Darkness @ Noon: Battling the Beast

By Russ Goodenough

The story of the rampaging inferno known as the Thomas Fire, the largest single wildfire in modern California history (up to that time), and the tragic floods that followed. At 6:28, on the evening of December 4th, 2017, a fire erupted near the campus of remote Thomas Aquinas College in Ventura County, California. From tree-shrouded Santa Paula Canyon, it spread with "the fastest speed I have ever witnessed," as described by one of the first responders. It was propelled by the hurricane-force winds of the infamous Santa Anas. Within an hour, the flames, of what was now called the Thomas Fire, were on the outskirts of the coastal City of Ventura, ten air-miles from the college, and threatening hillside homes on the north side of the city. Its ferocity overwhelmed the first defenders. Ventura lost more than 770 homes that day, resulting in one of California's greatest structure-damage fires in its history. This book describes in great detail the spread of the Thomas Fire from day to day in late 2017, the heroic efforts to control it, and the aftermath: the floods that followed in January 2018 in the Montecito area that claimed 23 lives. Other fires in California and across the US are listed as a comparison to the Thomas Fire, which up to that date (2017) was the most devastating fire in modern California history. Updated: New Gloss Version

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CSKD78YD
• ISBN13: 9798876391056
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 349 Pages
• Weight: 1.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 7.5"