Harrowing true story of nurse in California wildfires is climbing the Netflix charts after Trump's climate policy change
A movie based on the real-life story of the 2018 Paradise wildfires has soared up the Netflix charts, days after Donald Trump announced the reversal of key climate change laws.
Dubbed the Camp Fire, the blaze broke out on November 8 2018, in Butte County, northern California, when an old metal hook supporting an electrical transmission line on a tower produced sparks, triggering vegetation to go up in flames.
Extreme winds and very dry conditions allowed the fire to spread with astonishing speed, overwhelming the region within hours.
The fire was named after Camp Creek Road, near where it started, and quickly became the deadliest and most destructive in California’s recorded history - and one of the worst in US - claiming 85 lives.
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Last year, Lifetime released a movie about nurse Nichole Jolly, who worked at the Adventist Health Feather River Hospital, which was severely damaged in the blaze.
She helped patients evacuate the hospital, but got into a car crash when finally escaping the scene herself.
Speaking to KTVU a week after the horrific turn of events, Nichole said she rang her husband to say goodbye when her car, that had crashed into a ravine, began filling with smoke.
"I told him I probably was not going to make it," Nichole recalled. "I'm trapped and there's flames everywhere.
"I told him to take care of the kids and tell them I love them and I love him."
Miraculously, she managed to escape the car and was saved by firefighters, surviving with only minor injuries, as PEOPLE reported.
This Is Us star Chrissy Metz plays Nichole in the film, titled Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story, which joined Netflix last month.
At the time of writing, the movie is number four on the streamer's most-watched movie charts for America, behind Copshop, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and The Investigation of Lucy Letby.
Its rise up the charts comes as President Donald Trump has vowed to undo a major Obama-era climate decision called the 'endangerment finding,' which said greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane are dangerous to public health. That ruling was the foundation for a lot of US climate regulations, as it gave the EPA the authority to limit emissions under the Clean Air Act.
By reversing it, the legal backbone for many emissions rules - especially for car manufacturers - is weakened or removed altogether.
The Trump administration argues this will cut costs, claiming it could lower car production costs by around $2,400 per vehicle and reduce regulatory pressure on the industry, as the BBC reports.
Some in the auto sector support the move, saying current standards were unrealistic.
But critics say the environmental and health impacts could be huge. Environmental groups estimate billions of extra tonnes of greenhouse gases could be emitted by 2055, potentially costing trillions in climate-related damage.
There are also warnings of more premature deaths, asthma attacks and hospital visits linked to increased pollution.
It could also spark more lawsuits, as states and communities may once again try to sue companies over climate harm. And longer term, there’s concern the US could fall behind countries like China and those in the EU, which are pushing ahead with renewables and electric vehicles.
Topics: Netflix, Climate Change, Donald Trump, California
Ellie Kemp