In the era when American cities regularly caught fire, the widespread destruction seeded what looks, in retrospect, like possibility.

In a matter of hours, entire blocks of the Los Angeles area were destroyed, gutting thriving communities and leaving thousands with only the items they carried as they ran from their homes to escape fast-moving fires. More than 10,000 structures have burned across some 35,000 acres in the region.

T housands of personnel—firefighters, first responders, and the National Guard—have turned their attention towards stifling the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires, some of the worst California has ever seen.