Been thinking about what exit said about these fires moving so fast. That’s the first thing that struck me when I read the stories. We had a cabin in the middle of the Sequoia National Forest. Lots of forest fires through the years, because of forest mismanagement. But none of them spread that quickly. The one time we had to evacuate we had at least one day’s notice. People were able to get their horses down the hill, taking a couple of trips. So being burned while in your car? I just don’t get that. Some could be attributed to Santa Ana winds but not in the North.
Watering restriction also contributed to this fire. Now a days people don’t water lawns because of fines. Residence are either using artificial grass or pebbles in lawns.
I was listening to a local call in radio show. Lars Larson. He had a fireman call in and explain about the cause of the fires going to fast. To start out with the terrain where Paradise was is like in a gully. The winds were blowing 55 mph. He said then fire creates its own wind so it was probably burning at 100mph. Then you have sparks which start a fire up ahead. Etc; etc so it is very possible for the fire to burn that fast.