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150 Minutes of Hell: Death and survival in California’s tornado of fire
150 Minutes of Hell: Death and survival in California’s tornado of fire
A detailed look at how people lived and died as they faced the worst fire tornado in modern California history. Trapped by flames, they either tried to escape or waited out the storm.
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Visual Essay: The unprecedented devastation of the Camp Fire
Visual Essay: The unprecedented devastation of the Camp Fire
Chronicle photographers have captured the ongoing battle to tame the deadly wildfire through still images and video.
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Camp Fire: Newly named victim was a 99-year-old woman
Camp Fire: Newly named victim was a 99-year-old woman
By Lauren Hernández and Ashley McBride
Butte County officials released the name Wednesday of another victim of the Camp Fire: Rose Farrell of Paradise. She was 99 years old, the oldest person killed in California wildfires this year. One ...
The Latest
PG&E;: Worker reported flames near power equipment at Camp Fire origin site
A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. employee spotted flames near a transmission tower close to the time and place the Camp Fire roared to life one month ago in Butte County, the utility reported, providing its ...
Beverly Powers, 64, recently retired as a nurse when she died in the Camp Fire
Beverly Powers died in the Camp Fire in Paradise just a few months after retiring from her nursing career. Powers, 64, grew up in California and worked as a nurse for most of her life, including stints ...
Camp Fire: Death toll rises to 86 after hospitalized man dies from burn injuries
Butte County sheriff’s officials announced Tuesday that a man burned in the Camp Fire has died from his injuries, bringing the fire’s death toll to 86. When the fire broke out on Nov. 8, Larry Smith, ...
Protesters march on PG&E; offices amid Camp Fire fallout
About two dozen people protested Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday, accusing the embattled utility of being responsible for California’s deadliest and most destructive ...
Camp Fire lawsuits target PG&E; for advertising about its safety work
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. misled the public about its efforts to maintain power equipment in a way that helps prevent wildfires, Camp Fire victims allege in a pair of new lawsuits. The suits filed ...
Debris cleanup for November wildfires will cost California $3 billion
Debris cleanup for last month’s wildfires in Butte, Ventura and Los Angeles counties could cost at least $3 billion, officials said Tuesday. Mark Ghilarducci, director of the state’s Office of ...
In Camp Fire’s aftermath, uncertainty for shuttered hospital’s scattered workers
CHICO, Butte County — For the last decade, when Lisa Martens, Nicole Awe and Leslie Timm went to work at the surgical unit of Adventist Health Feather River Hospital, they felt like the hospital in the ...
Sara Magnuson, 75, lived alone in Paradise
Since her husband died about five years ago, Sara Magnuson, 75, lived alone in her home on Drendel Circle off of Pentz Road in Paradise. She had no car, suffered from mental health problems and had grown ...
Julian Binstock, 88, a Harvard grad and retired entertainment company executive
Julian Binstock, 88, had lived all around the world — in Brussels, Tokyo and Paris — before settling in Hollywood and later retiring to Butte County. Despite being raised by immigrant parents who had ...
Tragic but familiar narrative in Camp Fire: Most victims were older, disabled
There are no children on the list of dead from the Camp Fire. No teenagers or even young adults have been identified as victims of the disaster. The 46 named victims so far were, on average, 71 years ...
Rebuilding from Camp Fire to take years because of labor shortage, insurance costs
There is no road map home for the thousands of Butte County residents who lost their houses in the Camp Fire. And for those who decide to rebuild, it may be years, even a decade, before construction ...
Camp Fire: Crews begin massive cleanup of hazardous materials left in wake of blaze
What California officials are calling the state’s biggest disaster cleanup in decades began this week with crews in masks and white Tyvek suits taking aim at the toxic remnants of the Camp Fire. ...
Lawsuit: Poorly maintained PG&E; transmission tower started Camp Fire
A group of Camp Fire survivors claim in a new lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to have pinned down how the deadly fire started, blaming the ignition of the blaze on a specific part of one of ...
Feinstein: CA wildfire relief won’t all come this year
WASHINGTON — California is unlikely to get all the wildfire relief funding it has requested from Congress before the end of the year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday. Gov. Jerry Brown asked for ...
CA wildfires: Most sweeping forestry changes out of key bill, sources say
WASHINGTON — A typically noncontroversial part of Congress’ must-pass farm bill has become a flash point in the aftermath of California wildfires that President Trump blamed on neglected forests, ...
After deadly wildfires, regulators weigh new rules for PG&E; power shutoffs
California regulators are considering new rules governing how and when utilities shut off power as an attempt to prevent electrical equipment from sparking dangerous wildfires. A proposal under ...
FEMA: $33 million approved for Camp Fire survivors in Butte County
Roughly $33.5 million has been approved for survivors of the Camp Fire in Butte County, said FEMA officials at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. Kevin Hannes, the deputy federal coordinating ...
