The 2025 LA Wildfires set a record as one of the most expensive and destructive in U.S. history. As climate change accelerates extreme fire conditions and communities expand into fire-prone landscapes, these devastating wildfires are becoming more common. But are they inevitable?
In this hour-long special, host Maiya May travels to Los Angeles to meet with fire chiefs, first responders, survivors, and scientists to uncover the dominant factors that fueled this firestorm. Record-breaking heat, prolonged drought, extreme winds and two ignitions produced urban fire storms that grounded firefighting aircraft and forced firefighters to focus on rescue.
Through a collaboration with NASA and Navteca, we created bespoke, scientifically accurate maps and animations of the fire behavior to show how wind and ember cast lit hundreds of homes on fire within minutes. The animations show the location, extent and speed of two complex fires over a large urban environment. Maiya learns that the problem cannot be defined as the wildfire, but rather the vulnerability of homes and communities to ignition as blizzards of embers ignite lawn furniture, trash in garbage tans, bark mulch, fences and, ultimately, houses.
Fire has always been a part of Western landscapes, and a natural part of these ecosystems. However, urban conflagration, where over a hundred homes burn in a short amount of time, has devastated communities across the West, and nation. As the climate warms, we are experiencing extended drought and a thirstier atmosphere which has led to extreme fire conditions. Nearly 90% of home loss in the U.S. occurs in fast fires and around 80% occurs in grasslands and shrublands, not forests. Because of their speed, these rare but deadly fires overwhelm firefighter response.
Since September 2024, two members of our film crew had been following the LA County Community Fire Brigade and documenting their work. The crew was in the Palisades shortly after the fire began and they filmed the action for several weeks, capturing details that help explain how the fire moved so quickly.
Other members of our team had existing relationships and trust built with top fire officials, experts and local residents that allowed them to get exclusive access, interviews and insight. The team worked with an independent expert fire investigator to pore through extensive video footage, fire and 911 audio to reconstruct the chain of events.
Given the limits of fire suppression in these conditions, the film explores how every homeowner can take simple steps to protect their homes and communities in an emerging era of fast moving fires in urban areas, and shifts the narrative towards helping all people understand and accept that fire is inevitable.
