In Fire Scorched California, Town Aims To Buy At-Risk Properties

Paradise, California has "a new, ambitious town effort to identify the most high risk properties in the burn area and, if there are willing sellers, buy them and turn them into fire resistant green spaces."

"By the heat of the afternoon, smoke from the largest wildfire burning in the U.S., the Dixie Fire, drifts into Paradise, Calif.

"Quite literally, it's hanging over your head," says Dan Efseaff, director of the Paradise Recreation and District.

For many locals, seeing and smelling the smoke is a constant if ominous reminder of the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed some 19,000 structures here. The Dixie Fire ignited in nearly the same place."

Kirk Siegler reports for NPR August 23, 2021.