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What happens when wildland fire reaches the city?
A firefighter watches the flames from the Palisades Fire burning homes on the Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Apu Gomes/Getty Images hide caption
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Apu Gomes/Getty Images
A firefighter watches the flames from the Palisades Fire burning homes on the Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Apu Gomes/Getty Images
"Wildfire" is the word we tend to use when we talk about what Los Angeles has been dealing with the past week. But Lori Moore-Merrell, the U.S. Fire Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency used a different word, when she spoke to NPR this morning.
She described a "conflagration." Saying they're not wildland fires with trees burning. They're structure to structure fire spread.
They may have started at the suburban fringe, but they didn't stay there. Which prompts a question: what happens when fire meets city?
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This episode was produced by Connor Donevan. Additional reporting by Lauren Sommer. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
English (US)