Federal judge asks California attorney general if PG&E; committed state crime
California’s attorney general was asked by a federal judge Wednesday to weigh in on whether Pacific Gas and Electric Co. committed a state-level crime if it maintained its equipment poorly, sparking ...
Return to Paradise: 27 days after the Camp Fire, residents allowed in to see the ruin
PARADISE, Butte County — The first alert pings on her iPhone at 6:59 a.m. Wednesday. After 27 days, it’s time to go home. But Julie Skelley, 55, doesn’t feel ready for this, not yet, so she crawls ...
California Wildfires: The lives lost across the state
The 2018 fire season in California is shaping up to be an incredibly deadly year. These are the residents who died in the blazes.
How to help survivors of the Camp Fire in Butte County
Nonprofit organizations and foundations across Northern California have established funds and donation centers to help the 52,000 people forced to evacuate their homes because of the deadly Camp Fire in ...
Video shows intense wildfire helicopter rescue by LA Fire...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Fire Department has released video of one of its helicopter crews rescuing people from a mountain peak as a huge wildfire bore down last week. The video was recorded ...
Gavin Newsom’s kind words for Trump: He doesn’t ‘play...
Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom lobbed a rare compliment at President Trump, saying he’s grateful the president has never “played politics” with disaster declarations following major wildfires in California ...
Coffey Park survivors find new ways forward
California was on fire again. Through this past summer, blazes raged across the state. Melissa Geissinger couldn’t watch the news anymore. It was too triggering.
One year after the fires, Wine Country is still healing
The Chronicle has launched a new weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . Last October’s horrific wildfires in Sonoma and Napa counties made one thing abundantly clear: The worst of times brings ...
As terror of wildfire fades, survivors face new challenges
In the early years of their marriage, moving was easy. Back then, Henry and Astrid Granger were hungry to create a life together. That was before the Tubbs Fire destroyed their Santa Rosa home.
For survivors of the Tubbs Fire, a new, unhappy normal
In the weeks after the 2017 Tubbs Fire, thousands of people displaced by the North Bay fires fled to temporary housing in far-flung corners of Sonoma County.
Outracing the Tubbs Fire: survivors’ tales from Coffey Park
The wind pounded against the window panes and whistled under the front door. It screeched, hungry and alive. In her 61 years, Astrid Granger had never heard anything like it. She was elbow-deep in dirty ...
Facilities’ staff fled, abandoned seniors during Tubbs Fire,...
State regulators moved to revoke the licenses of two Santa Rosa senior housing facilities Thursday after finding that employees abandoned dozens of elderly and disabled residents during a confused and ...
PG&E; customers would pay some Wine Country fire costs under...
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. could use state-authorized bonds to settle Wine Country wildfire lawsuits costing billions of dollars, under newly amended legislation in Sacramento. And those bonds would ...
Wine Country artists find new life, inspiration in the...
Just about everything in the airy Sonoma art studio where Helena Donzelli and her two pals work is ruined. And they like it that way. They craft artistic works from the ashy wreckage left behind after ...
Wine Country fires: What has changed to reduce risk
The 2017 fire season, the deadliest in California history, spurred widespread calls for reducing wildfire risk. In response, several changes have been made to how local, state and federal agencies prepare ...
PG&E; to pay $2.5 billion-plus for Wine Country fires: ‘Many...
Blamed for sparking some of the most destructive blazes in California history, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and its parent company, PG&E Corp., reported Thursday that they will take a $2.5 billion ...
Sonoma County to make over emergency operations after Tubbs...
Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors approved plans Monday for a restructuring of emergency operations after an internal report concluded that emergency workers were unprepared for the October fires, ...
Cal Fire releases details of probe into cause of Wine Country...
The key to investigating the October 2017 fire siege that burned a combined area more than eight times the size of San Francisco came down to a handful of locations, each just a couple of square feet. ...
With wildfire season at hand, California on slightly safer...
When Anne Faught got a knock on her front gate recently, she was surprised to find two uniformed men at her rural Marin County property, one with a clipboard. The firefighters had come to her home for ...
For PG&E;, cutting power could prevent fires and save lives —...
Maggie Leavitt loves living in the mountainous backcountry of San Diego County. She could do, however, without the blackouts. Particularly when her local utility company cuts the power on purpose. ...
Firefighters demonstrate the danger of a Fourth of July sparkler
David Woods lit a sparkler, knelt in the dry grass in Antioch and watched everyone’s favorite July Fourth firework turn the golden fields into an inferno, complete with a plume of smoke. The sparkler ...
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Camp Fire: Newly named victim was a 99-year-old woman
Camp Fire: Newly named victim was a 99-year-old woman
By Lauren Hernández and Ashley McBride
Butte County officials released the name Wednesday of another victim of the Camp Fire: Rose Farrell of Paradise. She was 99 years old, the oldest person killed in California wildfires this year. One ...
