This story is part of a series, Destined to Burn, in which a partnership between journalists from USA TODAY Network-California, McClatchy, Media News and the Associated Press explore the urgent wildfire issues facing California. More info on the series and other coverage can be found below.

Californians got a deadly wake-up call when more than 27,000 Paradise residents trying to escape the Camp Fire got caught in a nightmare traffic jam. The 2018 catastrophe illuminated the grim reality that road systems throughout the state are not designed to handle a sudden evacuation.

A new USA TODAY Network-California analysis reveals the extent to which a fundamental problem in Paradise — too few escape lanes for too many people in vehicles — applies to other cities and neighborhoods at great risk of wildfire across the state.

BENJAMIN SPILLMAN/USA TODAY NETWORK

About 350,000 Californians live in areas that have both the highest wildfire risk designation, and either the same number or fewer exit routes per person as Paradise. From the mountains, lakes and forests of northern California, to the San Diego suburbs, some residents in the most fire-prone areas have far fewer evacuation routes than the vast majority of the state.

The ratio of people to exit routes doesn’t account for all the complexities of an actual evacuation, experts say, but it does serve as a shorthand for evaluating evacuation efficacy.

In the Gold Rush town of Sonora, about three and half hours southeast of the town wasted by the Camp Fire, Karl Rodefer thinks about Paradise. He worries more as the next dry season approaches.

“If that happens here, we’re going to have the same kinds of issues,” said Rodefer, a Tuolumne County supervisor. “There’s a lot of anxiety in the foothills now because of the Camp Fire.”

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Both Sonora and Paradise are isolated communities, with few roads leading into and out of town.

In Los Angeles County, an area already known for gridlock, the city of Glendale straddles the Verdugo Mountains with neighborhoods, schools, and hiking trails carved into its base. The city’s 2008 emergency plan identified them as potential brush fire zones.

The roads can be narrow and some communities have only one way in and out. The plan notes that these conditions could make evacuation and emergency response difficult, but years of construction and development have made any kind of road widening “physically impossible” in those areas, city spokesman Dan Bell said.

Burned-out vehicles litter roads leading into Paradise in the aftermath of the Camp Fire. Hung T. Vu/Special to the Record Searchlight

The city’s police and fire agencies have conducted outreach in these communities and are strict about defensible space around homes. There’s also a new, targeted alert system.

“I think the only concern is people not evacuating when we ask them to evacuate,” he said.

Plus, Bell said, the area hasn’t seen a major wildfire in some time.

Highway 99 north of Chico is jammed on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, as Paradise, Calif., residents evacuate due to the Camp Fire. Damon Arthur/Redding Record Searchlight

But it’s the big one that worries Glendale resident James Ward, 62. For 32 years he’s lived in Chevy Chase Canyon, a community of 1,600 homes in a cleft of the San Rafael Hills, which the city has also identified as a potential brush fire zone.

There are only two-lane roads that run through the canyon, with a single access point for many streets and only a few main arteries that let people out. But some neighbors don’t know all the ways out, Ward said.

“If 80% or 60% of the people thought the only way was Chevy Chase (Drive) and all the emergency vehicles were coming up, yes that’s gonna be an issue,” Ward said.

Evacuation routes came up at an annual community meeting in March with the police and fire departments because residents saw the tragedy in Paradise and had the same fears, Ward said. The co-president of the Chevy Chase Estates Association said the public safety officials acknowledged their fears but “their message was: be aware of your surroundings and if we ask you to leave, leave.”

California officially adopted fire code standards for roads in the 1990s, although they had been used in some areas for decades before that. They set rules for things like grades, road surfaces, passing areas, signage on dead-ends and “critical” secondary access to any subdivision, said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director with Cal Fire’s office of the state fire marshal.

Karl Rodefer, a Tuolumne County supervisor If that happens here, we’re going to have the same kinds of issues ... There’s a lot of anxiety in the foothills now because of the Camp Fire." Quote icon

But most of the road systems California communities like Glendale rely on were built before the widespread use of the standards.

There are also building codes that regulate room capacity and emergency exits, said wildfire evacuations expert Tom Cova. The same consideration should be applied to road infrastructure in communities, he said.

“We’re gonna see a lot of bad things happen I think ... before we do something for communities that we did for buildings,” said Cova, director of the University of Utah’s Center for Natural and Technological Hazards.

Still, Cova and other experts see road capacity as just one element of a healthy evacuation system. Timely evacuation orders, residents’ willingness to obey them, traffic pinch points at intersections beyond the community and many other factors can also be a matter of life and death.

