From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, the campfire, one of the deadliest and the most destructive wildfires in California history,

continues to rage in the state, as two other fires burn their simultaneously.

In a state where deadestating wildfires were already the new norm. This time feels different.

It's Monday, November 12.

The New York Times

Paradise is right in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, about 100 miles north of Sacramento.

It has roots back in the old extraction economy days of the 1800s as a logging and mining town,

but its real life in recent years has been partly as a retirement community

and partly as an affordable place for people who don't have a lot of money.

It has a kind of working class vibe and I never saw it in the days before the fire,

but it, by all accounts, was a beautiful place.

Kirk Johnson is a national correspondent covering the West. He spent the weekend in Paradise, California.

Around 6.30am on Thursday, it began in the hills near Paradise.

This is legit how dark it is in my car right now and it is 10.23 in the morning.

And it's so smoky out that it looks like nighttime. Like I can't even see inside the house.

I'm in my car right now. We're loading up and my mom and mom are going to be meeting down at Coles in Chico.

And a kind of fire storm roared through with a pace that no one there had ever witnessed or really foreseen, I think.

It's 11.39 in the afternoon. Only reason I can see is because of this fire.

Holy shit. It was something that could not be stopped.

It was our homes down there. All this is happening right now. It's 12.42 in the afternoon. But all I see is smoke.

And because it was sweeping through a populated area, 26,000 people in that valley, it was all about rescue and getting people out.

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