>> narrator: tonight- >> by noon we had conceded that the towhad basically burned down. >> narrator:tone year since california's deliest fire... >> the plan s coletely overwhelmed by circumstances. but i think those circumstances re not unprecedented. >> narraarr: frontline tak you inside that da >> the road's completely engulfed in flames. "i can't run through fire."like, and he said, "you're greng to have to."xp >> narrator: eing the new dangers of a changing climate. >> we just did not anticipate a fire that went seven and a half miles in an hon and a half. i don't think anybody envisioned that happening. >> do you think you should have envisioned that happening?

g to answer that queson. >> narrator: and a giant power mpany under scrutiny. >> is what pg&e did or did not do, grossly negligent? t y've been on probation, they've violated the probation. if pg&e was an individual and not a corporation, i think by now th would be in prison. >> narrator: tonight on frontline-n "fireradise". >> frontline is made possible bi cotions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcastadg. major support is pisvided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed .o building a more just, verdant and peaceful wor more information at macfound.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoudfation.org.or additional support iprovidedpo by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. dedicated to heigh public awareness of critical issues.

the john and helen glener family trust. supportipp trustworthy journalism that informs andes insp and by the frontline journalism fund,aj with support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from la.a debos and scott nath ♪ >> paradise is... there's something about it, there's something with the country that's... the trees are beautiful. just living in the mountains, it's healing to be here. >> you saw hummingbirds and butterflies. we'dweleep outside under the stars.

it's a tight-knit commity. everyone is super-strong and resilienliup here. you never felt more safe than out there in the mountains. ♪ >> good morning and it's... a red-flag fire danger wning is in effect. up to 45-mile-per-hour gusts out of the north today. right now, it's 57 degrees. humidity down to 19% already... ♪ >> i woke up early the morning of the eighth. the wind was very strong. pine needles were hitting the roof. it's a metal roof, and inal myasleep state, i thought, "is it raining?" antime you have the winds coming with no rain, it's very nerve-wracking. and we were getting so late in the season, we were justal it dry. it was just like, please, blow

in a storm. you know, every now and then, i like to wake up early and make the guysreakfast. so when the wind woke me up, i said, "well, this is a perfect ti to get a jump on itn my phone was laying on the countertop next to where i wasot cutting upoes, and it illuminated. said there was a vegetation fire in the canyo >> narrator: seven-and-a-half miles from the town of parise, a fire had staaded beneath high-voltage electricity tower. yethe line was almost 100 s old and was owned by pg&e,la america's est electricity company. >> the fire started, as pg&e has admitted, from a piece of equipment that failed, bringing a power line in contact with the steel tower, so you had shards of molten metal that got thrown down into the brush. ra

>> nr: in high winds, companies like pg&e can turn off the ele tricity in power lines to reduce wildfire risk. >> we had heard that pg&e wasth king about turning off power in, in severalifferent areas that were in danger of high winds and possibly something happening with power lines. >> narrator: but that morning, pg&e had decided not to turn off the power. it would later say this was because the winds were decreasing. >> i made one coer aroun highway 70 to where you canee actuallyhe pulga bridge. and so i took my eyes off s e road for two seconds, looked upo saw it and made my report. (rad static hissing) (people talking on radio) >>arrator: the fire was by narrow dirt track called camp

creek roadroca ain mckenzie decided it was too dangerous to drive a fire truck down it. e >> narratoquested air support to put out the fire, but it was too windy to fly. ♪ it was a very sinking, very uncomfortable feeling seeing where it was at, um, and seeing how small it actually was relative to where it was at. it was a manageable-looking fire, if i could get to it. so... >> but you couldn't ge >> couldn't get to it. (radio static hissing) (woman talking on radio)

>> narrator: the fire was reing towards concow, remote settlement of around 700 people, about halfway between where the fire ignited and paradise. >> i got g couple of phone calls fr otherhief officers asking i wasaying attention to the radio. you know, i think like a lot of people, didn't really take it too serious-- we get a lot of fires up there. you know, i told them, you know, it's cold, you know, it's in the 40s, it's november, it's a nuisanceire. the incidentommat was set up at the hardware store at yankee hill. anso we were preparing to defend concow and contain that fire. (woman talking on radio)

