On this day 5 years the residents of a Northern California
town realized their town had been misnamed
As a wildfire just broken out was bearing down threatening
to engulf the town in a wall of flames
The wildfire once it grew quickly became known as the Camp
Fire
Not a place where campers around it sang “Kumbaya” to bliss
and unity aspire
But a raging firestorm and could not be contained sealing
Paradise’s demise
With drought and wind conditions and concerns over PG&E's transmission lines should not have been a surprise
The wildfire was started on this day not by a natural lightning
strike hitting a tree
But rather by the sparking of a faulty transmission line
maintained by PG&E
With Red Flag warnings due to drought and wind Paradise
lines were deenergized the day before
But back in the power transmission business on the 8th
when the sparking started the fire that would soon roar
Paradise and smaller communities to escape destruction by the
flames had no chance
Pushed by howling winds the flames quickly advanced
18,804 buildings destroyed and 85 people died
After 13 days of thousands of firefighters slowly getting the fire contained
Mother Nature had pity of the firefighters to unleash days
of containing rain
For failure to maintain its transmission lines PG&E was forced to file B/K
Billions upon billions of dollars to the state and victims it would have to pay
Pled guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for more hefty fines
But not a day in jail was an executive of PG&E in jail confined
Since the Cloquet Fire in 1918, the Deadliest wildfire in
the U.S.
Until in 2023 98 victims from the Lahaina fire were laid to
rest
© 11/8/2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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