Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy

by Dani Anguiano, Alastair Gee

Overview

The harrowing story of the most destructive American wildfire in a century.

On November 8, 2018, the ferocious Camp Fire razed nearly every home in Paradise, California, and killed at least 85 people. Journalists Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano reported on Paradise from the day the fire began and conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents, firefighters and police, and scientific experts. Fire in Paradise is their dramatic narrative of the disaster and an unforgettable story of an American town at the forefront of the climate emergency.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393542165
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dani Anguiano writes for the Guardian and was a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Alastair Gee is an award-winning editor and reporter at the Guardian who has also written for The New Yorker online, the New York Times, and the Economist.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Part 1 Paradise

1 A Gold Rush Town 7

2 Off the Grid 26

3 Firebrands 45

Part 2 Hell

4 Daybreak 65

5 Stay or Go 90

6 The Cemetery 109

7 The Day After 128

Part 3 Ashes and Seeds

8 A City Dispersed 141

9 Search and Recovery 158

10 A Pile of Ashes 180

11 The Perfect Fire 202

Epilogue 227

Afterword to the Paperback Edition 231

Acknowledgments 245

Notes on Sources 251

Editorial Reviews

"A gripping and meticulously reported account of how one California community was wiped from the map."

Adam Higginbotham

"A story that is both sweeping in scope and vivid in its particulars."

Carolyn Kellogg

"A gripping ticktock account.… [Fire in Paradise] covers the history of that part of California and the influence of climate change on these disasters, but at its core are visceral individual stories of bravery and tragedy."

New York Times - John Williams

"A page-turner from the get-go.… The details of [the locals’] lives lend verisimilitude sure to hook the most callous of observers."

Oakland Magazine - Judith M. Gallman

"This is a frightening book that will make readers take stock of their own home surroundings, regional infrastructure, and the values of our times."

Annie Proulx

"Gripping.… Fire in Paradise has the narrative propulsion and granular detail of the best breaking-news disaster journalism."

Rachel Monroe

"So riveting and evocative that you can almost smell the smoke. Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano’s account of how a city of 27,000 burned to the ground in a matter of hours reads like a thriller. It’s also crucial. As the world warms, cities across the arid West are increasingly at risk of suffering a fate similar to Paradise."

Dan Egan

"This remarkable account will remind you of the power of the human spirit, even, or especially, in a crisis."

Bill McKibben

"Gripping.… The scale of the disaster is enormous, but the authors’ focus on individual survival lends the book harrowing intimacy."

Shelf Awareness - Hank Stephenson

"A crisp, intimate portrait of the catastrophe."

Wall Street Journal - Gregory Crouch