>> go ahead. >> ...21-07... narrator: cal fire-- th state fire service-- began sending firefighters to tackle the blaze in concow. >> i drove up highway 70 and ahe wind was basical blowing all the smoke right over the top of us. he >> narrator:laze was soon dubbed "the camp fire," ter the road where it started.we >> w stopping down concow, helped out a few residentried to put some of the spot fires out around their house. they were relatively small, they were ten to 15, maybe 20 feet. and then there was a point in there where the wind just kind of started picking up, and the t spot firhat were not a big deal at the time started engulfinguboth sides of the road. ♪ b

>> my pops hn in concow ever since i can remember,n. before i was b it's always felt so special. it's at the end of concow road. and, like, at the top, walways felt like nothing could hurt us there. and it was home sweet home. >> narrator: 21-year-old jordan huff often visited her granddad, who lived on his own on a small >> he'd grow pumpkins for the grandkids. so in october, when they were jack-o'-lanterns to carve. and they were poppa's pumpkins and they were bigger than anyone's you'd seen. my pops lost his leg in a farming incident, but they're the stubborn mountai. he was always outside rking when we showed up, out in hisee hair working awa a ♪

narrator: by 7:30, the fire had picked up.p. the wind was spraying burning embers in every direction. s.column of smoke was now visible for mile >> my dad had called my pops. he was out there in hisn wheelchair, um, with a hose, um, putting out the fires that were breing out into his yard, and my dad was, like, you wow, "don't worry about it, you need to go. you need to get out of here and leave. and he said, "okay, i will. goll grab the dogs and i'l ♪ >> narrator: firefighter jeffea edson and a coe were now trapped down by concow lake. >> we came across four individuals that were running, and they were waving their hands at me, and you could tell they had ember burns and stuff on their skin and their hair. three of them ran and justju jumped straight in the water, 'cause they were taking so much heat. ♪

>> narrator: at the incident command post, chief messina was aware this was becoming a major fire. >> just be ready to call in personnel that are off-duty ght now. >> narrator: but with firefighters in coow trapped, and aircraft unable to fly beuse of the wind, he didn't know how fast it was moving. >> we typically get our fire intelligence, what the fire's do,g, how fast it's spreadi from our own line personnel. um... firefighrs. what was different about this day was the fact that as soon as our firefighters engaged, th went right into rescue mode. and they, they were no longer ablenor did they really care, where the fire was spreading. they were too busy on rescuing civilians, and, you know, ensuring that... of their own saty. intelligence on ho the of spreading. ♪ >> narrator: the fire was moving towards the town of paradise,

four miles away on ter side of a steep canyonhe in tast, fires have rarely crossed the canyon, but the camp fire was now spreading at a rate of 80 football fields a minute. (telephone ringing) >> the calls staaled coming in owly as people were waking up in the morning, having their coee, looking out the ndow, and seeing what i couldn't see. (telephoneinging) >> narrator: dispatcher caroca ladrini had been trained to handle calls reporting fires. >> do you see ashes?la do you see fmes? how close is it? i becae kind of far ofd be across the street or two canyons >> narrator: cal fe normally notifies paradise police if a fire ithreatening the town, but they hadn't done so.

he narrator: as more calls came in, ladrini saysontacted cal fire, and ey told her the as north of concow-- miles from paradise.ar >> did they say anything about the size or the inteity of the fire? >> no. n at that point, they didn't, and, and i didn't ask. generally, a fire that far awaye would even get close to paradise. >> paradare police. re >> whyo many people calling about this smoke? what... what's going on? still, at that pnt, i didn't know what they werseeing. (telephone ringing) so all i could do was ll cal fire back. what i said was, "can youwi confir me that this is north of concow, that this is

not in paradise? people say there's ashes falling." "yes, it's north of cof ow." that's ohe words that i got. "okay." i continued to tell the peoplehat were calling that we were not under threat. (telephone ringing) >> narrator: by 7:45, the fire had crossed the cany wase threatening paradise and the surrounding area, home to 40,000 people. cal fire issued an evacuation order for residents on the east rde of paradise, but not those from other parts of town.

