"I Escaped The California Camp Fire"

Scott Peters designed hundreds of museum installations but in recent times has turned to writing for Middle Grade readers, teaming with S.D. Brown of Northern California to publish a gripping novel set in the midst of the Camp Fire.

"I Escaped The California Camp Fire" ($7.99 in paperback from Best Day Books For Young Readers; also for Amazon Kindle) is the second in the "I Escaped" series about "brave kids who face real world challenges and find ways to escape."

The story is a fictionalized account of the fire which draws on published reports. The hero is fourteen-year-old Troy Benson who lives with his parents and kid sister Emma in Paradise along with Rascal, their German Shepherd, and Midnight the cat. When his dad and mom leave him in charge to attend a dinner in Redding and stay overnight, Troy dreams of all the junk food he plans to eat.

Frankly, Troy is bored. Real civilization (read "San Francisco") is hours away. "Instead of people, Paradise had trees. Instead of streets, there was one road in and one road out. Instead of high-rise buildings, there were trailer courts tucked between small planned and unplanned neighborhoods."

The next morning, November 8, 2018, everything would change. When he woke at 9:15 "something was off. Suddenly he was wide-awake; his eyes darted left and right. He couldn't see anything. It was black." The power is out, but when Rascal starts barking Troy heads outside. "It was pitch black. There wasn't even starlight. The wind ripped at his clothes like it was being chased by fire-breathing dragons. And smelled that way, too--smoky and warm."

Eventually he knew they had to escape. The neighbor lady refuses to evacuate, so Troy has to drive his dad's SUV Bronco. In piles Emma and Rascal, with Midnight in her backpack. What comes next, the heart of the story, is travel down the Skyway with fire everywhere, running for their lives when the vehicle is caught in the flames, Rascal's key role in directing them to a stream over the hill, and Troy's quick thinking as they head for Chico. 

"Maybe," Troy tells Emma later, "there is a God."