It’s really hard to believe that there is loss of human life in these fires. Why aren’t they leaving sooner??
from what I understand the fires progressed too rapidly...for many to get out in time.
It's always a mystery. I suspect it's probably that people see the fire five or ten miles away and think they have a safe buffer zone. But the Camp Fire in Paradise was consuming 70 football fields every minute! That is almost impossible to comprehend. People also underestimate the strength of the winds. Watch the videos and you see tornado-strength winds roaring through the forests spreading the flames. Burning embers (often burnt leaves) can be blown miles ahead of the fire, so the effective speed of spread is extremely fast.
A fire gets big enough it creates it’s own weather patterns making fires highly unpredictable.