Camp fire

Question 1

Date

Answer 1

November 2018

Question 2

Where

Answer 2

California

Question 3

Physical factors

Answer 3

The conditions leading up to the fire combined to create a highly combustible fuel load:
- Heavy grass cover due to a wet spring.
- Unusually dry fall.
- Drought conditions in California since 2011.
- Katabatic winds at play which are hot, dry and sustained. The winds were up to 35mph which meant the wildfire moved quicker to the towns of Paradise and Concow giving them less time for civilians to evacuate.

Question 4

Direct cause

Answer 4

Caused by a faulty electrical transmission power line.

Question 5

Land burned

Answer 5

153,000 acres of land

Question 6

Deaths

Answer 6

85

Question 7

Impact on infrastructure - primary

Answer 7

Nearly 19,000 buildings destroyed.
Two towns, Paradise and Concow, were almost completely destroyed, losing around 95% of their infrastructure.

Question 8

People evacuated

Answer 8

52,000

Question 9

Total damage

Answer 9

$16.65 billion

Question 10

Impact on people

Answer 10

The air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area was very dangerous, reaching unprecedented levels of over 200 on the Air Quality Index for 2 days.
1000 families were still homeless from the wildfire 6 months after the disaster hit.
Multiple water drinking systems were found to be contaminated, from benzene levels which had exceeded levels found in hazardous waste levels.

Question 11

Responses

Answer 11

Almost 6,000 firefighters deployed to fight the fires.
The emergency alert system failed in numerous areas as multiple cell towers were downed by the fire with warnings failing to reach over 90 percent of residents in some areas.
In towns like Paradise and Concow, evacuation took place as close as 20 minutes before the wildfire hit the towns.

There was a mass clean-up in the wake of the fire, the largest of a hazardous event in state history.