It has long been a belief among Californians: catastrophes in the state’s south are hardly as daunting as they seem.
Delaware and Rhode Island could fit, with room to spare, in Los Angeles County. A drive from Pacific Palisades to Pasadena takes almost an hour, even without traffic. When the Los Angeles riots broke out in 1992, Americans were horrified at the fires that outlined the downtown skyline. What wasn’t shown were the jacaranda-lined streets and the placid suburbs from which the rest of Southern California watched the chaos on television.
This time it was different.
In a furious assault that began Tuesday morning and continued for days, a monster of wild wind and fire tore through a metropolis of nearly 1,300 square kilometers and some 10 million people, spreading fires that destroyed communities of all types and socioeconomic statuses. .
Mansions were reduced to ashes in Pacific Palisades, a celebrity enclave west of Los Angeles. About 35 miles to the east, in the sprawling suburb of Altadena, entire urban subdivisions were destroyed. Ranchers in rural Sylmar, about 25 miles to the north, advanced into the burning night, leading the way for their horses. New homeowners in newly built developments a few hours away, in inland communities like Pomona, prepared for evacuations as 94-kilometer-per-hour winds shook window panes and palm trees.
