The Mayor Irfan, you've been out there in Northern California reporting on the fires

for Vox.

What exactly happened up there in Paradise, California?

As best as we can tell, the fire ignited around 6.30 a.m. near Camp Fire Road on Thursday,

November 8.

This is in a region of California that's kind of rural.

It's far from some of the bigger cities.

It's in the hills.

It's a very forested area.

The areas are actually right next to a couple national forests.

It's not very densely populated, but there are definitely a lot of trees.

Many of them were ripe to burn.

They were essentially giant matchsticks.

California, as you may know, has been facing years of drought, upward of six years, and

also bark beetle infestations that have been spreading since 2010.

That's led to a record number of dead trees throughout the state, 129 million.

The wind had been picking up.

There are seasonal winds here in this area that can gust up to 70 miles an hour.

So at one point, this fire was spreading at a rate of about a football field per second.

And right in the path of those flames was a town called Paradise, California.

This is a small community of about 26,000 people.

It's not very wealthy, but most people their own their own homes.

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