Contemporary · North America · Disaster

2018

Camp Fire incinerates Paradise

November 8, 2018

A faulty PG&E transmission line sparked a wildfire that crossed the town of Paradise, California, in four hours flat and burned it to the ground, destroying nearly nineteen thousand structures. Eighty-five people died, many trapped in their cars on clogged evacuation routes. The town never really came back. The age of climate-driven megafires had arrived in middle-class America.

More from 2018 Contemporary

In context

Also in 2018 (6 other events on record)

Khashoggi murdered in Istanbul · Middle East · Politics
Cambridge Analytica scandal · North America · Technology
Korean leaders meet at the DMZ · East Asia · Politics
Trump and Kim meet in Singapore · Southeast Asia · Politics
Avengers: Infinity War opens · North America · Culture
Thai cave rescue · Southeast Asia · Disaster

Before and after in North America

Before: October 5, 2017: #MeToo erupts
After: April 10, 2019: First image of a black hole

Before and after in Disaster

Before: June 14, 2017: Grenfell Tower fire
After: April 15, 2019: Notre-Dame burns

Era

Contemporary (2001–2026), one of 196 events from that era on Saeculum.

Sources

Wikipedia: Camp Fire (2018)