A year ago the small town of Paradise was destroyed by a fire that moved 100 yards a second. Not just Paradise, but all the small enclaves around that town were wiped out. Almost 90 people were killed, many burned in their cars as they tried to escape. Named the Camp Fire because of where it started, it was the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history. It burned for 16 days, covered more than 240 square miles and wiped out more than 18,000 structures, most of them destroyed in the first six hours of the fire. The spread of the fire and its intensity were ferocious.
Netflix is showing a 45 minute documentary on the fire and everyone should watch it. It is a portent of fires to come. The last fire we had here in Northern California, the Kincade fire, was small compared to the Camp Fire but some of the factors were the same: high temps, dry grass, very low humidity and wind.
"Fire in Paradise" will chill you with its human terror and it should make you shudder at the number of lives that it could have taken, those who were told to get out of their cars and huddle on concrete for five hours, only to see their abandoned cars burned to nothing after those hours. Told by regular people who were there, it is a testament to the power of fire and the resilience of human hope and its power to survive. The film seems rushed at times and there is so much that happened, so much more than this 45 minute doc shows, that it barely gives you time to catch your breath. But I think that could be intentional: the Camp Fire was out of control within its first hour, and the video captures that frantic, out of control rage of the fire.
It's just tragic that it isn't a movie. It is real. Out of control is no longer outside reality. "Fire in Paradise" makes you want to turn your head, turn it off. Instead, watch it.
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