And road capacities can be sufficient, Cova said, if evacuations are gradual or limited. It’s when everyone tries to leave at once that escape routes are quickly overwhelmed.

Woolsey Fire evacuee from Malibu spent four hours stuck in traffic It took Kassidy Jones four hours to get from his Malibu home to Los Angeles when the Woolsey Fire charged toward his Corral Canyon neighborhood. JUAN CARLO, VC Star

‘There were just so many people’

Malibu transplant Kassidy Jones, 40, said that’s exactly what happened when he and his family fled their home in the city’s Corral Canyon neighborhood the morning of Nov. 9. As the Woolsey Fire bore down, they packed two cars full of belongings and drove south down the windy, two-lane road to scenic Pacific Coast Highway.

Show caption Hide caption Kassidy Jones’s two-story home was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire. His Malibu neighborhood has only one way entrance and exit. During the fire, it took... Kassidy Jones’s two-story home was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire. His Malibu neighborhood has only one way entrance and exit. During the fire, it took 4 hours to evacuate to Los Angeles instead of the 20 minutes it normally would have taken. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

At the bottom of the canyon, they found bumper-to-bumper traffic.

“I don’t think there’s really another way out, especially because the fire was coming down the mountain,” Jones said. “There were just so many people. PCH can’t handle it.”

Work brought the Texas native to Los Angeles, but he never liked the city much. That’s why he moved his family to the remote neighborhood where his backyard met the sprawling canyon and gave him a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

Now there he was stuck in traffic. He couldn’t go north. The flames were coming from that direction — just like in previous fires. Plus, north of Jones, the canyon road eventually empties into a network of hiking trails.

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Kassidy Jones, Malibu resident I don’t think there’s really another way out, especially because the fire was coming down the mountain... There were just so many people. PCH can’t handle it." Quote icon

At the bottom of the canyon, it took 20 minutes to even turn onto the highway, Jones said. He parked one of the vehicles along PCH and planned to leave it there, figuring the fire wouldn’t spread that far. There, Jones rejoined his wife and their children, ages 6 and 8.

The kids became restless as the family’s car crept along the highway for two hours to go just two miles. Finally, they stopped at a park to stretch their legs, go to the bathroom and have some snacks.

They watched as the towering smoke plume from the Woolsey Fire changed direction.

“Before it was flowing west then it went south. Our neighborhood was on the eastern edge of where the fire went. Unfortunately, it got our house,” Jones said.

Where drivers could overwhelm evacuation routes

For others like Jones, who choose to live in places prone to fire, whether in remote parts of rural California or in the “urban-wildland interface” that buffers California’s rugged wilderness and dense cities, a similar situation could await.

A USA TODAY Network-California analysis of populations, fire risk zones and roadways shows roughly one out of every 100 ZIP codes in California has a population-to-evacuation-route ratio that is near to or worse than that of Paradise and its neighbor Magalia.

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Near the top of the list is South Lake Tahoe, a city west of the California-Nevada state line where vacationers come to camp along the lake that straddles both places. The town is relatively isolated, with only a few thoroughfares to facilitate emergency access for firefighting resources.

There, the number of people living in the “very high fire hazard safety zone” per roadway lanes out is almost three times the number for Paradise.

Interim South Lake Tahoe Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Drennan said he wasn’t surprised to find out his community is in one of the most precarious fire evacuation locations in the state, given the small number of roads in and out of the Tahoe Basin.

Drennan said since Paradise burned, he hears the same question from people on a nearly daily basis: What are they going to do if a major fire breaks out? Evacuation plans fall primarily to police, he said, but his fire department is one of several agencies trying to plan for what feels like a looming threat. His fire department and other public safety agencies in the area are “on super high alert,” he said.

Jim Drennan, Interim South Lake Tahoe Fire Department Battalion Chief The mindset here is: There's no earthly way you're moving the entire vacation population out of the basin all at once ... If you have just one quirk, you're going to end up with a lot of people stuck on the roads." Quote icon

“The mindset here is: There’s no earthly way you’re moving the entire vacation population out of the basin all at once,” Drennan said. “If you have just one quirk, you’re going to end up with a lot of people stuck on the roads.”

The previous fire chief there wrote in a 2018 op-ed that it’s not a question of “if” but “when” a major fire will hit the area, and he pointed out the limited evacuation routes as a major concern.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, densely populated with some of the costliest real estate in the United States, has even more people and fewer lanes leading out, putting it at more than five times the population-to-lane ratio as Paradise.