>> narrator: 18 minutes after fire entered the town, carolin lareceived a call from cal fire. >> when i started as a firefighter in the m0s, we had large fires. you know, it wasn't uncommon.e and we may bat a large fire for a week or two, maybe even a little bit longer. t then the periods would subside and weould, weould go back, we'd regroup, and we'd get ready for the next round. now, in e current fire environment, the season is much longer. the summer is much hot hr, drier, less humidity, and typically, our winters have been >> we measure clim weather stations, and whenires burn,oo

we trace theirrint. those types of analyses have shown that human-caused climate change has doubled wildfire since 1984 across the western united states above what would haveurnewithout climate change.ge >> narrator: researchers say th in northern california, summers have warmed by an average of 2.5 degrees in the last 50 year d the same time, climate change has made prolongught more common in the area. >> what we've observed over the last several fire seasons is that it doesn't rain until late in december or even rly nuary, and that meanthat the landscape hasn't seen a drop of precipitation perhaer eight months. it's that combination ofor fact where you get the high winds, you get the tigh temperatures, you have fuels that are bone-dry, and you combine all of those factors

into a package that is really explosive from a wildland perspective, where then, if you throw a match to that package, you're going to generate a catastrophe. (radio static hissin >> all units be advised, the town of paradise is under a mandatory evaction. the town of paradise is under a mandatory evacuation. (manathing heavily) >> i was dispatched to the firet down on the ea canyoe edge. so i sli smy body camera on and went behind the house. i can caar a roaring, and i could see flames coming up from, from the canyon that wereob ly 30, 40 feet in height. (pickering speaking on radio) >> narrator: fire was now established on the east sira of dise. police wt door-to-door to make sure people had left.

>> the fire was swirling aroun the houses. a it was coming t all angles. defying any sense ofvity or any sense of, in my mind, what would be normal for a fire. too much was happening, too much was going on, and we were not able to do more than just a couple olehandful of streets. >> narrator: sergeant pickering made his way to paradise'sla est building, feather river hospital. >> my huand texts me, and he says, "hey, there's a big fire." and i said"huh." where's it comg from?"anything. he goes, "out of concow." and i said, "okay, well, hopefully it doesn't cross the canyon, 'cause then i'm gonna have to evacuatehe hospital." um... and then we saw the orange glow through the patients' rooms. ♪

>> for the moment, yes. >> there was people th w having to carry an i.v. bag with them, they were holding their own i.v. bag. and en we had people that wee just coming out of surgery that had to be loaded up. >> doctors pulled up with their s.u.vs. and were putting patients in with doctors. >> okay, hang a hard right... >> and nurses are driving their own privhicles and taking out their car seats and leaving them on the side of the hospital ground. it wasn't a normal evacuatn th we've been planni and, d rehearsing, it was so fast. s >> what wathat? ny >>where from a few minutes to 15, 20 minutes, everything around the hospital was burning uid on fire. it went black reck

it felt like, it felt like working a night ift. (radio squawking) (pickering sighs)♪ ♪ >> we were stuck in traffic for quite a while in the hospital at evng around us is on fire. >> well, where's the fire hodepartment, where's the s?se

why isn't anybany putting these fires out? you know, it was so confusing. >> i assumed that the fire was right there, next to me.w, i didn't kt the time, that the fire had jumped all the way into paradise. nobody said anything to us. body sd, "hey, all of paradise is on fire." (people speaking on radi >> copy, 0922. >>ultiple structures on fire here... stt towards paradise. >> see the fire's about to jump the road. (people talking on radio) >> picture it like a snoww blizzard. there was just thousands upon thousands of embers blowing through the air.

