Paradise widened, paved and straightened roads after the 2008 blaze to allow for a speedier evacuation. But the Camp Fire burned across all escape routes.
"The flow plan didn't work," said Broshears. "We couldn't flow huge amounts of traffic down an available highway because there was no available highway."
On the ground, residents fought to escape the town.
Wilken, 51, got word around 8 a.m. that the fire was 7 miles away. By 8:15 a.m. trees outside his window at the Feather River Hospital were on fire.
There was no time to gather ambulances to evacuate the 67 admitted patients as staff had trained to do.
"If your car was not on fire, you were the ambulance," said Wilken, who loaded three patients into his Subaru WRX.
His designated escape route was blocked by flames. He wove through back streets and a slalom of burning vehicles, his car exterior melting from the heat, trees and electricity poles falling on vehicles ahead, before reaching safety hours later.
As Wilken fled, firefighters and volunteers including resident Mike Boggs tried to get into town. Police had turned all exit routes into contraflows, a move that sped up the evacuation, but obstructed first responders trying to enter Paradise. Boggs went off road and drove up a ditch in his pickup, followed by a fire truck.
The 60-year-old iron worker credits a decision after the 2008 blaze with saving his and nearby homes in Butte Valley, near Paradise. He bought 40 cattle that grazed on grass that would have otherwise fed the fire.
"Everywhere I put my cows it didn't burn," said Boggs.
For Broshears, one of the biggest lesson from the Camp Fire was that for residents facing a fast-advancing megafire, it may sometimes be better to shelter in open spaces, like road intersections, than try to outrun the flames.
"It would be ugly but you'd survive," he said.
