The headline in the L.A. Times says it all:
5 dead, more than 1,100 structures destroyed as firestorm besieges L.A. County
By the time you are reading this, the devastation will almost certainly be worse.
Since the Palisades Fire exploded on Tuesday, Jan. 7, other blazes have blown up, including the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, and the Hurst Fire around Sylmar. As I'm writing this on Wednesday evening, Jan. 8, more than 27,000 acres are burning, according to California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as CalFire.
That's an area nearly twice as large as Manhattan Island in New York. And much more acreage is going to burn before this is all over.
This should come as no surprise. Southern California has seen scant rain for nearly nine months. Combine that with winds howling at 100 miles per hour, and a cataclysmic situation was all but inevitable.
I'll ...
