On 7 January 2025, a rare combination of hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and months of drought turned the hills around Los Angeles into a furnace. The Palisades fire erupted above the affluent coastal neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades, and within days it was joined by the Eaton fire in Altadena and several others, together consuming more than 40,000 acres inside the city and its suburbs.
More than 180,000 people were ordered to evacuate, and fire crews from across the country and from Mexico fought a blaze that moved faster than anyone could run. At least 28 people died, and more than 15,000 structures were destroyed, including entire neighbourhoods of mid-century homes and churches that had stood for generations. Whole blocks of Malibu were reduced to ash.
The fires became the costliest in US history, with losses estimated above $150 billion, and they triggered a fierce political argument about emergency funding, insurance and how cities in fire-prone zones should be built. For residents of the city of film and imagination, watching their landmarks and homes burn in real time was a collective shock that many said would change Los Angeles permanently.