Containing wildfires—never mind extinguishing them—in parched and windy conditions can be monstrously difficult. Dry vegetation is rocket fuel for blazes and wind both feeds the flames and spreads the embers. “The winds are like pointing an air blower at a fireplace,” says Gershunov, “except it’s not contained and it’s on a much larger scale.”

A quick-strike crew of Native American firefighters and journeymen utility workers from the Navajo Nation are helping Los Angeles residents cut through landslides, mangled trees and charred debris of

Dozens of people are believed to have died in the Palisades and Eaton fires, which have burned down whole swaths of communities