Los Angeles May Rise From the Ashes But Won’t Be Transformed
Past fires in other cities provided opportunity for large-scale urban rebirth and reinvention. Southern California’s blazes pose different challenges.
Burned-out Altadena isn’t ideal for commercial expansion or denser housing.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
“How shall I record the events of last night,” New York businessman and civic leader Philip Hone began his diary entry for Dec. 17, 1835, “or how attempt to describe the most awful calamity which has ever visited these United States?”
What followed were 2,000 words of vivid description of what came to be known as the Great Fire of New York. Spread by gale-force winds and exacerbated by subzero temperatures that froze hydrants and hoses, the blaze destroyed more than 500 buildings in the old heart of the city south of Wall Street. Its glow was visible from Philadelphia, and while there were only two deaths because the area was mostly commercial and the fire started around 9 p.m., the property losses were said to have bankrupted 23 of the city’s 26 fire insurance companies.