The Latest
PG&E;: Worker reported flames near power equipment at Camp Fire origin site
A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. employee spotted flames near a transmission tower close to the time and place the Camp Fire roared to life one month ago in Butte County, the utility reported, providing its ...
Beverly Powers, 64, recently retired as a nurse when she died in the Camp Fire
Beverly Powers died in the Camp Fire in Paradise just a few months after retiring from her nursing career. Powers, 64, grew up in California and worked as a nurse for most of her life, including stints ...
Camp Fire: Death toll rises to 86 after hospitalized man dies from burn injuries
Butte County sheriff’s officials announced Tuesday that a man burned in the Camp Fire has died from his injuries, bringing the fire’s death toll to 86. When the fire broke out on Nov. 8, Larry Smith, ...
Protesters march on PG&E; offices amid Camp Fire fallout
About two dozen people protested Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday, accusing the embattled utility of being responsible for California’s deadliest and most destructive ...
Camp Fire lawsuits target PG&E; for advertising about its safety work
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. misled the public about its efforts to maintain power equipment in a way that helps prevent wildfires, Camp Fire victims allege in a pair of new lawsuits. The suits filed ...
Debris cleanup for November wildfires will cost California $3 billion
Debris cleanup for last month’s wildfires in Butte, Ventura and Los Angeles counties could cost at least $3 billion, officials said Tuesday. Mark Ghilarducci, director of the state’s Office of ...
In Camp Fire’s aftermath, uncertainty for shuttered hospital’s scattered workers
CHICO, Butte County — For the last decade, when Lisa Martens, Nicole Awe and Leslie Timm went to work at the surgical unit of Adventist Health Feather River Hospital, they felt like the hospital in the ...
Sara Magnuson, 75, lived alone in Paradise
Since her husband died about five years ago, Sara Magnuson, 75, lived alone in her home on Drendel Circle off of Pentz Road in Paradise. She had no car, suffered from mental health problems and had grown ...
Julian Binstock, 88, a Harvard grad and retired entertainment company executive
Julian Binstock, 88, had lived all around the world — in Brussels, Tokyo and Paris — before settling in Hollywood and later retiring to Butte County. Despite being raised by immigrant parents who had ...
Tragic but familiar narrative in Camp Fire: Most victims were older, disabled
There are no children on the list of dead from the Camp Fire. No teenagers or even young adults have been identified as victims of the disaster. The 46 named victims so far were, on average, 71 years ...
Rebuilding from Camp Fire to take years because of labor shortage, insurance costs
There is no road map home for the thousands of Butte County residents who lost their houses in the Camp Fire. And for those who decide to rebuild, it may be years, even a decade, before construction ...
Camp Fire: Crews begin massive cleanup of hazardous materials left in wake of blaze
What California officials are calling the state’s biggest disaster cleanup in decades began this week with crews in masks and white Tyvek suits taking aim at the toxic remnants of the Camp Fire. ...
Lawsuit: Poorly maintained PG&E; transmission tower started Camp Fire
A group of Camp Fire survivors claim in a new lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to have pinned down how the deadly fire started, blaming the ignition of the blaze on a specific part of one of ...
Feinstein: CA wildfire relief won’t all come this year
WASHINGTON — California is unlikely to get all the wildfire relief funding it has requested from Congress before the end of the year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday. Gov. Jerry Brown asked for ...
CA wildfires: Most sweeping forestry changes out of key bill, sources say
WASHINGTON — A typically noncontroversial part of Congress’ must-pass farm bill has become a flash point in the aftermath of California wildfires that President Trump blamed on neglected forests, ...
After deadly wildfires, regulators weigh new rules for PG&E; power shutoffs
California regulators are considering new rules governing how and when utilities shut off power as an attempt to prevent electrical equipment from sparking dangerous wildfires. A proposal under ...
FEMA: $33 million approved for Camp Fire survivors in Butte County
Roughly $33.5 million has been approved for survivors of the Camp Fire in Butte County, said FEMA officials at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. Kevin Hannes, the deputy federal coordinating ...
Federal judge asks California attorney general if PG&E; committed state crime
California’s attorney general was asked by a federal judge Wednesday to weigh in on whether Pacific Gas and Electric Co. committed a state-level crime if it maintained its equipment poorly, sparking ...
Return to Paradise: 27 days after the Camp Fire, residents allowed in to see the ruin
PARADISE, Butte County — The first alert pings on her iPhone at 6:59 a.m. Wednesday. After 27 days, it’s time to go home. But Julie Skelley, 55, doesn’t feel ready for this, not yet, so she crawls ...
California Wildfires: The lives lost across the state
The 2018 fire season in California is shaping up to be an incredibly deadly year. These are the residents who died in the blazes.