Paradise
One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire
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4.6 • 29 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping true story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again.
The inspiration for the Apple Original Film The Lost Bus, starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera
“A tour de force story of wildfire and a terrifying look at what lies ahead.”—San Francisco Chronicle (Best Books of the Year)
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.
As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, 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.
In Paradise, 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. The definitive firsthand account of the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century, Paradise is a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies.
Cover image © Apple TV+
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This journalistic retelling of America’s deadliest wildfire ponders how hubris resulted in the death of 85 people in Paradise, California, and warns that we’re primed for this kind of disaster to happen again. Paradise reconstructs the Camp Fire, which erased an entire town in a day. Through the voices of residents racing for their lives, firefighters battling impossible odds, and officials paralyzed by a cascade of failures, journalist Lizzie Johnson narrates the catastrophe at multiple levels, smoothly flipping from the minute-by-minute terror of evacuation with families trapped on gridlocked roads and fleeing on foot to the bigger picture of corporate negligence and climate change that stoked the tragedy. Johnson carefully balances the relentlessness of the fire with empathy, focusing on the lives behind the statistics and the glimmers of hope as they build new homes and identities after indescribable loss. For a comprehensive account of a disaster that digs into the sticky questions of responsibility, repercussions, and rebuilding, read Paradise.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Johnson debuts with a brutal account of the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. Drawing on firsthand accounts and 911 dispatch reports, Johnson follows a cast of residents, officials, and fire department workers as the fire ravaged their town and their lives changed. Outlining the factors that set the stage for the blaze, Johnson notes that fire management practices are not as straightforward as they seem: by the time the Camp Fire broke out, "a century's worth of colonial fire suppression policies... had allowed the woods to become diseased and overgrown," compared to Indigenous practices that historically cleared out debris with low-intensity burns. This, coupled with neglect on the part of the Pacific Gas and Electric company, whose equipment sparked the inferno, primed Paradise for disaster. Johnson's attention to grisly detail can be overwhelming (the list of victims, along with how they were found, for instance)—but she balances the horror with compassion: "Maybe someday the town she had known would... rise strong and whole again under the tall pines." This devastating history may be tough to read at times, but those who stay the course will find it crucial, comprehensive, and moving.
Customer Reviews
I have family members that suffered the paradise campfire…
What do you do when you seen a place before it fell? That’s what I’m sure my niece and my brother think about. My knees had to go to school just like Liz documented but they have since left but they have family still in the area. My brother still is in Chico he lost property up in paradise. My niece's mother has family still trying to rebuild after such a tragic event. I didn't know about this book until yesterday and I am glad that Apple TV+ is making a film out of it. There are so many things I wish I could say most importantly though thank you Liz Johnson for writing the book for being the journalist that you are. Just on the off chance you don't see this review I’m gonna find you on Instagram if I can. Thank you for giving such a story like this and I’m also gonna put this on good reads. Out of the ashes a Phoenix will rise.
Vivid and beautifully written
This book made me feel such a range of emotions.
What happened in Paradise was so terrible and Lizzie does such a good job and describing the series of events that occurred, providing context along the way and taking us along the aventures of some of the survivors.
I’d recommend this book to everyone, it provides such good context on what triggered the paradise wild fire and other California wild fires.
Thank you
This was really well done. As someone who lived my own part of this story, I thank you for taking the time to tell it so well.
For anyone outside the burn scar, this is a good picture of what we lived through that day and will continue to live with for the rest of our lives.