California Still Reeling More Than One Week After Fast-Moving Wildfires Tore Through Areas in North, South of State

Published: Nov. 20, 2018, 4:31 a.m.

b'

KCBS reporters have been on the scene of the deadly Camp Fire in Butte County to capture the stories of survivors, telling their tales of harrowing escapes, frustrating evacuations and of community members coming together in a time of crisis. On this episode of In Depth, guest host Keith Menconi takes a look at what made the fires in Northern and Southern California so devastating, how we can respond as a state, and the path to healing ahead for survivors. "Probably the level of devastation and the fact that it goes on for miles and miles," KCBS reporter Holly Quan described what stood out to her while covering the Camp Fire in Butte County. "There are towns and cities that we\'ve covered, fires in Redding, in Yosemite, in obviously the Wine Country Fires, but as I talked to one city councilman he says nowhere have you seen an entire city wiped off the map. I mean, it really does look like, people have said it looks like a bomb went off. When you go into Paradise, you look around and it\'s like a black and white apocalyptic movie." The lasting impact, as best as Holly can surmise? "I think this is going to be a disaster that stays with us for quite a while, it\'s going to be I think quite some time before they make Paradise safe enough for people to go in. What happens when people actually go in and see what\'s left of their homes? Then you have to do the debris removal, mitigating any type of toxins before they\'re able to rebuild. And the town itself, their government infrastructure has to decide how they want to rebuild." How should Paradise--or, other communities damaged by fire--rebuild in this era of fire threat? Widening and updating road networks could be key. "When we rebuild this time around," said In Depth guest J. Keith Gilless, Dean Emeritus of the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley. "The general design consideration, how wide a road should be, how far vegetation should be managed away from them, think about the beautiful roads near me here on the peninsula where we planted eucalyptus at the turn of the century, creating beautiful roads but hemmed in by trees very close by, so there\'s some things we did historically that we don\'t want to repeat. We designed road networks in some cases with turns in them that were fine for the sort of vehicles that were traveling on them at the time but which will not accommodate a modern urban fire truck. And you want your public safety people to rapidly access every place they\'re trying to protect."

'