More than 20,000 people who evacuated the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday have watched on TV for three days as their neighbourhood has burned without respite.
They have heard the statistics – more than 50% of the buildings here have been reduced to rubble. But it is not sufficient preparation for what they will see in real life.
“I’ve been telling everyone to brace themselves for this moment,” says Rachel Darvish, a lawyer who has lived in Pacific Palisades her whole life.
My team and I ride in a car with her as she returns for the first time since wildfire ripped through this community.
The first place we stop is her modest childhood home where she lived until she was nine. It’s now a mound of dust and twisted metal, only a gate onto the pavement still standing.
“People think the Palisades are full of celebrities,” she says. “But this is where hardworking families come so that the kids can be by the beach and have a good life.”
No evidence that fires were deliberately started, says fire chief
There is “no conclusive evidence” that the wildfires across Los Angeles were deliberately set, according to California fire chief David Acuna.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mr Acuna said investigations into how the fires started have only just begun.
“Now that the life safety is primarily taken care of, and that we have sufficient resources to assist with that, now they’re able to start digging into the investigation and see what they can discover,” he said.
This morning, we reported that investigators have been looking into whether an individual was responsible for the Kenneth fire after a number of citizens detained someone in the West Valley area
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