it was really hard to get your mind around how rapidly it was developing. >> narrator: in less than an hour, the fire swept across the to of paradise, overwhelmi the firefighters' efforts to st it. >> t homes, the hoe s ar becoming involved. (people talking on radio)>> narrator: the smoke, swirling with burning pine needles and pieces of houses, turned day t night. >> an area would catch on fire, homes would catch on fire generating heat, which would throw more embers, that would start another fire. and those winds can push those f bers a long ways. and it just kindrpetuates into one big fire at oe. there was no, there was no flaming front. >> narrator: in a typical fire, the smoke travels straight up, where cooler air puts out most of t embers. but in this fire, winds high up of up to 100 miles an ere blowing the embers sideways. >> the wind aloft that lofd the embers was a lot stronger

wind than the wind at the surface. and that's what allowed it to... (imitates plosion) ...throw fireballsll over our town. i think thin's what differentiates thifire from the other fires. this one didn't.d a path, and it really didn't.'t it had a lot of paths, um, and they were all happening at the same time. >> oh, my god! ♪ >> there was, like, no sirres as warnings or anything. no o telling anyone for sure what was happening. so we're, like, "oh, let's go check it out." (horn honking) we just get in the car and we n't even pull out, 'cause there was cars all the way downe you couldn'tget on the road. >> narrator: jordan huff was boyfriend along pa's main road, skyway. >> everything was red, everything jt seemed like

panic. >> i started freaking out, because thfi's coming at us and i didn't wanna see it, i didn't wanna feel ee. like, i didn'tanna be there. i just kinda wanted to sappear, because i couldn't believe this w happening. ♪ >> holy (bleep)! >> it was suffering, moving that slow. i didn't understand t everyone was flooring it. like, we we all about to burn alive.iv like, why isn't n'eryoke, full speed ahead? like, why are we stuck? like, why? how? >> the town of paradise and the upper ridge has had a community evacuation pnce the late '90s. in the early 2000s, that pn was updated and included maps withones in them paradise is limited by the number of routes out of town.

each fire is different, you know. fires comecorom differentct diions. so we had to look at varying scenarios and determine what intersections would needul controlling undeina noally loping fire. >>arrator: the emergency planners had divided the town into 14 zones. they would be evacuated in turn depending on where the fire came from. >> we actually had a trial run in 2008.ed we evacuhe zones on the east side of town for a fire coming from concow.e thwhole lesson learned from 2008 was, the more youvacuate, the more cars on the road, thecu more dif it is to evacuate the town. so wdidn't have a plan to evacuate the entire town at once mostly because it wouldn't work. our plan became, i think, probab one of the most elaborate plans in the state. >> narrator: in a review after the 2008 fire, a butte county grand jury warned that the capacity limitatiod made a number of recommendations, including wideng the

evacuation routes. thcounty's governing boa recommendation brease no funding to widen all of the roads. ♪ er >> one of my psonal responses to the grand jury was, if you gave us $10 or $15 million, maybe $20 million, to build new roads off the ridge, um, maybe we could develop a plan that woulget people off the ridge you know, everyone off the ridge at one time.s roadst a lot of money. these roads would be roads that, for traffic that doesn't exist. and then you say we're going to build four lanes that aren't gonna be used except once in a, in a half-century? ye, that, that's gonna be pretty hard ask to make. (peopleotalking on radio) >> ...gonna open up both lanes and get everybody out. (people talking on radio) l >> flame get people moving,

now! >> narrator: there were now over 350 fireghters in parase. but with burning embers causing new fires all across the town, there was no clear front line for them to fight. (people talking on radio) >> we conceded... i can tell you, it was 9:23 inin the morning, we conceded that intaining the evacuation routes and civilian reue was our only objective that day, and there was no orders given that contradicted that. >> narrator: although the entire town was under an evacuation orr, thousands of residents were still at home. (sirens blaring) >> my m had me at 41. for many years, we were like best friends.we ent out redbox movies from safeway, which was right next door, and hang out. ani could tell her anything. >> narrator: 25-year-old christina taft and her mothe victoria, lived in central paradise.

