L.A.’s double disaster left thousands of scars, and healing will take years

In the cracked and carved metropolis of Los Angeles, there are as many stories as there are people, but there is only one binding, essential truth.

Disaster has dropped by on many occasions in the form of quakes, fires and floods, and disaster will call again.

And yet the monster conflagrations of 2025 proved that despite the deep archive of local calamity, the spectacular topography of peril and the convergence of climate change and wildland intrusion, equal doses of distraction and denial kept us unprepared for the inevitable. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, in fact, left the country despite warnings of catastrophic conditions, and by the time she returned, entire neighborhoods were gone.

Across Southern California, we’ve bolted our houses to their foundations in anticipation of the Big One. But we have not hardened them against a more present and increasingly destructive threat.

In the Eaton and Palisades fires, Santa Ana winds sent embers flying like rocket-propelled grenades. Houses, churches, schools and stores exploded in flames. Roughly 100,000 people were evacuated and more than 16,000 structures were destroyed. The ocean was polluted with fallout and runoff, the long-term impact of contaminated air and soil remains unknown, and the death toll climbed to 31.

Yes, there was a perfect storm of factors that made the fires difficult to contain despite heroic efforts on the front lines. But in a yearlong critical examination of what happened and what didn’t, The Times has exposed multiple systemic failures, and questions linger like daggers over the heads of public officials.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Why was an earlier Palisades fire allowed to smolder until it sparked the inferno that wiped out the town? Wouldn’t smarter pre-deployment of personnel and equipment have made both fires more manageable? What led to late evacuation orders in west Altadena, where 18 of the 19 deaths occurred? Why can’t power companies prevent the breakdowns that ignite wildfires?

In this section, The Times looks back on one of the most apocalyptic years in Southern California history, calls city and county officials to account, and makes the case for ensuring that next time, we’ll be better prepared.

Also explored in these pages is the ongoing human toll and the irrepressible spirit of survival. Thousands of victims are still in limbo, trying to rebuild their homes and reassemble their lives while managing the stress of displacement, the cost of starting over and the loss of irreplaceable keepsakes.

In the long history of disaster, let this be the time we come back stronger, smarter and more astutely aware of our collective humanity, our proximity to both natural beauty and perpetual risk, and our undeniable impermanence.

— Steve Lopez