‘Fire in Paradise’ Paints Harrowing Portrait of New Reality

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Left: Alastair Gee. Right: Dani Anguiano. Anastasiia Sapon / W.W. Norton & Company

The morning of Nov. 8, 2018, a fire sparked in rural Northern California. It grew to disastrous proportions faster than some fire experts thought possible, and ultimately destroyed the town of Paradise and devastated several nearby communities. At least 85 people were killed, and tens of thousands were displaced. In the new book “Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy,” two journalists tell the stories of those who were affected, from the early hours before the fire took hold to the months of uncertainty in the aftermath. But while the ferocity of this fire came as a shock, it’s unlikely to be California’s last such megafire.

Dani Anguiano and Alastair Gee, reporters with the Guardian US, co-wrote the book. Anguiano is also a former reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, and Gee has also written for publications including the New Yorker online, the New York Times, and the Economist.

“No matter where you are in America, you have tens of thousands of people trying to get on the road at the same time to escape a disaster, there will be massive gridlock. And so I think Paradise was a victim to this worst-case scenario that really no one could have been completely prepared for.” — Dani Anguiano

“These are fires that have a signal of climate change in them. They are fueled in part by the record dry hot conditions that we’re experiencing in California as a result of the climate crisis. And so not only is there the scale of the fire itself, but just the fact that fire scientists and first responders say we were seeing fires that we’ve never seen in California before. It requires just a new mentality, a new level of preparedness to deal with them.” — Alastair Gee

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Courtesy W.W. Norton & Company

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