What Was The California Camp Fire?

The California Camp Fire was the largest, deadliest forest fire in California's history. It happened early on a Thursday morning in November 2018, while most people were still getting ready for school or for work.

Ten Facts About The California Camp Fire

1. The Camp Fire is California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire. 
2. 6th deadliest wildfire in the US 
3. Many evacuees spent over 3 hours driving through the raging fire 
4. The blaze was so hot it melted cars and wheels, and reduced bodies to bone. 
5. It spread at 80 football fields a minute. 
6. 240 square miles burned. That's larger than the city of Chicago. 
7. The fire burned for 18 days: from November 8, 2018 at 6:29 a.m. until November 25, 2018 
8. The Camp Fire is named after where it began: near the Camp Creek and Pulga Roads, close to the Jarbo Gap in Butte County, CA. Fires are often named according to their starting location. 
9. Number of buildings destroyed: 13,972 homes, 528 restaurants, stores, offices, schools, churches, rest homes, and a hospital, plus 4,293 other structures. 
10. 50,000 people were evacuated and 86 people lost their lives.

Find out more about Paradise and the disaster below.

WHERE IS PARADISE, CALIFORNIA?

Longitude: 121.434700 Latitude: 39.813400 

Paradise is located around one hundred and forty miles northeast of San Francisco and eighty miles north of California’s state capital, Sacramento. The closest big town is Chico, around a forty-minute drive away. Until the fire, the small town was nestled in evergreen forests with beautiful views of the Sierra foothills.

WHO LIVED IN PARADISE?

Around 27,000 people lived in Paradise itself. According to the latest census, over twenty-five percent of its residents were 65-years or older. It has been described as a tight close-knit community.

WHAT WAS LOST?

Ninety percent of homes and buildings in Paradise were destroyed in the first twenty-four hours.

By November 11th, three days after the fire began, 52,000 people had been evacuated from Paradise and the surrounding area.

The Honey Run Covered Bridge nearby Butte Creek was the last three-span Pratt-style truss bridge in the United States. The fire incinerated it on November 10.

FAST FACTS

Start Date: Thursday November 8, 2018

Start Time: 6:29 a.m.

Incident Type: Vegetation Fire

Location: Camp Creek and Pulga Roads, Butte County

CAL Fire Unit: Butte County

WHAT CAUSED THE FIRE?

Power lines belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric caused the deadly fire.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said, “After a very meticulous and thorough investigation, Cal Fire has determined that the Camp Fire was caused by electrical transmission lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electricity located in the Pulga area.”

“The tinder dry vegetation and Red Flag conditions consisting of strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures promoted this fire and caused extreme rates of spread.”

Cal Fire said that a second ignition site was caused by “vegetation into electrical distribution lines owned and operated by PG&E.” The second fire merged into the original fire, officials said.

WHY DID THE FIRE SPREAD SO FAR AND SO FAST?

A number of factors contributed to the spread of the blaze.

NO RAIN = LOW HUMIDITY

Although the five-year California drought had officially ended the previous April, Butte County had had no rain for seven months. While summers are normally hot and dry, autumn rains usually arrive long before November. This year they did not.

The state's water restrictions were still in effect. Yards were dry and kindle-ready.

HIGH WINDS + FIRE = DEVASTATION

Through the morning of November 9, the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag high-wind warning for most of Northern California's interior.

The high-wind warnings proved true.

Once the PG&E downed power lines touched the dry plants and sparked the fire, the wind took hold. A high-powered, fifty-mile-an-hour gale tore though the area, fanning the blaze and driving it forward.

The fire moved at a rate of eighty football fields per minute. No runner, no matter how fast, could cross eighty football fields in a minute. It took less than twenty-four hours for the flames to devour Paradise and its surrounding communities.

"Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed, it's that kind of devastation. The wind that was predicted came and just wiped it out," Captain Scott McLean (Cal Fire) said.

WHY WEREN'T PEOPLE WARNED IN TIME TO ESCAPE?

There are many reasons why people didn't receive the information to evacuate in time.

Living in the Sierra Foothills above the Sacramento Valley has a strong pull for those in search of small communities, a lower cost of living, less urban bustle or planning, beautiful views and less bureaucracy. With the warm summers, it's a great place to retire. It's a peaceful life, but it comes with a price.

Many homes don't have cell phone service, access to WiFi, or cable television. While this might seem strange to some, many retirees lived in Paradise, people who aren't tied to their devices. Unfortunately, this meant they did not have easy access to information, such as Tweets and emergency cell phone alerts.

Those with service in town were also at a disadvantage. One cell tower was down. Many homes had replaced their landlines for cell phones. Electricity was out, so TV was unavailable.

Butte County had actually beefed up its emergency warning notification system because of the 2017 California wildfires. However, their efforts were in vain. They sent evacuation warnings over landlines, cell phones, and Twitter. Unfortunately, only twelve percent of county residents had opted in to receive the reverse 911 notifications. The rest either failed to sign up or chose to opt out.

The fire moved too fast for officials to use other means of notifying residents, such as door-to-door warnings.

Most people found out about the evacuation by word-of-mouth from friends, neighbors, and/or family.

Some people chose to ignore the evacuation order until it was too late to escape.

Stay safe out there! 

For tips on wildfire safety, visit: https://www.ready.gov/wildfires

Or visit our earlier post, 12 Useful Wildfire Safety Tips

Read a survival story based on the Paradise wildfire in our kids' book, I Escaped The California Camp Fire.