Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire

A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping true story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again.

The inspiration for the Apple Original Film The Lost Bus, starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera

"A tour de force story of wildfire and a terrifying look at what lies ahead."--San Francisco Chronicle (Best Books of the Year)

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.

As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, 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.

In Paradise, 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. The definitive firsthand account of the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century, Paradise is a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies.

Author: Lizzie Johnson
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 08/16/2022
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.00w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780593136409


Review Citation(s):
Shelf Awareness 09/09/2022

About the Author
Lizzie Johnson is a staff writer at The Washington Post. Previously, she worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, where she reported on fifteen of the deadliest, largest, and most destructive blazes in modern California history, and covered over thirty communities impacted by wildfires. In 2025, she was a finalist for the Livingston Award in International Reporting.