The devastation from the two major fires that erupted in L.A. last week has stunned Californians, with more than 10,000 structures across the region destroyed and at least 27 people killed. The damage, fueled by once-in-a-decade wind gusts and an extremely parched landscape, has reached much farther into cities than many residents thought possible.
The destructive power of the infernos multiplied when they entered neighborhoods, fire scientists say: They transformed into urban fires, in which homes ignited one after the other and little could be done to slow the spread. The houses became the fuel.
It's a structure fire within a wildland fire, which is bad. But then you multiply that by five or 10 structure fires, all at the same time, all being pushed by 100-mile-per-hour wind. It's what appears to be Armageddon.
Older homes are more likely to be susceptible to fire damage, and Altadena, where one of the fires burned in recent days, is one of the oldest communities in the region. Few homes in Los Angeles County were built under stricter fire safety rules enacted in 2008.
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