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Cargando... Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedypor Alastair Gee, Alastair Gee
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. It was only a couple of years ago, in November, 2018, when the northern California town of Paradise was consumed by a raging wildfire. Over 13,000 homes were destroyed, 27,000 people struggled to escape with their lives, and at least 85 people died in the blaze. This is the story that journalists Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano tell in their book "Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy". The authors describe a little of the history of the region going back to its roots in the Gold Rush days, and of physical characteristics of that part of California. They also explain why the prevailing high winds and dry climate often produce rapidly developing fires in the heavy underbrush which grows there. Additionally, they described how this particular fire was caused by a downed Pacific Gas & Electric power line which sparked and ignited the underbrush below. Once ignited, the brush burned and spread like no other, having been primed to burn by several consecutive years of extreme drought and ever increasing record-setting high temperatures. Anguiano and Gee were also able to collect the stories of a number of impacted families and survivors of the fire. From those stories, the authors selected several, telling how each reacted from the time they may have first noticed smoke off in the distance to the time the fire quickly was upon them, how they decided to evacuate or not, and how when attempting to evacuate, the few roads leading out of the area quickly became blocked by fire, downed trees, and heavy traffic. For some, cars had to be abandoned, forcing them to flee on foot or try to be rescued by emergency teams. Others became trapped, and were among those lost to the fire. I had listened to the book in audiobook format while I drove in my car, and thought the narrator, T. Ryder Smith, did an excellent job the way he described the scene, the chaos, the fear and desperation of the people, and especially the bravery and dedication of the emergency personnel and a number of the survivors themselves. This fire was so intense, so fast burning, it was something of unprecedented intensity, something firefighters had never witnessed before, and which was well beyond their capability to contain. Having driven through the region less than a year after the fire, I saw for myself evidence of the scorched earth, blackened trees, and the few narrow roads through the area that served the people. That experience certainly heightened my awareness of the size and scope of the fire, but seeing the region is unnecessary. The book itself makes it all too clear just how terrifying and traumatic the fire was to the residents of Paradise. It may be human nature to think that disasters such as the Paradise fire will never happen to us, but reading a book such as this is a good reminder that fires can develop quickly in any area, whether rural, wooded, urban, or industrial. So it's always imperative that people respect fire, take precautions, preplan, and practice their escape for any situation.
When it arrived, it came on so fast that the preparations the cautious had made weren’t enough. Life as they’d known it was forever changed. People died: the vulnerable, the valiant, those who were just unlucky. This is, perhaps, how any tragedy unfolds. It’s what connects our coronavirus fight with “Fire in Paradise,” a book about a California calamity that speaks to our present moment.... In all, the Camp Fire killed 85 people. It burned more than 150,000 acres and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. The town was all but wiped off the map.... Those who made it are lucky. But their world will never be the same. The horror of the fire’s relentless advance is viscerally evoked, although the details sometimes verge on unbearable.... The authors temper the horror with stories of heroism and rescue... Still, this is unavoidably a story of devastation and loss.... “Fire in Paradise” has the narrative propulsion and granular detail of the best breaking-news disaster journalism; while the authors include some historical context, they largely refrain from in-depth analysis or attempts to draw broader conclusions from the tragedy. The main takeaway from their book is sobering: As many parts of the world get hotter and drier, we will likely see more fires as destructive as the one in Paradise. Drawing heavily on the powerful interviews [the authors] conducted at the time and in the stunned aftermath, they have created a gripping account of the fire and how it affected the community. The narrative is bolstered by regional history, an awareness of the increasing prevalence of California wildfires, and the culpability of the giant power company, Pacific Gas and Electric, in the state’s unfolding climate crisis. By providing readers with such an intimate chronicle of the fire and curating a nearly overwhelming cascade of stories from those at the center of the disaster, the authors do an important job of establishing a time line of the destruction. There will likely be many more books about the Paradise fire, especially investigations into PG&E’s role, but Fire in Paradise is a powerful start. Guardian journalists Gee and Anguiano deliver a tense and detailed account of the 2018 Camp Fire, which devastated the town of Paradise, Calif.... Gee and Anguiano vividly describe the conflagration without sensationalizing it, and their blow-by-blow reconstruction is balanced by background information on the history of wildfires and the links between their proliferation and climate change. This impressive report makes a convincing case that such tragedies as the Camp Fire are not a freak occurrence, but a glimpse of the future. Making a powerful book debut, Bay Area–based Guardian journalists Gee and Anguiano draw on their extensive reporting to produce a tense, often moving narrative about the fire that destroyed the northern California town of Paradise. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of residents of Paradise and neighboring towns, public officials, first responders, and scientists, the authors reconstruct a tight chronology of events from the time the fire broke out on the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, through Nov. 25, when it was finally contained, to the weeks and months afterward, when evacuated residents sifted through the debris.... A riveting narrative that provides further compelling evidence for the urgency of environmental stewardship. PremiosListas de sobresalientes
Bay Area-based reporters for The Guardian Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano relate the story of the worst American wildfire in a century, weaving together a portrait of the remarkable California community of 27,000 souls, destroyed wholesale in a fire that left 86 dead, while offering a bigger-picture exploration of the science of wildfires in a time of dramatic climate change. Alastair Gee is a seasoned science/nature based in San Francisco and Dani Anguiano is a local reporter from nearby Chico, who knows many of the heroes, first responders, and victims personally. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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That might be the lesson here. At the time of the "Camp" Fire, the coverage made me wonder what the people on the ground were thinking. This book is illustrative of how the local folks were not naive about their circumstances, but no one, outside of a few professional firefighters, were actually thinking in terms of what the the real worst-case scenario could look like. To be fair, very few people can think in those terms, as in the face of the worst-case scenario, you're just doomed. That the human toll was not worse is a tribute to the planning that was done, and the heroism of the first responders.
As for the culpability of Pacific Gas & Electric, a running thread in this book, the authors don't push that to the hilt. However, as dubious as the past behavior of the corporate management might have been, the failure of their power lines is probably more a commentary on how while PG&E is too big to fail, it's also probably too big to really manage its assets. If one was going to be fair, obsolescent infrastructure inadequately maintained is a chronic problem in this country, exacerbated by sprawl.
Finally, as I'm writing this, the community around Lake Tahoe has just been saved from the "Caldor" Fire; disasters like this remain a threat into the future of what is now looking like the "Pyrocline." A new age of fire birthed by massive climate change. ( )