>> i wasn't thinking it was that rious at first, and then in the shower, i started to smell oke. i was definitely panicd. i thought itouldll, like, burn. d i told that to my mom, and she just... she didn't want to listen to that negativity. we weren't really, ly,e, arguing, it was just kind of like i was saying stuff andki then p up everything i could into the car.ar like, it was completely filled t in tnk and the tack seat, and just with the front seat, you know, for my mom. it went on for a hour, kind k. she was just not really packingg she didn out of her pajamas, and then she started calling other people to find out what w happening. looking outside, it started darker., you know, traffic and i, you know, i just didn't knowt whdo. like, it was either i leave or stay and risk my ost life,an i had a life to live. like, i told her that, like, "i and she was just kind of, like, lking to people on the phone, and they weren't telling her,

"leave." >> narrato christina joined the thousands of others evacuating the town. her mom refused to come with her. >> it was very slow aving, but it was all burnt, like, all the way down. people were stopping, getting people in their cars, and i was stuck, so i couldn't go k,ck, even though it wasn't very fug away. it just was horrible, because i keptkealling my mom, and it just didn't work. >> narrator: christina and her mother had n h received an official evacuation order. the county sheriff's office was using a new alert system called code red. it had an option to send outa it ss alert to every paradise resident, but that morning theyidn't use it. >> this was an extraordinarily chaotic situation. there was difficulty in terms of structurctg the, um, the area that we wanted to target.

we had one person who was working to try to get thatou messagt. y i can assure from the standpoint of the sheriff's office, nobody was waiting around, uh, uh... to notify people. it was wt as though this, hoyy des calculated or intentional. >> narrator: they did send out alerts using another feature that informed residents ne by zone, but only those who h signed . >> we knew that sign-ups were att where they needed to be.e. but we believed hat was the future, and our big campgn for 201920as to really increase the number of people signed up for code red. >> narrator: more than half ofd residents t signed up, including christina and her mother. and many of those who had stillt didn't g notification. >> cell phone towers went down-- the networks were so clogged thate couldn get through it. it was an event that literally outpaced all of our resources

almost immedialy, literally outpaced all of the planning had been done prior to this.ma and ultily, people have to be resnsible for their own safety. the best pson to craft an evacuation plan for you is you. ♪ >> this is me trying to evacuate. pentz road is on fire, everything is burnt. >> narrator: after evacuating the hospital, nurse nichole lly was driving south. she turned off pentz road onto a side street, pears road. ahead of her, cars were already on fire and had been abandoned. >>'m getting down intoinhi ravine, and i kind of look, going, "oh, this, this isn't good," because,"his fire is blowblg so fast.

>> the road's completely engulfed, n flames, and we're stuck in the middle of it. that tree could come on me atan moment. this is ridiculous, and i'm (bleep).hind these stupid >> and i'm on my, on the phone to my husband, and i'm screaminamfoamhim.e, i'm, lnick, you got to get to me, you have to hurry, to make i'm not goin it." and he said, "i'm trying, i'm going to get to you." and i'm, like, "i'm going to die, and i'm, i'm so sorry." and... and my car is starting to fill up with smoket that point. and i told my husband, i'm, like, he car's filling up with smoke, i have to get out of the car." and he's, like, "get out and run." and i'm, like, "i can't get out and run, you don't understand, there's fire everywhere, and i can't run through fire and he said, "you're going to have to." ♪

>> t>> town of paradise, almoste han any other town that i've heard of, had really thought about e issue fire and evacuation, and they had a plan. and the plan was completely overwhelmed by circumstances. i think the circumstancesnp were notcedented. we have haa numb of fires over the last severayears prior to the camp fip that had so of the characteristics, in, particulare rate of spread and the total ineffectiveness of any kind of suppression efforts. >> narrator: climate cmange has contributed to making fires bigger and more freq ten of the 20 most destrucve res in california have happened in the last four years. >> fires are differe today. you need to plan differently.mu you have cties that are saying, "we have our evacuation plan."

but if the pn involves driving ewn a road like the one in paradise, that wentially blocked by the fire, that's not. a very good pl become gridlocked, nerygoill od plan. >> so, in about 2015, we developed this binder. and we carry this binder in our. vehicl and this binder includes evacuation plans and traffic plans, u.. evacuation plans for every community, foothill community in bte county. >> why, given that there have been very fast-moving fireg before, was itot par p the plning that it might ba possibility to have a fire o this speed and intensity? >> ion't think we've ever seen at before. so i don't think that it was something that was, that was ever envisioned.s as fardeling, we did plan for a rapidly deveping fire. we just dit t plan for, we just did not anticipate a fire that went seven-and-anhalf mileo in a and a half. i don't think anybody envisioned that happening.