The western-facing edge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range is full of areas with a low number of evacuation routes for the populations there. Places like Foresthill in Placer County, which has a worse population-to-lane ratio than Paradise, and Nevada City in Nevada County, and Sonora in Tuolumne County, are far worse than average.

The analysis identified some places in California where fires have already combined with jammed roadways, killing drivers attempting to flee. Paradise and its neighbor Magalia were among the areas identified as a populous area with limited routes out, and 2018’s Camp Fire proved the point. There, city and county officials had planned on having motorists evacuate using five two-lane roads and one four-lane road leading out of town. But fire forced officials to close three of those routes, further clogging the remaining roads, Paradise Mayor Jody Jones said.

Show caption Hide caption Kassidy Jones stands on the remains of the clean-up of his two-story home that was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire. His Malibu neighborhood has only... Kassidy Jones stands on the remains of the clean-up of his two-story home that was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire. His Malibu neighborhood has only one way entrance and exit. During the fire, it took 4 hours to evacuate to Los Angeles instead of the 20 minutes it normally would have taken. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

The Cedar Fire, which burned 273,000 acres across the hills of northeastern San Diego in 2003, claimed 10 people trying to flee the blaze in their cars. The fire lashed the densely populated Scripps Ranch area, which has a limited number of roadways that lead to less fire-prone areas.

Here are the other ZIP codes the analysis identified as having particularly high population-to-evacuation-route ratios:

Southern California:

► 90042: Highland Park and Eagle Rock in Los Angeles County

► 90272: Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles County

► 90274: Rolling Hills in Los Angeles County

► 90275: Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County

► 91935: Jamul and surrounding areas in San Diego County

► 92065: Ramona and surrounding areas in San Diego County

► 92131: Scripps Ranch in San Diego County

► 91320: From Newbury Park to Dos Vientos Ranch in western Thousand Oaks in Ventura County

► 91377: Oak Park, an unincorporated community in Ventura County

► 93021: Moorpark in Ventura County

► 92548: Homeland and areas northwest of Homeland in Riverside County

► 92584: Menifee in Riverside County

► 92314: Big Bear, Minnelusa and Sugarloaf (92386) in San Bernardino County

Central California:

► 93924: Carmel Valley and Jamesburg in Monterey County

Northern California:

► 95954: Magalia in Butte County

► 95969: Paradise in Butte County

► 96150: South Lake Tahoe and surrounding areas in El Dorado County

► 95634: Georgetown and surrounding areas in El Dorado County

► 94508: Angwin in Napa County

► 94708: Cragmont, Kensington and La Loma Park in northeastern Berkeley in Alameda County

► 95422: Clearlake in Lake County

► 95451: Kelseyville in Lake County

► 95631: Foresthill and surrounding areas in Placer County

► 95666: Pioneer, Barton and Buckhorn in Amador County

MAP: The number of people trying to use each lane of roadway out of an evacuation area can give a sense of how congested an emergency could become. Each ZIP code is shaded by the number of people living in “very high risk” fire severity zones per lanes of roadway leaving and heading into areas with less fire severity risk.

Undeterred

Many Californians clearly understand the risks. They’ve lived through wildfire evacuations, or have watched others. But that’s not enough to pry them from the places they love.

Show caption Hide caption Greg Meneshian walks on the side of his Bell Canyon property. His house and neighbor’s house were destroyed by the Woolsey fire in November 2018.... Greg Meneshian walks on the side of his Bell Canyon property. His house and neighbor’s house were destroyed by the Woolsey fire in November 2018. The gated community has only one way in and one way out. JUAN CARLO/Ventura County Star

Greg Meneshian, 53, is one. He’s rebuilding the Bell Canyon home destroyed last year by the Woolsey Fire.

Meneshian moved to the gated, equestrian-oriented community just west of the bustling San Fernando Valley about five years ago. The sense of community he felt the night he evacuated, he said, is just more reason for him and his two daughters, 10 and 12, to stay.

There’s only one access point for the neighborhood of 750.

Looking northwest from his driveway on the night of Nov. 8 he could see flames in the canyon. He and his neighbors met on the street in front of his home trying to figure out what they should do, Meneshian said.

“They were looking to me for answers as if I lived through this before,” Meneshian said. But he was in disbelief.

