Paradise, Calif. • First came the flames, a raging firestorm propelled by 50 mph wind gusts that incinerated Kelsey Norton’s house and killed 85 people in her community.
Then came the smoke — not just from the forest but also from 14,000 houses and their contents that burned, generating a thick plume that enshrouded portions of Northern California for weeks and left Norton gasping.
"I don't want to have cancer in my 50s because I inhaled smoke in my 30s," she said.
The immediate toll of lives and property lost a year ago when the Camp Fire tore through the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise, California, is well documented.