FILMMAKERS ANALYZE PARADISE FIRE: Blame Residents for Town's Fire-Prone Location (San Diego: motel, houses)

[recycled]

My mother and step father lived on a side street off of Pentz Road in Paradise (near the hospital) in the 1980s and 1990s. The house they used to live in burned to the foundation in the 2018 Paradise fire, long after they passed from this earth. I spent many weekends and many weeks per year visiting there when I was living and working in the SF Bay Area. The people living in Paradise were and are a cross section of society, and it's not fair or accurate to stereotype them.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Nice try, but no.

This N.Y. Times guest opinion piece looks to be a promotion for the filmmakers' upcoming movie, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," about how "two longtime friends navigate life in the wake of disaster."

https://thislandfilms.com/Nothing-Gold-Can-Stay

Thanks for adding that clarification. I didn't realize the film was semi-fictional...? I thought it was going to be a documentary.

And yes, also, the article wasn't a Times editorial. It was framed as a guest opinion piece, not the opinion of the Times.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by evening sun

Residents were not to blame. PGE not maintaining equipment was 100% at fault, it started the fire & sadly the winds that day were very strong, & blew the fire in to town. I think Calfire was told to stand down too, which did not help. I am sick of people who did not live there talk about my old town. It was a beautiful community. I won't be going to that movie. Considering people lost their lives, I think it is shameful to blame residents.

IMO, the actual death toll was much higher than those who died in the fire. A friend of mine, who was older, died about 8 months after the fire, I think moving our of state & loosing contact with her children & grandchildren, all of whom had lived nearby till the fire, contributed greatly to her demise. Very confusing to be in a different state. There were others also who died from the stress etc.

That's very different from the story PG&E gave the media right after the fire. I read their statement after the fire, where they said their staffer contacted residents the night before, because winds were whipping up, and that did not bode well in the dry conditions. He wanted to shut off power to their equipment, but residents wanted him to keep the power on, some out of medical necessity. So that was the first case of blaming the residents.

What exactly did happen? It sounds like some of their equipment triggered a fire outside of town, and the wind blew the fire into town. Sounds lot like the Santa Rosa situation. Can you give some more detail? Were their transformers in disrepair, or weren't strong enough to withstand the wind? I've read about how standard electrical transformers weren't designed to withstand the more powerful winds that climate change is generating.

[katharsis]

I don't think this will be a film that will be seen by many people. I Google "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and just saw references to the Robert Frost poem, so I added "Nothing Gold Can Stay Paradise fire" -- and still nothing came up.

[mgforshort]

What happened was that a large metal clamp, approx. 100-years old and badly corroded snapped and the high-voltage wire from a transmission tower hit the ground and the surrounding dry vegetation caught fire. There is a picture of it somewhere, the size of the clamp is about the size of my palm. It has been inspected long before that year, and the inspector advised to replace it, but PG&E management didn't act on it in a timely manner.

If we had rain that month the fire wouldn't happen, I think. If we didn't have strong winds the fire would remain in the location instead of moving at high speed towards our town.

There was no evacuation warning. I called the police and they said they are aware and working on it. The best warning we received was on the local TV station, they were at the East side of Paradise, reporting live, plus when we got heavy ash hitting the ground all around us we decided to leave. We were packed and it would have been an orderly evacuation, unfortunately the gridlock was so bad that we could have been walking to Chico faster, all that 16 miles downhill.

The people who ran out of gas left their cars blocking the road and began walking, some of these burned to death. I don't have all the details and I'd rather forget it. No one lives forever and we were ready to accept our fate, nevertheless, someone higher up decided to spare us. I had a 357 in my car and I knew if we die it won't be the fire.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by mgforshort

As for how to avoid Armageddon from fire, in my humble, ignorant opinion a heated swimming pool and scuba gear could the best defense.

It was either the '03 Cedar fire down here or maybe the one in '07 where there were numerous accounts of people taking refuge in their pool as a last ditch effort to survive. If I recall, one family had tried to drive to safety, car conked out from ash, and they were forced to run and just happened upon a pool in someone's yard which saved them.


The damage from those fires was surreal though probably not as bad as the yet-to-come one you endured. Still, after living here for all my life, prior to '03 I would've laughed at someone saying a fire could burn all the way from essentially the desert to the coast, jumping major interstates and taking everything with it in its path. Now I have a whole new respect for just how bad things can be and how quickly these things can get out of hand. I went to bed that Saturday in 2003 smelling a ton of smoke. I figured meh it's a fire, normal for the weather and time of year. A lot of people closer to the source did the same and never had a chance. Frightening still today.


Stay safe.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It was framed as a guest opinion piece, not the opinion of the Times.

It's still their venue and as such, they get to own the decision to host the opinion.

[mgforshort]

Originally Posted by joosoon

I went to bed that Saturday in 2003 smelling a ton of smoke. I figured meh it's a fire, normal for the weather and time of year. A lot of people closer to the source did the same and never had a chance. Frightening still today.


Stay safe.

Paradise was lucky that the fire started barely after daybreak. Had it come after midnight with everyone asleep the death toll would be in the 15,000 plus or minus a couple hundred.

[chiluvr1228]

I can't imagine anything more horrible and destructible than a fire. Everything is gone. I'm so sorry for everyone who didn't make it and for those people who survived that inferno.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by mgforshort

What happened was that a large metal clamp, approx. 100-years old and badly corroded snapped and the high-voltage wire from a transmission tower hit the ground and the surrounding dry vegetation caught fire. There is a picture of it somewhere, the size of the clamp is about the size of my palm. It has been inspected long before that year, and the inspector advised to replace it, but PG&E management didn't act on it in a timely manner.

What's the point of having inspections, if they're not going to follow the recommendations?!

Originally Posted by mgforshort;

If we had rain that month the fire wouldn't happen, I think. If we didn't have strong winds the fire would remain in the location instead of moving at high speed towards our town.

There was no evacuation warning. I called the police and they said they are aware and working on it. The best warning we received was on the local TV station, they were at the East side of Paradise, reporting live, plus when we got heavy ash hitting the ground all around us we decided to leave. We were packed and it would have been an orderly evacuation, unfortunately the gridlock was so bad that we could have been walking to Chico faster, all that 16 miles downhill.

The people who ran out of gas left their cars blocking the road and began walking, some of these burned to death. I don't have all the details and I'd rather forget it. No one lives forever and we were ready to accept our fate, nevertheless, someone higher up decided to spare us. I had a 357 in my car and I knew if we die it won't be the fire.

OMG, what does "we're aware and working on it" even mean??!! "Working on it" how? Did they have their phone book out, and were calling everyone? Did they activate an emergency broadcast system? Were they driving through neighborhoods announcing an emergency evacuation? "Working on" what?!