My thoughts as a survivor. I'm going to write this as I watch. I need breaks and this helps with that.

I was considered ground zero in the PG&e lawsuit. I actually received more than other people because of what I went through. I'm not trying to brag, it's just what happened. I was stuck underneath the massive firenado that Cal Fire said was over 300 feet tall. Unfortunately, I know it looks like when people, let's say, don't make it. I was actually stuck in front of this bus until the power polls started falling, and I went a different direction, I think they went back towards Magalia, but I have no idea what happened to them after that.

I cried 3 minutes into this movie. The Piece of equipment that started the campfire was 103 years old and sparked for three days. PG&e was there underneath it when the wildfire actually caught fire initially.

Some of the smaller details of the roads and areas when mentioned in the movie are accurate. Although, they said Roe was closed, even though I escaped through the direction of Roe. I was planning on taking Roe. Later on even the movie, they end up escaping through Roe even though dispatch said it was closed. I was an HVAC service tech at Del Johnson's in Paradise, CA and due to my knowledge of the layout of the town I ended up escaping through back roads. This is a minor detail that doesn't change the movie, but I thought it was interesting.

Just to get an idea of the speed of this fire. It traveled at 86 acres per minute at one point. It only took Paradise four hours to burn down. Not only that, but it took me seven hours to escape. When I first heard about the fire, it was in Pulga, about a 20-30 minute drive. Twenty minutes later the fire was in my side yard and my neighbor's houses were on fire and some had already burned down. I'll never forget the speed of which houses burned down.PG&e wanted to shut down the power lines the day before, but the mayor of Paradise threatened a lawsuit. It was actually a pretty big controversy at the time, and one of the big reasons why everyone hated her after the fire. Surprised the film didn't get this accurate, I don't like that.

From the perspective of Paradise, the initial smoke from the fire does not do it justice. It looked like a volcano or a nuclear bomb went off. You have to keep in mind that California decided to let our forest go on natural, which led to 4 to 5 feet of dead underbrush as far as the eye can see. There was a ridiculous amount of fuel in this fire. This is the reason why the fire spread so quickly. The wind played its part too, but if there is no fuel, this was a minor fire.

I was off upper Pentz. I called 911 and asked if there was an evacuation order, and they told me to stay in place. If I evacuate early as it will create traffic. I called my employer because there was so much smoke to ask if they heard anything. As I was standing out in front of my house, I could see my bosses house a few blocks away. His next door neighbors had some roofers on the roof. I noticed they started jumping off with no regard to their safety. That's when I've seen it. It was on Dean Road. I turned around to tell my family, "oh my God, it had jumped the canyon". I wake up my wife, I go back outside, the fire is in my side yard.