Greg Meneshian, Bell Canyon resident It was really a scramble for our lives. Quote icon

He woke up the girls and told them to pack a bag for a week. The power had been flickering on and off, and Meneshian knew that meant it was time to go.

Unlike Jones, whose wife had gotten an evacuation alert, Meneshian left before anyone told him to.

It was dark and smoky with nothing but the pockets of fire visible in the canyon, Meneshian said. Vehicles raced down his hilly street.

“It was really a scramble for our lives,” Meneshian said.

He’d find out the next day his home was destroyed.

But the self-proclaimed “nostalgic guy” likes the sense of togetherness in Bell Canyon, where the closest store is 30 minutes away so sometimes borrowing from a neighbor is usually the better bet.

The limited escape routes, he thinks, are just something to be aware of: “It’s probably a deterrent for some people (moving) in,” he said. “But it shouldn’t be.”

Bell Canyon has only one way in and one way out Greg Meneshian's home in the gated community of Bell Canyon, a neighborhood with one way in and one way out, was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire. JUAN CARLO, VC Star

‘You have to make these investments’

Before Paradise burned, there were already signs of problems with evacuation routes during major wildfires, said Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, whose district includes Glendale.

The 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, which killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,600 structures, raised alarms.

Afterward, Friedman and her staff talked with academics about the lessons learned, and she introduced Assembly Bill 2911, which then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2018. Among other things, AB 2911 requires that subdivisions with only one exit route, located in very high hazard zones for wildfire, undergo an assessment. The bill calls for developing safety recommendations.

Assemblywoman Laura Friedman Any city that has those conditions could benefit and... it could be a legislative wake-up call to not only identify these areas but (to signal that) you have to make these investments to make the cities safer." Quote icon

State fire officials should begin the surveys around July 1, 2021, and continue every five years after.

Friedman’s bill is likely to have an impact back in her district. In Glendale’s 2008 emergency plan, bold, capitalized letters call attention to the Oakmont Woods and Whiting Woods communities and their single access roads. Both are within the state’s very high hazard zone.

“Any city that has those conditions could benefit and certainly it could be a legislative wake-up call to not only identify these areas but (to signal that) you have to make these investments to make the cities safer,” Friedman said.

Friedman hopes for more state funding for the assessments. She sees reason for optimism in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s declaration of a state of emergency ahead of the traditional wildfire season.

While there’s no unified approach to dealing with California’s wildfire evacuation problem, Friedman’s bill calling for assessments to begin two years from now is not the only potential improvement underway.

In March, Newsom fast-tracked 35 priority projects to remove years of dry, built-up vegetation and create fuel breaks for emergency routes. Those follow an effort by Caltrans since 2016 to remove dead and dying trees from state roadways.

More than just lanes

Paradise couple prays as they escape Camp Fire Paradise couple prays as they escape Camp Fire Brynn Chatfield, Redding Record Searchlight

Cova, the wildfire evacuations expert, said 25 years ago he became preoccupied with the idea that road congestion was the problem. But through his research he also learned it’s more complicated.

The direction the roads let out is also important. In most fire-prone areas officials know what historically contributes to large wildfires, such as Santa Ana or Diablo winds, and can plan to build roads in a direction those gusts are unlikely to push the fire, Cova said.

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During an emergency, Cova said traffic routing and control makes a big difference. That can be especially important at the points where evacuation routes hit other roads. The Malibu example, where so many roads empty onto PCH, is apt.

Vehicles sit pushed off the road days after the Camp Fire swept through town on Nov. 8 in Paradise. Thomas Hawthorne/USA TODAY NETWORK

The road issues are important because so many other human factors may decrease the amount of time people have to evacuate, he said.

“What really causes the problem is when you have too many people leaving in too little a time,” Cova said.

It can take officials a while to order evacuations. And residents often hesitate, contemplating whether they should leave, then take time packing.

Back in Malibu, Jones’ wife got an evacuation alert on her phone at 6 a.m. Sheriff’s officials came around on a loudspeaker at 7 a.m. It was around 8 a.m. when Jones actually left.

To speed things up, Cova encourages residents to have a go bag with medications, important paperwork, photographs and other irreplaceable items. And they should have a plan to round up pets, since critical time can be lost chasing dogs and locating cats.

“Being prepared to leave at a moment’s notice is a good idea,” Cova said.

Damon Arthur contributed to this report.

Vehicles sit pushed off the road days after the Camp Fire swept through town on Nov. 11, in Paradise, Calif. Thomas Hawthorne, Thomas Hawthorne/USA TODAY NETWORK

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