James Packard
Criminal charges dropped against PG&E over fatal California wildfire
The utility company has instead reached a $50 million settlement with Shasta County prosecutors over the fire that killed four people.
LEARN MOREPosted: 8:25 p.m. EDT Aug 17, 2023
Paradise, California, is a town rebuilding itself from ashes.
"If you're going to come back to town, if you're going to be part of Paradise again, what would make you feel secure and happy and wanting to come back. What do you need? No. 1 on that list was a warning system," said Greg Bolin, the mayor of Paradise.
The town has a dozen of its planned 21 early warning sirens in testing this month, ahead of the five-year anniversary of the fire this November — a fire that came, destroyed and killed without any sirens.
"Had that fire struck at 3:30 in the morning instead of 6:30, we would have all been asleep and we would not have had the notification," said Bill Hartley, a Paradise resident who rebuilt his home.
"There's kind of mixed viewpoints on it because a lot of people think there won't be a fire here again. But it's not for right now. It's for the future for our kids, so that this could never happen again," said Jen Goodlin, the executive director of the Rebuild Paradise Foundation.
It's a step to protect against fires that are more intense and faster-moving in a climate-changed world.
"And satellite can give it the message also. So we've got backup after backup on these. So this way we're sure we're going to get the message out to people," said Goodlin.