>> do you think you should have envisioned that happening? >> i, i'm not going to answer that question. ♪ >> we've gotour trapped in the basement. four people trapped in the basement. >> narrator: an hour and a half after fire hit paradis thousands were trying to lea, but many oths were trappedn their homes. 18 miles from thfire, cal fire's emergency center was receiving 911 calls. >> the phones rang and rang and rang, and they didn't stop. >> it was loud, it was, it was noisy, it was constant. ns >> ired the phone, and i heead a lady-- actually, iy,rd three ladies. y

>> tre coughing, choking.. she had a hard time even telling me exactly where ty were. >> they were in a room with, she told me, "no windows, i, i can't get out." and i couldn't... i couldn't leave her. >> it started getting real staticky. and i had no response. i was talking to myself. and after nine minutes and, ndd something, the phone went dead. i just couldn't help her. and i just had t hhit the next, answer the 911, and start allal

over. uneople talking in backgrod) ♪ >> here? g >> iotta go. >> narrator: by midmorning, reghters were trying to make it down the road where nichole jolly was stranded. the temperature at the center of the fire was now around 1,800 degrees. >> i'm running up this hill, and it's a pretty steep hill, and i couldn't see anything.

and i'm putting my hand over my es, and the flames are just tting the side of me. i just was thinking, "please let therbe a vehicle or somethin that i can jump into,"e cause i was so he at that point. and i ended up touching the back of a fire engine, and i'm, i sat in the center, and we were stuck, we were stopped. and i'm, like, "why aren't we moving?" and he's, like, "well, there's cars on fire all around us." look, we're in a fire engine, this is wh i this thing is built for, you know. it's, this thing's meant to go throthh fire. no, those things areeant to go through fire. ea >> i could startng a tstress call for air support. and you could he urgency in their voices on the radio. i remember it being pitch-blackd ouand zero visibility and knowing that that was impossible. i answered him back, inappropriately, uh, using his

first name. i said, "john, where are you?" >> nartor: determineto get to his colleagues, joe kenuedy drove a bulldozer through the flam. >> we're hearing this noise coming up behind us. it was really loud. it was this clasking chains. you could hear, it was, like, thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-unk.un >> i srted taking fully involved vehicles and moving them away the best i could.pi >> and he's fl them over, and it's just a miracle. and he cleared this way for us. >> what happened on pearson road we don't train air. they don't teach us hoove fully involved cars. they teach us how to aid that. there were several times where it crossed my mind that this was a verya ad idea. but if people were counting on me to keep going and, uh, not stop... >> narrator: joe kenne managed to clear the road so nichole and the firefighters could get to safety. he continued working for another 24 hours..

>> he kept saving people on that roadir no a/c, noblankets, just gls ndows in the middle this inferno. ♪ >> narrator: the fire had now burned around 20,000 aes and was visible from space. ♪ >> 21-54...lk (people taing on radio) >> our air-tac officer gave a report, where the fireas and how much was being impacted. and he basically said, "the fire's progressed all the way through town." and anesreports of civilians trapped and rescues,uend, youyo know, we'd already had reports of a lot of fatalities >> 70 charlie... >> and by noon, we had concededt th town had basically

burned down. (people talking on radio) >> nartor: it took only four hours for paradise to bero ded. by the endf the day, 50,000 5 people had managed tescape, scattering to neighboring wns. >> there was literally a point on the toad where it went fromll o, there was a sky again and there was air to breathe.ty d it wit thi of feeling that changes your whole tire life. "i just got is chance to be able to live again." >>y mom took us back to th house that my kids wer at. and i see my hband just pacing in the driveway, ayd he's just pacing and pacing and pacing and i'm, like, "mom, you need to go, you need to get wn there, i see nick." and she's, like, "nichole, we'r' in a residentialrea-- i can't, i can't drive fast." and i'm, like, "then you need to let me out."ou and i goof the car, and i ran fan er than she was driving, and i just grabbed o husband. and i'll never forget what he he said, "i thoughmost

lost you." ♪ " "m, like, "i know." >> arrator: a week after the s firted, more than 5,000 blaze, from thgrnd theskng the ♪ >> there was nothing standing, and there wee still homes burning. cars were burned, they weredown, still burning. it looked like a war zone, it looked like bombs had been t dropped town.wa >> iheartbreaking to me. i grew up in that town, um, i graduated from high school in thatown. i was the fire chief in that town and honored to be the fire chief in that town, and it was heartbreaking to see.

