Paradise
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allowed a ninety-nine-year-old to compete: Mary Nugent, “Ridge Woman Celebrates 100 years, and a Town She Loves,” Paradise Post, April 21, 2018, chicoer.com/2009/01/10/ridge-woman-celebrates-100-years-and-a-town-she-loves/.
volunteers baked a thousand pies: Monica Nolan, director of the Paradise Chamber of Commerce, in discussion with the author, September 13, 2019.
In 2001, nearly 62 percent of the Ridge’s population: Thomas Curwen, “In a Town of Unanswered Questions, Paradise Tries to Imagine Its Future,” Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2018, latimes.com/local/california/la-me-paradise-rebuilds-20181224-story.html.
from among thirty churches: Butte County telephone book, 2018.
a majority of the county’s vote went to the Republican: Election Summary Report, Butte County Clerk-Recorder Registrar of Voters, November 23, 2016, accessed May 26, 2020, clerk-recorder.buttecounty.net/elections/archives/eln35/35_statement_of_vote.pdf.
“Paradise Rants and Raves!”: The group can be found at facebook.com/groups/268820559989723/.
it cost the owners $80,000 to install a septic system: Jody Jones, mayor of Paradise, in discussion with the author, January 16, 2019.
known as Poverty Ridge: McDonald, “The Mystery of the Past and the Tracking of the New,” in Golden Ridge, p. 3.
“darn nice place to starve”: Ibid., p. 4.
a $300 monthly stipend: “2018 Candidate Election Information,” Town of Paradise, California, accessed February 7, 2019, https://townofparadise.com/sites/default/files/fileattachments/town_council/page/25271/2018_candidate_broshure.pdf.
the fresh coat of paint on Town Hall: Linda Watkins-Bennett, “Paradise Town Hall Gets Makeover: A Council Member’s Donation Helped Make It Happen,” Action News Now, November 5, 2018, actionnewsnow.com/content/news/Paradise-Town-Hall-Gets-Makeover-499737831.html.
would generate $1.4 million annually: Lauren Gill, Paradise town manager, in discussion with the author, July 10, 2019.
thirty-seven mobile home parks: Butte County telephone book, 2018.
Adverse Childhood Experiences: ACEs are traumatic experiences that impact a child’s developing brain. The three categories are abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. In Butte County—which had the highest rate of ACEs of California’s fifty-eight counties—76.5 percent of adults had experienced at least one ACE. Center for Youth Wellness, A Hidden Crisis: Findings on Adverse Childhood Experiences in California, San Francisco, 2014, centerforyouthwellness.org/wp-content/themes/cyw/build/img/building-a-movement/hidden-crisis.pdf.
qualified for free or reduced-price lunch: Michelle John, Paradise Unified School District superintendent, in discussion with the author, May 1, 2019.
siphoning 21 percent of the town’s students: Ibid.
A new high school: The school was Achieve Charter High School. It opened after a lengthy battle with the public school district. Amanda Hovik, “Achieve Charter High School hosts ceremony for school’s opening,” Paradise Post, August 10, 2018, paradisepost.com/2018/08/10/achieve-charter-high-school-hosts-ceremony-for-schools-opening/.
voters had approved a $61 million bond: Steve Schoonover, “Five Local School Districts Have Bonds on Nov. 6 Ballot,” Chico Enterprise-Record, October 21, 2018, chicoer.com/2018/10/21/five-local-school-district-have-bonds-on-nov-6-ballot/.
Adventist Health, whose $5,000 donation: Dan Efseaff, Paradise Recreation and Park District manager, in discussion with the author, October 3, 2019.
CHAPTER 3: RED FLAG OVER PARADISE
Interviews: Paradise Fire chief David Hawks; Butte County district attorney Mike Ramsey; meteorologist Alex Hoon; Jamie, Erin, and Tezzrah Mansanares; Stanford senior research scholar Michael Wara; attorneys Mike Danko and Frank Pitre; California Department of Water Resources guide Jana Frazier; Pulga owner Betsy Ann Cowley; Paradise mayor Jody Jones; Paradise town manager Lauren Gill; Butte County supervisor Doug Teeter; pyrogeographer Zeke Lunder; Travis and Carole Wright; Suzie Ernest; Mike Ranney.
