Paradise Lost, Pacific Palisades Edition

In January 2025, a series of catastrophic wildfires ripped through Los Angeles County with an intensity that stunned even a state accustomed to burning. The Palisades Fire devoured one of LA's most affluent neighborhoods in hours. The Eaton Fire devastated Altadena. Hydrants ran dry because the water infrastructure couldn't keep up. Firefighters, already stretched impossibly thin, watched structures burn because there was simply nothing left to spray. The images were apocalyptic: the Pacific Coast Highway lined with fire on both sides, celebrity mansions and modest bungalows reduced to the same gray ash, a city famous for its sunshine choking under smoke that turned the sky the color of a bruise. Insurance companies began pulling out of California markets. The debates about climate, development, and water policy that had been theoretical for years were suddenly standing in someone's ruined living room. LA would rebuild — it always does — but the fires exposed something that couldn't be reconstructed: the assumption that where you live is safe.