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City on Fire
Letters to the Editor: The Fires Weren’t Inevitable
Three readers respond to the argument that LA was built to burn.
The Free Press
WATCH: ‘We Are Operating on Adrenaline, Caffeine, and Donuts’
At LA’s evacuation shelters, volunteers work day and night to help their neighbors with clothes, food, and pet care.
Austyn Jeffs
2M
What’s Left of My House
On my street in Altadena, the only things still standing are the chimneys.
Meghan Daum
L.A. Was Built to Burn
Blame whoever you want. But the reality is we built a massive civilization where fire is part of the natural habitat.
Leighton Woodhouse
WATCH: Why Is the Santa Ynez Reservoir Empty?
While Southern California experienced a historically dry rainy season, Pacific Palisades’ emergency water supply was bare.
Austyn Jeffs
1M
‘Everything Is Gone’
Eleven dead. Thousands displaced. Entire neighborhoods burned to rubble. Four Angelenos tell us what they lost—and what they’re still holding on to.
Peter Savodnik
TGIF: Hellfire
The policies that broke California. Meta’s fact-checkers head to Texas. David Muir cinches his waist. Jimmy Carter’s cliquey funeral. And much, much…
Nellie Bowles
Escape from Los Angeles. Plus. . .
The Indians locked out of the American Dream. A defense of Jerry Springer. The women who spoke out about Britain’s grooming gangs before Elon Musk. And…
River Page
‘You Can Taste the Fires in the Back of Your Throat’
In the future, there will be a demarcation: before and after this disaster. No one knows what comes next for L.A., writes Peter Savodnik.
Peter Savodnik
For Free People.
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