil companies that supply the gasoline that enables, among many other things, ordinary folks to flee to safety down Sierra roads and Hollywood celebrities - not known for their love of fracking and offshore drilling - to flee to their other beach house(s) in Hawaii in their private jets
4
Donald Trump is a man who knows a few things about wildfires, having started a few himself.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tower-fire-second-2018-blaze-in-sprinkler-free-residence/
5
I lost my house in Paradise: a nice house in a forested neighborhood, where I dreamed of retiring.
My son lived in the house, with all of his possessions, accumulated over the decades. My son had a workshop in the house where he operated his business. He also commuted to Chico, along with other people who were increasingly moving "up the hill" to find cheaper housing.
On the day of the fire, I called my son, but there was answer. Shortly thereafter, there was no cell connection.
My son's fiancée told me that the last time she had spoken with him, he was packing to evacuate. He had no power and needed a flashlight to see. Although it was morning, it was dark outside.
My son's fiancee set up a live-feed of traffic coming down the hill from Paradise to Chico, watching for his truck, reassured that people were still getting out.
Finally, towards evening, my son called. He had driven through the fire, only to find that the recommended route out was completely blocked. He turned around and drove in the wrong lane down a previously-closed highway to Chico, passing abandoned burned-out cars and trucks on the way.
We have been mourning the loss of possessions of many years. But I feel blessed that my son made it, and sad about the people who did not.
We need to get rid of this foolishness in Washington D.C., and address climate change at the federal level, not just the state level.
130
As soon as I came upon this article I said to myself, "I bet that so called "climate change" will be incorporated into it somehow" BINGO!
5
@gjdagis It has to be "climate" because humans don't change.
6
Wow. Bingo is not in my mind anything close to an appropriate reaction to this story about devastating loss. I take it that it made you happy to find climate change as part of the story? How about just stopping for a moment and consider that people still haven’t found their loved ones. Surely you could wait for another day to make your point?
22
@gjdagis: Ignorance is bliss.
6
It's partially California's fault if this is happening. Because of multiple causes.
Who give permission to build houses so included into semi-forest, high vegetation zones? Why didn't the builder thought of any tactics to recur to in case of wildfire?
Why didn't California government thought thoroughly after years of wildfires to figure out best practises?
Every fire is different, granted. And there's nothing to do into steeped uphill mountains apart washing them by helicopter, but you have and must put out measures of prevention were you can, either near home or in distant place, wherever you can.
Use mechanical tools, use preventive controlled fires, dig deep the ground, take measure of wind velocity on average and calculate the amplitude of no-fire zone. Do it extensively and intensively, involve the population, prepare people.
There is so much you can do in advance. It's not like that guy's idiotic speech on CNN "when a tornado comes, cutting money won't do a thing". That's right, there is no prevention from tornado, you can't block it, diminish it, move it aside. You can only defend from it using refuges underground or going away entirely. An equal idiotic response to that guy would be, "a solar panel won't stop a wildfire".
But fires are ground-rooted and wind moved and vegetation fueled, you can and you have to tackle it, when you can. where you can. And stay away from where you can't do a thing against wildfires.
4
Re: Wildfires in California
Horrible but utterly predictable.
I refer readers and commentators to Mike Davis' book Ecology of Fear and, particularly its chapter The Case for Letting Malibu Burn.
Your comment is insensitive at this time, in the midst of tragedy for those affected by the fires.
6
Thank you, Sarah. I'm a Chico girl too and it's breaking my heart.
30
The climate is a changing and the ground is a quaking and greenery is a burning. But it is not raining and snowing. Paradise is not a stable place. It is a dynamic evolving state of heart and mind.
1
The assertion that Skyway westbound is the "sole route out of Paradise into Chico" is factually inaccurate. There are several paved routes out of Paradise/Magalia that go to Chico in addition to westbound on Skyway, although the others are less indirect routes. These include the Skyway eastbound through Inskip and Butte Meadows, Honey-Run road,Neal road, Clark road, Pentz road. As written, your article implies to the general public, who have no prior knowledge of the area,that there is only one way into and out of Paradise. This is an inaccuracy that has been repeated over and over in the media since the fire hit. It would be great if you could use this platform to set the record straight.
2
@Jon Thompson
What you say is 'sort of' correct. Skyway and Honey Run road are the two roads that will take someone directly from Paradise to Chico.
It is possible to arrive in Chico using the other roads you name, but they are all roundabout means that in fact deliver one to one or another highway. Those highways themselves may not even directly lead to Chico (Pentz to 70, for instance).
Moreover, Honeyrun is essentially a one lane, steep and sharply winding road that is really only suitable for bicycles, certainly not for a mass evacuation during such an event.
6
Beautiful writing, and heartbreakingly sad. The good news, however, is that there are so many good people, generous people, caring people in this country who will do what they can and give what they can to help everyone - everyone- who has been touched by these fires. Forget the ineffectual jerk tweeting away in his White House bathroom. Most of America is not just offering the usual "thoughts-n-prayers," they're raising awareness, money, and hope! You WILL get through this!
16
A true tragedy. On a personal level it seems so overwhelming.
On another level, it makes me angry. The State Fire Marshal is responsible for setting policy and coordinating efforts to fight fire, and for many decades now their energy has gone into trying to get people to create "defensible vegetation zones" around their houses. To me, this is tantamount to blaming the victim. Such efforts are so useless and misguided. And yes, though I think highly of Governor Brown, he has failed to lead on the level of basic safety for California citizens.