♪ >> narrator: paradise burned for over two weeks innally, the first winter s came and put the fire out. it had burned 153,000 res, an area the size of chicago. ♪ it was the most destructive fire california had eadr seen. around 30,000 people lost their homes. it took many weeks to identifyti those who died. >> it was actually thanksgiving day when they confirmed it. >> narrar: christina taft had not heard t om her mother since the morning ofinhe fire.e.ou >> she was on the property in the living room.

she was still inside, she sn't able to get out. and probably, like, it was atright by the window, so s really horrible imagining that she didn't probably know what to do or something. i don't thk e reallyly realized it was as bad as it was. i blamed myself, blamed authority, i blamed the other people, i blamed a lot of, r.ind, um... i'm not really angry at people, i think they expect there's emergency, they get notified. i think if we did have a order, nc would have made a diffe to my mom. ♪ >> narrator: 85 people perished the camp fire. the majority were over 65 years old. some were trapped in their cars others were st their homes.he >> it breaks mt that they got a false sense of surity.

it breaks my heart that i and anybany else that was answering the phone that day was not able to give them more information, better information, faster information. ♪ kind snowballs on you. >> could you have t evacuation orders out to communities that were likely to be hit before they were hit?hi >> i mean, we can always monday, you know, monday quarterback it. i know what you're saying, but, no, i mean, maybe, maybe five minutes earlier.ie but the issue wasn't how fast we notified ife public, it was how fast we uld get them off the hi the transportation system would only hold so many vehicles, andr

we werng to put more vehicles on the road than it could hold. ♪ >> i have no doubt in my mind that if we, as public safety agencies, had not done what we did, the conditions would have been much worse and there would have been more loss of life. it was bad. but this fire affected tens of thousands of people in a matter of a few hours. the plan was implemented. i, i'm very confident in saying it was, it was successl. was it flawless? absoluly not. ♪ >> we never gave up hope. you know, we kept looking, and he can read or write, so we thought maybe hee ouldn't get in ctact with us. >> narrator: jordan huff was grandfather tk, who had been up in concow.>> t was two weeks later, my mom called me, and she was all like, "jordan..." i knew what the phone call was,

because, liky mom doesn'tn' call to talk. she told me they found pop's body, and i was like, "yeah?" d then like, "yeah, they found thd bodyd n the home." and i was like, "oh,and, you know, i just cried. i didn't know what to say, and she asked me if i'm okay, and i just hung up the phone, because you're not okay. we went out there on december 4, me and my dan only. literally, everything is gone except, you know, you go out t the back fence, and you see a wheelchair. you see his watering hose burnt to a crisp all the way, dragged all the way right next to the water.hair and a bucket of your mind, like, we,ts to make a image. make an image, but iutdoes i anyways. and... and man, is it crazy to have a image like th in your head. he was insanely tough and

smart, and he was a gentle giant. ♪ >> just ing around the community, and you see someone that you haven't seen for a while. "where were you? what hapned to you what happened to your family?" it's our local 9/11. i tha day that we will alwaysemember. nomber 8erill always be a date thall just... seared in the collective consciousness of our community. ix >> narrator:onths after the fire, the buttcounty district attorney launched an inveigation into whether to bring criminal chaes against pg&e, the company whose power line had started the fire. >> is what pg&e did-- or did not do-- grossly negligent?s something thatyond, ll beyond ordinary negligence?

looking at under cniaat we're penal code section 452 is reckless arson. "to prove the defende t is f this crime, the people must pro beyond a reasonable doubt that, one, the defendant rned or caed to ed burnedop ty, uh, or forest land"-- pretty simple. we've got that. that the fired burned an inhabited structure or the fire caused great bodily injury to another person. ay, we've got structures-- nearly 1000, 85 people. the element that is the-the last elemen it says, "and the defendant did so recklessly."ra >> nr:g&e has a long history of safety violations foand a criminal convictioa gas explosion in 2010. its equipmenhas been linked to many destructive fires in california in recent years.

