Wildfire in Paradise | Containment | 4

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By mid-afternoon of November 8, 2018, the Camp Fire has largely moved through Paradise. Families separated by the fire are desperate to find each other and know who survived — and if they’ll be able to return to their homes. The town of 27,000 people has largely been destroyed, leaving residents to reckon with the aftermath of the devastation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to against the odds at free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:14.2	Lon Walker sits in the cab of his big rig and presses his cell phone to his ear,
0:19.6	trying to hear the voice on the other end over the noise of the traffic around him.
0:24.6	What was the name again?
0:26.1	Ellen Walker, she's 72 years old with short curly hair.
0:31.7	I'm sorry, sir. We don't have any patience by that name or matching that description.
0:37.3	Thank you.
0:38.9	Walker hangs up the phone. He's called every hospital in the area,
0:43.2	but he's had no luck finding his wife.
0:46.2	He stares down at his phone, praying that Ellen calls. He just wants to know she's alive.
0:52.6	It's the afternoon of November 8, 2018.
0:56.8	Walker is parked on the shoulder just a few feet away from a police roadblock near Orowville, California.
1:03.5	He left his home in Conkow, 20 miles north of here early this morning.
1:08.4	He was 100 miles away from home when he heard that a fire had broken out and that Conkow's residents had to evacuate.
1:16.5	Walker turned right around and headed home. His wife Ellen suffers from fibromyalgia and
1:22.2	migraines and is frequently bedridden.
1:25.3	He didn't think she could evacuate on her own, but police officers refused to let him enter the area.
1:32.2	He told them that he needed to get to his wife, but they didn't budge.
1:36.9	Now he's been parked outside the roadblock for hours, determined to go home the second the police lift the barricade.
1:45.0	Walker's phone rings. He checks the caller ID. It's one of the neighbors.
1:49.5	His hands shake as he answers.
1:53.0	Nerves, hope, fear, all course through him.
	...

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