Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-404) and index.

Part I: Kindling -- Dawn at Jarbo Gap -- All Its Name Implies -- Red Flag Over Paradise -- Part II: Spark -- Code Red -- The Iron Maiden -- Part III: Conflagration -- Abandoning the Hospital -- A Blizzard of Embers -- Saving Tezzrah -- The Lost Bus -- The Best Spot to Die -- "The Safety of Our Community" -- Part IV: Containment -- The Longest Drive -- No Atheist in Foxholes -- Paradise Ablaze -- Promise -- Part V: Ash -- Unconfirmed Deaths -- Mayor of Nowhere -- Secondary Burns -- Rebirth -- Reckoning -- Epilogue: Reburn.

"The definitive firsthand account of California's Camp Fire-the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century-and a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies as the climate crisis unfolds. 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. San Francisco Chronicle reporter 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. 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"--