>> this is a company that, it was fined nendreds of times and faced more than two, almost $3 billion worth of fine you know, if pg&e was an individual and not a corporation, i thinky now they would be in prison. there's just been repeat offenders, they've been on probation, they've violated the probation. the oblem is you can't take corporation and put it into prison. to >> narra in the months after the fire, reporters at "the wall street journal" discovered that &e had been warned itssi transmis towers were aging and that com cnents might fail. >> in 2010, they had a outside contractor come in and they looked at this and said, "thed verage age of your towers is 68 yes old, but the mean life expectancy is only 65."so you know, in a sse pg&e was sort of playing with fire over the years. they were basically saying, "look, we will let these transmission lin l age in placee and if t a problem with one of them, we'll go out and fix itit >>ut climate change, the consequences of failure of a relatively modest.t's

it falls down, perhaps, or... and it causea fire, and the fire department comes and puts it out. so, the system has been maintained, you know, with some preventive maintenance but also with a philosophy th it can run until it breaks. the thing is that the costs have changed. the ris have chaed. >> narrator: pg&e declined to be inteiniewed by "teontline," but said in a statement that the company "disagrees with y suggestion that it knew of any that caused the caandconditions nonetheless deferred work that would have addressed those conditions." itdded, "since 2010 pg&e has spent hundreds of millions on line tative work".in >> pg&e is tthis exaordinary step of sayingyi "look, we can't handle this liability anymore. so that during the days, red flag days, when there's low humidity and high wi, we're just going to shut off the

power." and it's sort of a stunningto thinhink about, but there increasingly, um, are days, and-and multiple days in rthern california, where communities suenly don't have power anymore. >> narrator: pg&e has now filedt for bank protection because liabilities arising from wildfires. it estimates that it could face at least $10.5 billion in damages from the camp fire alone. >> i think this is one of the nrst real climate adaptat problemslehat at least america has confronted.edst and this is noatic problem. we have a problem that's going to grow wo ge inevitably over the next seval decades. >> narrator: some scientists believe that fires in californin coulease in size dramatically by the middle of the century if temperatures continue to rise. everything was perfect that dafor a massive, destructive incident to dohat it did. fod it's in place everywhere.

everywhere in caia, arizona, nevada, washington, oregon. and it's like whe 's... you don't even want to think anout it, like, "what's next? can it be worshat?" and the answer is yes. ♪ >> the more data, the better the ai works. inishe age of ai where data the new oil, china ithe new saudi arabia. there will be a chinese tech sector and therthwill be an american tech sector. >> machines are automating some of our skills. >> when i increase productivity through automation, jobs go >> it has pervaded so ny elements of everyday life. how do we make it transparentta and accoune? >> go to pbs.org/front ne for more on pg&e.t >> is w&e did or did not do, grossly negligent? >> and more about the emergency alert system in

paradise. >> people i think they expect if there's an emergency th'll get notified.e i think ifd have an order it would have made a difference to my mom. in>> connect to the frontl community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbvideo app or pbs.org/frontlintl >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporaon for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherin macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. re information at macfound.org. the ford foundation:g workth visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundatioor additional support is iovided by t abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the parkoundation, decated to heightening public awareness of critical sues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy

journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from laura debonis and scott nathan. captioned byro media access at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other "frontrone" programs, visit ours e at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ f to ordntline's, "fire in paradise" on dvd, visit shoppbs or call 1-800-play-pbs. this program is also available on amazon prime video. ♪

you're watching ♪ ♪ -you've said you'd favor middle-class tax cuts. -the front line is just up here. at's where the river... -she took me out to those wetlands. -i think we'ree'ff to a great start. ♪

(explosions booming) (guns firing) (helicopter blades whirring) - [narrator] saigon was now encircled and soutetnamese troops could not move up more than 10 miles along any road. beyond that, the communists were waiting. saigon was about to fall. (soldier shouting in foreign language) soon, the war would be over. american embassy officials promised a northern evacuation