This started at 6:30am or so and by noon the town was in trouble. Wind was gusting at 40mph, so it just took off immediately. It was apparently started by a faulty power transformer that was probably throwing sparks.

Apparently people were abandoning their cars and running out of town and there are miles of burned out cars along the side of the road. 6,700 buildings? Literally the entire town was burned to the ground, schools, homes, churches, stores, everything wiped out.

40mph winds, dry conditions, and a faulty transformer throwing sparks - they are not words you want to hear in the same sentence

Whatever power company it was is gonna be in for a few lawsuits

That vision of burnt out cars on the exit roads is a feature of every major wildfire disaster. often happens that people are trying to escape, then there's a tree down on the road or a pile up coz of the visibility and then they're stuck

As you said, 6 of the most destructive fires have been in recent history? Seems the time has come to make adjustments for climate change in the now world, not just cutting fuel emissions for the future. I wonder if it's possible to build a fire-proof bunker in high risk towns? The way they have tornado shelters...

The oxygen would be problem coz a lot of people die of the smoke even before they get burnt - and I don't know how long it would take for a fire like that to go past to a point where you could emerge - but it's probably doable