Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire

Lizzie Johnson

Aug 2021 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Lizzie Johnson

About this audiobook

The definitive firsthand account of California’s Camp Fire, the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century, Paradise is a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies as the climate crisis unfolds.

“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. A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again.

Ratings and reviews

I received an unpublished ARC of this book from Netgalley, Lizzie Johnson, and Crown Publishing. I have read Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I want everyone to read this book. Paradise is a close and personal look at the trials and tribulations of the families impacted by the northern California Camp Creek Fire which sparked to life on November 8, 2018. We are involved with their lives, their dreams, their children, their jobs. We have timely input from the legends of the Konkow tribe native to that area. We get to know and appreciate the fire squads who do so much to keep us all protected. And we see the efforts involved in tackling a blaze gone rampant, just four hours from that first spark the Camp fire wiped out the town of Paradise. 85 dead, 52,000 people displaced. And we see the cost of our way of life, and the absence of shame after the acts of PG&E that set into play this horror. Another book we all need to read, absorb. And learn from.