Blame is pretty ease to toss around. Climate change - yes, a big factor, but what about it? It is here, we need to deal with the effects in our fire-fighting policy. Forest management - yes, controlled burns and, better yet, high-tech controlled burns are needed, but those in charge have failed to grab the initiative. Fire fighters - nothing to blame there, they are doing their best, but the scale and equipment are lacking.
The cost in lives and property and environmental damage has mounted to the point where a WWII-scale effort must be mounted to reduce the fuel load through high-tech methods to capture energy and sequester carbon from these enormous fields of fuel, to create an early detection system so responses can be launched within 15 minutes, and a high-velocity air-based response to control fires before they become too big to control. The money has to be spent whether the fires burn out of control or not.
6
@Pete
We used to have a place in the California foothills. Town called Arnold - a lot like Paradise. We were required (or fined) to have "defensible space" - sounds like a good idea but when a firestorm with fire-nados is rolling through the forest - it's a joke. 100 feet of "defensible space" between your house and the trees when a 50mph wind is blowing chunks of burning wood hundreds of feet? yeah. right. Not going to save you
People need to wake up, look around - there are 100 MILLION dead pine trees in the California Sierra forests. If you live in the woods or on the edge of the woods- it's just a matter of time before a firestorm gets your town - maybe not your house, but who knows. And its going to happen both in those mountains as well as in SoCal/Bay Area and the more urban/forested areas. Unavoidable.
If you live in dangerous fire areas - you MUST have a strategy. You Must have fire insurance, you Must have a way to get out when a fire comes, you Must PAY ATTENTION. No more excuses. The reality is - those places may not be safe enough any more for a lot of people - esp the more frail - to live in .
California needs to do some serious planning NOW on how to deal with these wildfires because they are not going away. As Gov Brown says - it's the new "abnormal" and the dreams of a cabin in the woods are likely going the way of the buggy whip.
14
@Ldraxx
Yep, the defensible space was an attempt to do fire control on the cheap at the expense of homeowners. It's a way to avoid reality. There are a couple of win/wins: 21st Century technology will allow us to improve detection and response times, just as we did to end devastating urban fires. Also, all that dry brush and dead-tree fuel can be converted (starting with critical fire-stop breaks around populated areas) using pyrolysis ("bio-char") to generate energy and create long-lasting charcoal that is a proven agricultural soil amendment. Expensive, yes, but here's another win/win: instead of expensive private sector insurance that pays 50 cents on the dollar for fire losses, let the state insure and use the bulk of the money to prevent instead of replace after a disaster that costs irreplaceable lives.
1
As one who lives in a hurricane zone, I understand the risks one takes by choosing to live in a beautiful area that is subject to natural disasters. It's kind of ironic but had they ignored Joni Mitchell by paving Paradise and putting up a parking lot, Paradise might still be here today. Of course many people might have chosen not to live in such a place. We live with the decisions we make and hope for the best.
6
Thank you, Sarah. For articulating this reality as well as the event—the new, the now and the soon to come. May we collectively rise to it.
8
I am so sorry to hear that. I’m sitting under the smoke today in the Bay Area, and we are all in this together. We all of us are “next.”
37
Tragic. I too contributed to a charity to help and I just hope it gets to where it needs to go. I fear for the seniors who are left with little or nothing. It is too late for them to start over. Every wicked act of nature, whether fires, hurricanes or tornadoes just keep getting worse. If only we had a government who would address climate change. The cost to our lives, economy and national security just keep growing.
46
It seems left to each of us to do our part.
1
Thank you, NYT and Sarah Pape, for this necessary writing, which communicates the actual feel on the ground in California right now better than anything else I've read to date.
62
This is heartbreaking. When will the federal government do something about climate change? Who knows? How long will the GOP deny climate change? Who knows? Major corporations like to deny evidence that affects their bottom lines and the GOP likes to deny evidence that affects its campaign finances. It is the poor and middle that will suffer as the rich go on in their sheltered existences.
23
POTUS 45 doesn't do empathy. His incivility, moreover, knows no bounds.
Yes, mega-fires are the new normal. So is Trump/GOP calling the opposition political party and the press the enemies of the American people.
Aristotle: never elevate the rich to positions of political power, for they have never learned how to obey. That is DJ Trump to a tee.
72
Maybe especially those who become rich because of inheritance and whose "business" dealings have resulted in bankruptcy.
4
This should be on page one. It is truth more powerful than news stories.
As Grace Paley once wrote, we must all be women (men too) and ". . . cry out like Cassandra, but be listened too this time."
14
Thank you for this, Sarah. An accurate and terrifying description. We're 50 miles away, awaiting our turn, since this is going to happen to us all.
48
Thank you for this compelling piece of writing. People who have been lucky enough to have never experienced destruction by fire, can't get a sense of the tragedy just hearing about the number of acres burning, or number of building destroyed, or even number of people dead.
How many words are going to be necessary to provoke empathy in the Commander in Chief?
31
@DM. Or in the tens of millions of Americans who blindly refuse to act on climate change
14
If he can’t show empathy, he likely does not feel it. He’s so tightly wound about himself that he just cannot even act empathetically.