The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning: Red Flag Warnings are issued when a combination of strong wind, low relative humidity, and low fuel moisture are present. Experts agree that the Camp Fire wasn’t the strongest offshore wind event of the season, but the gales came at the driest time, and fuels were extraordinarily parched. In November 2018, conditions were more similar to what climatologists would expect to see in August. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Service Assessment: November 2018 Camp Fire, National Weather Service Western Region Headquarters: Salt Lake City, January 2020, accessed February 2, 2020, p. 14, weather.gov/media/publications/assessments/sa1162SignedReport.pdf.
which staffed three additional engines: David Hawks, text message to the author, July 12, 2019.
The earthquake registered a 6.9 magnitude: “The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake,” California Department of Conservation, accessed March 1, 2019, conservation.ca.gov/cgs/earthquakes/loma-prieta.
They advertised their programs: Jay Matthews, “Hard Work, Low Pay, Miserable Conditions Popular in Calif. Corps,” The Washington Post, March 26, 1982, washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/03/26/hard-work-low-pay-miserable-conditions-popular-in-calif-corps/a37498db-18ed-46b1-be74-5d7056846f79/.
“Learn skills, earn scholarships”: California Conservation Corps, accessed April 3, 2019, ccc.ca.gov/.
More than 125,000 miles: PG&E has 106,681 circuit miles of electric distribution lines and 18,466 circuit miles of interconnected transmission lines, which serve 5.4 million customers—defined as homes or businesses, so the actual number of people was much higher. Pacific Gas & Electric Company, “Company Profile,” accessed May 26, 2020, pge.com/en_US/about-pge/company-information/profile/profile.page.
five times the circumference of the earth: The circumference of the earth is just under 25,000 miles.
to more than 16 million people: Pacific Gas & Electric Company, “Company Profile.”
most of California—equivalent to one in twenty Americans: The United States has a population of about 328.2 million people.
Nearly half of its grid crossed land: This amounts to about 30,000 square miles of overhead electrical circuitry. Sumeet Singh, “Big Data,” in Fire-Threat Maps & the High Fire-Threat District (HFTD), California Public Utilities Commission, accessed May 20, 2019, cpuc.ca.gov/FireThreatMaps.
As millions of trees across the Sierra Nevada died: Data collected by the U.S. Forest Service show that a record 129 million trees have died across 8.9 million acres in California. Bark beetles and drought are the main culprits. U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region, 2017 Tree Mortality Aerial Detection Survey Results, Washington, D.C.: 2017, accessed May 26, 2020, fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd566199.pdf.
one of the largest direct action lawsuit settlements: Studies have shown that hexavalent chromium causes serious illness, including cancer. PG&E released the heavy metal from its natural gas compressor station over a fourteen-year span (from 1952 until 1966), and the chemical lingered in the groundwater for decades. In 2012, water regulators discovered that the contaminated water plume near PG&E’s gas compressor station had spread. The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board slapped the company with a $3.6 million fine. Since then, the population in Hinkley has dropped along with the property values. By 2015, Hinkley Elementary School, the Hinkley post office, and the only market had closed. Between 2010 and October 2014, PG&E bought about three hundred properties belonging to residents whose wells had been contaminated. Unable to do anything with the buildings, the utility—which now owns about two-thirds of Hinkley—had them bulldozed. It could take as long as thirty to sixty years to clean up the groundwater, PG&E spokespeople have said. “PG&E
Hinkley Chromium Cleanup,” California Water Boards, accessed May 26, 2020, waterboards.ca.gov/lahontan/water_issues/projects/pge/. Jeremy P. Jacobs, “Another Pollution Battle Looms in Erin Brockovich’s Town,” New York Times, August 18, 2011, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/08/18/18greenwire-another-pollution-battle-looms-in-erin-brockov-58590.html.
The ensuing Trauner Fire: Public resources code says letting a tree grow too close to power lines is a misdemeanor. Tom Nadeau, Showdown at the Bouzy Rouge: People v. PG&E (Grass Valley, Calif.: Comstock Bonanza Press, 1998), p. 8.
and a historic schoolhouse: The Rough and Ready School was rebuilt. On September 23, 1995, it was dedicated as a Nevada County Historical Landmark. Nadeau, Showdown, p. 105.
diverted more than $77.6 million from its tree trimming budget: Kenneth Howe and Rebecca Smith, “Tree Trimming Pact Lowers PG&E Fine to $29 Million,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 3, 1999, sfgate.com/news/article/Tree-Trimming-Pact-Lowers-PG-E-Fine-to-29-Million-2938340.php.
