The prospect of the famous Hollywood sign being engulfed by flames last week encapsulated the drama and terror of the unprecedented wildfires which have devastated parts of Los Angeles. The sign was saved and the flames have abated slightly, but the threat remains high. The apocalyptic scenes could have come from the storyboard of a blockbuster movie as the homes of the rich and famous were razed, along with many more modest dwellings.
Compared with other recent natural disasters such as last year’s flash floods in Valencia, the death toll so far is mercifully low. But the damage to property, including in some of the city’s wealthiest suburbs, is of an order of magnitude that will strain the US insurance system.
Los Angelenos have always been attuned to precarity. Built in a desert over a geological faultline, dependent on water from mountains and aquifers far to its north and east, the city grew explosively to become the capital of the entertainment industry, as well as a defence industry hub and the quintessential end point of westward expansion in search of the American dream.
With an area larger than that of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, Los Angeles County’s population is higher than that of 40 US states. The original model for the car-dependent sprawl which came to define the post-war city, it epitomises the Californian promise of sunshine and prosperity, along with the countervailing threat of ecological and political collapse. All of this has been on view over the past week.
As rainfall patterns alter and winds become more extreme, Los Angeles is increasingly vulnerable to natural phenomena which are often beyond human control. Whipped by gusts of up to 100km per hour hour, fires ripped across hills and through neigbourhoods. There could hardly be a more vivid illustration of how climate change is challenging calculations on where it is safe to live. But with climate denialism a badge of honour in the incoming Trump administration, that has been ignored in favour of blasting the Democratic leadership of Los Angeles and California.
The criticism is not entirely unwarranted. The “great sort” which has left so many parts of the US under the exclusive control of one party or the other has not been conducive to good governance. Los Angeles’s mayor Karen Bass, a former congresswoman who was in contention for the vice-presidential nomination in 2020, has been heavily criticised for leaving the country just before the fires began. Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential presidential candidate in 2028, has also been attacked. Both face the challenge of reassuring restive voters who shifted several points towards Donald Trump last November, along with the far greater task of protecting the city and its inhabitants as they prepare to welcome the Olympics in just three years’ time.