This I find horrifying, "The very hot and dry conditions were conducive to keeping the
firebrands alight for longer than normal, and upper winds of around 100 km/h carried
firebrands and started spotfires up to 35 km ahead of the fire front"

Does that mean the fire effectively jumps 35km? How is that possible? You could be home watching the evening news and not have a clue, then you're toast, literally.

I also thought 1KM/hour was slow, and I guess it is, but from the videos I've seen, the fire was on all sides of people. Maybe the terrain had something to do with it as well, being an area of canyons and hills.

From a personal perspective, it means we have to take that part of CA off our short list of places to go next. This is the third year in a row we would have had to evacuate had we moved to the place I had my eye on, which wasn't Paradise but was near where the fires were earlier this year. I can't imagine what those people who lost their entire town are facing. I mean, when a typhoon wipes out a house, at least there's still a community to fall back on while you rebuild, infrastructure like hotels, restaurants, stores. That town is gone.