a local reporter who covered the case: Nadeau’s book on People v. PG&E is delightful and reads like a true crime thriller. The hearing took place in a cabaret nightclub called the Bouzy Rouge—the site of a former bull-and-bear-fighting arena—which Nevada County rented for the trial for $1,700 a month. The stuffy room featured velvet drapes, flounced lace curtains, primrose wallpaper, and dour portraits of former miners. The foreman of the jury that declared PG&E guilty was named—of all things—Dave Fickle. Nadeau, Showdown, p. x.
a natural gas pipeline owned by PG&E: National Transportation Safety Board, Pipeline Accident Report: Pacific Gas and Electric Company Natural Gas Transmission Pipeline Rupture and Fire, NTSB/PAR-11/01 PB2011-916501, Washington, D.C.: August 30, 2011, ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/PAR1101.pdf.
first responders initially thought a jetliner had crashed: “Initially we thought a jet airplane went down from San Francisco airport,” San Bruno Fire captain Bill Forester told a local reporter. “The sound, the noise of it was deafening. It sounded like a jet engine could still be running.” Others reported what they thought was a gas station explosion to 911. “First Responders Recall San Bruno Explosion,” CBSN Bay Area, September 14, 2010, sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2010/09/14/first-responders-recall-san-bruno-explosion/.
registered as a 1.1 magnitude earthquake: Paul Rogers, “San Bruno Blast: PG&E Settles Nearly All Remaining Lawsuits for a $565 Million Total,” San Jose Mercury News, September 9, 2013, mercurynews.com/2013/09/09/san-bruno-blast-pge-settles-nearly-all-remaining-lawsuits-for-a-565-million-total/.
gouging a 72-foot-long crater: National Transportation Safety Board, Pipeline Accident Report, p. 18.
to shut off the gas: PG&E finally shut off the gas after 95 minutes. A federal investigation found that this response time was “excessively long” and “contributed to the extent and severity of property damage.” National Transportation Safety Board, Pipeline Accident Report, pp. x, 89.
“It was beyond words”: The resident was Susan Bullis. She lost her seventeen-year-old son, William, her husband, Gregory, her mother-in-law, Lavonne, and her dog, Lucky. Bullis was at a nurses’ meeting in Sunnyvale when the explosion occurred in her neighborhood. Her testimony can be found on the CPUC’s website. California Public Utilities Commission, Declarations of Susan Bullis, Betti Magoolaghan and Robert Pelligrini, Burlingame, CA: 2012, pp. 1–2, cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/Safety/Natural_Gas_Pipeline/News/DeclarationsofSusanBullisandBettiMagoolaghanandRobertPellegrini.pdf.
crews had welded the thirty-inch natural gas pipeline incorrectly: National Transportation Safety Board, Pipeline Accident Report, p. x.
found to contain fabricated data: According to the federal investigation, PG&E made up numbers or provided insufficient data. The utility also “pre-interviewed” witnesses before trial. National Transportation Safety Board, Pipeline Accident Report, p. 1.
or to be printed in erasable ink: Jaxon Van Derbeken, “PG&E Worked on Some Documents with Erasable Ink,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2011, sfgate.com/news/article/PG-E-worked-on-some-documents-with-erasable-ink-2373432.php.
had already fined PG&E $1.6 billion: Previously, the highest penalty levied against an American utility was in New Mexico in 2000, when El Paso Natural Gas Co. paid $101 million for a fatal explosion that killed ten people, five of them children. The California Public Utilities Commission broke that record with its $1.6 billion penalty for PG&E following the San Bruno explosion. California Public Utilities Commission, “San Bruno Incident Report,” accessed May 27, 2020, cpuc.ca.gov/General.aspx?id=5476.
slapped with a second, $3 million fine: California Public Utilities Commission, “San Bruno Incident Report.”
shelling out $5.3 million: Douglas MacMillan and Neena Satija, “PG&E Helped Fund the Careers of Calif. Governor and His Wife. Now He Accuses the Utility of ‘Corporate Greed,’ ” Washington Post, November 11, 2019, washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/11/pge-helped-fund-careers-calif-governor-his-wife-now-he-accuses-utility-corporate-greed/.
paid nearly $100 million in fines: George Avalos, “PG&E Fined $97.5 Million for Improper Back-Channel PUC Talks,” San Jose Mercury News, April 26, 2018, mercurynews.com/2018/04/26/pge-fined-97-5-million-for-improper-back-channel-puc-talks/.
