Driven by strong winds and dry conditions, the blaze dubbed the Camp Fire roared through the town of Paradise, about 85 miles (240 km) north of Sacramento, forcing the population to flee in a chaotic mass evacuation. “The town is devastated, everything is destroyed,” said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) spokesman Scott Maclean, who spent much of the day in Paradise. “There’s nothing much left standing.” The town of Chico, population 93,000, could be next in the path of the wildfire, as flames were driven westward by 35-mile-per hour (56 km-per-hour) winds, said Butte County Fire Chief Darren Read.