a couple of bottles of “good Pinot”: Peevey was the president of Southern California Edison before moving to the CPUC, which regulates the Southern California utility. Other emails show Peevey dining with top PG&E officials at his Sea Ranch home on the Sonoma County coast. Emails between PG&E and the CPUC were released after a federal probe into the relationship between the two entities. The investigation found that lax oversight by the CPUC contributed to the San Bruno explosion. Brian K. Cherry, PG&E vice president of regulation and rates, email to Thomas E. Bottorff, PG&E senior vice president of regulatory affairs, May 31, 2010, pgecorp.com/sfg14/PGE_PaulClanonLetter.pdf.
a 44-foot gray pine: California Public Utilities Commission, Citation Issued Pursuant to Decision 16-09-055, D.16-09-055 E.17-04-001, San Francisco: 2017, cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/News_Room/E1 704001E2015091601Citation20170425.pdf.
the worst wildfires in modern state history: Kevin Fagan et al., “A Fire’s First, Fatal Hours,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 2017, sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Wine-Country-fires-first-fatal-hours-12278092.php.
A fourteen-year-old perished: Lizzie Johnson, “A Fire’s Unfathomable Toll,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 26, 2019, projects.sfchronicle.com/2019/redwood-fire-victims/.
seventeen of the twenty-one wildfires: Ivan Penn and Peter Eavis, “PG&E Is Cleared in Deadly Tubbs Fire of 2017,” New York Times, January 24, 2019, nytimes.com/2019/01/24/business/energy-environment/pge-tubbs-fire.html.
eight times the size of San Francisco: Kimberly Veklerov, “Cal Fire Releases Details of Probe into Cause of Wine Country Fires,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2018, sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Cal-Fire-releases-details-of-probe-into-cause-of-12981639.php.
The culprit, Cal Fire investigators found: California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, CAL FIRE Investigators Determine the Cause of the Tubbs Fire, Sacramento: 2019, fire.ca.gov/media/5124/tubbscause1v.pdf.
a ninety-one-year-old woman: The woman was Ann Zink. She was at her home in Riverside County when the Tubbs Fire broke out. Kurtis Alexander, Evan Sernoffsky, and Lizzie Johnson, “Tubbs Fire: State Blames Private Electrical Equipment for Deadly Wine Country Blaze,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 2019, sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Tubbs-Fire-State-blames-private-electrical-13559073.php.
the utility cut electricity to distribution lines in seven counties
: Lizzie Johnson and Michael Cabanatuan, “PG&E Power Shutdown: No Coffee, No Gas. But Calistoga Takes Shutdown in Stride,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 2018, sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/PG-E-power-shutdown-No-coffee-no-gas-But-13309296.php.
San Diego Gas & Electric had pioneered this approach: “People didn’t understand why we had to turn the power off for public safety,” a SDG&E executive explained. “Nothing we did at the beginning was easy…. We owe it to our communities to do what is right and be a safe operator of the power grid.” Caroline Winn, chief operating officer of San Diego Gas and Electric, “Lessons Learned in San Diego,” panel presentation at the Wildfire Technology Innovation Summit, California State University, Sacramento, March 20, 2019. Recording available at youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsgixh8pRZUBuk0O7MeqpyfD1zhvjutCc.
after sparking two huge blazes in 2007: Cal Fire found that the Witch and Rice fires were caused by SDG&E. A third blaze, the Guejito Fire, ignited after a Cox Communications fiber optic cable came into contact with an SDG&E power line. The Guejito eventually merged with the Witch Fire. California Public Utilities Commission, Consumer Protection and Safety Division, Utilities Safety and Reliability Branch, Investigation of the Witch Fire Near San Ysabel, California and Investigation of the Rice Fire Near Fallbrook, California, by Mahmoud (Steve) Intably, I.08-11-006, October 2007, accessed May 27, 2020, docs.cpuc.ca.gov/word_pdf/FINAL_DECISION/93739.pdf.
nighttime temperatures had risen: The occurrence of nighttime heat waves in particular has nearly doubled in the last thirty-year period in California, compared with the average from 1950 to 2016, from eleven days to twenty-one days per year. California Senate Office of Research, Climate Change and Health: Understanding How Global Warming Could Impact Public Health in California, November 2018; Kendra Pierre-Louis and Nadja Popovich, “Nights Are Warming Faster Than Days. Here’s Why That’s Dangerous,” New York Times, July 11, 2018, nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/11/climate/summer-nights-warming-faster-than-days-dangerous.html.