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"My husband saw a glow on the hill," explains Laurie Bilotta. She is standing in her backyard in Pasadena pointing at Eaton Canyon, where the Eaton Fire broke out on January 7th.
“我丈夫看到山上有一道光，”勞里·比洛塔(Laurie Bilotta)解釋道。她站在帕薩迪納的后院，指著伊頓峽谷，1月7日伊頓大火就在這里爆發。
In the few seconds it took for Bob, her husband, to yell "Fire!", the flames were as tall as she was.
她的丈夫鮑勃喊出“著火了！”的幾秒鐘內，火焰就和她一樣高了。
Then "the whole mountain just exploded. There were just flames everywhere."
然后“整座山都爆炸了。到處都是火焰。”
The couple grabbed their two Siamese cats and drove south towards safety. By a miracle their house survived.
這對夫婦帶著他們的兩只暹羅貓向南開車前往安全地帶。他們的房子奇跡般地幸存了下來。
The Eaton Fire is one of several that have swept across Los Angeles County.
伊頓大火是席卷洛杉磯縣的幾場大火之一。
At least 25 people have died and more than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed.
至少有25人死亡，超過12000棟建筑被毀。
Parts of Altadena, a neighbourhood set ablaze by windblown embers, look as though a bomb has gone off.
阿爾塔迪納的部分地區被風吹來的余燼點燃，看起來像是炸彈爆炸了一樣。
Only scraps—a toy truck, a swing, one very resilient lemon tree—are left amid the ashes.
灰燼中只剩下一些殘骸——一輛玩具卡車、一個秋千、一棵非常堅韌的檸檬樹。
After a week the fires were still burning, though firefighters had made progress in containing them.
一周后，大火仍在燃燒，盡管消防員已在控制火勢方面取得了進展。
Already experts are predicting that they will prove the costliest in America's history, largely because of where they broke out.
專家們已經預測，這將是美國歷史上損失最慘重的一次火災，這主要是因為火災發生的地點。
With nearly 10m residents, LA County is more populous than 40 of America's 50 states.
洛杉磯縣有近1000萬居民，人口比美國50個州中的40個州都多。
Many Angelenos live in picturesque neighbourhoods, set against the mountains, that are extremely vulnerable to wildfires.
許多洛杉磯人住在風景如畫的社區，背靠群山，極易受到野火的侵襲。
A typical home in Pacific Palisades, a ritzy area razed by the flames, cost more than $3 million before the fire.
太平洋帕利塞茲是一片被大火夷為平地的豪華地區，火災發生前，這里的一棟普通住宅售價超過300萬美元。
Even as fire crews battle against the flames, locals are asking two questions. How could Los Angeles have prepared better for this calamity?
就在消防隊員奮力撲滅大火的同時，當地人也在問兩個問題。洛杉磯如何才能更好地應對這場災難？
And how will it change America's second city? Fires are common around la because of its terrain and dryness, but several factors have added to their destructive power.
這場災難將如何改變美國第二大城市？由于地形和氣候干燥，洛杉磯周邊地區經常發生火災，但有幾個因素增加了火災的破壞力。
Climate change has increased the risk of conflagration. California is seeing more weather "whiplash", where fires follow heavy rainfall.
氣候變化增加了火災的風險。加州正在經歷更多的天氣“鞭打”，即大雨過后火災頻發。
Los Angeles has been bombarded by atmospheric rivers during the past two years, delivering heavier rain than usual. Its vegetation flourished.
過去兩年，洛杉磯遭受大氣河流的襲擊，降雨量比往常大。植被茂盛。
But a lack of rain since May dried out those plants, and primed them to burn.
但自5月以來的缺雨使這些植物干枯，并使其燃燒。
Research from Patrick Brown of the Breakthrough Institute suggests that clearing flammable vegetation around Los Angeles could reduce fire intensity in 2050 by roughly 15% relative to today.
突破研究所的帕特里克·布朗（Patrick Brown）的研究表明，清除洛杉磯周圍的易燃植被可以使2050年的火災強度比現在降低約15%。
But federal and state laws often require onerous environmental reviews that can delay prescribed burns for years.
但聯邦法律和州法律通常要求進行繁重的環境審查，這可能會推遲數年規定的燃燒。
The city's building code is strict, requiring new homes to be reasonably fire-resistant.
該市的建筑規范很嚴格，要求新房具有合理的防火性能。
But nimbyism makes it hard to build new homes at all, so much of the existing stock pre-dates the stricter rules.
但鄰避主義使得建造新房變得非常困難，因此許多現有房屋的建造時間早于更嚴格的規定。
Old neighbourhoods, full of homes with flammable wooden parts, stretch into the foothills. Narrow roads wind through the canyons, leaving little room for firetrucks.
老街區到處都是帶有易燃木質部件的房屋，一直延伸到山麓。狹窄的道路蜿蜒穿過峽谷，幾乎沒有消防車的空間。
In the unincorporated parts of LA County, such as Altadena, nearly 90% of homes were built before 1990.
在洛杉磯縣的非建制地區，例如阿爾塔迪納，近90%的房屋是在1990年之前建造的。
In fact, the largest share of houses were constructed in the 1950s during LA's postwar building boom. Californian politics has also hampered LA's response to the fires.
事實上，大部分房屋是在20世紀50年代洛杉磯戰后建筑熱潮期間建造的。加州的政治也阻礙了洛杉磯對火災的響應。
Not because water was diverted from cities to save "an essentially worthless fish called a smelt", as Donald Trump claimed.
并不是因為像唐納德·特朗普聲稱的那樣，水被從城市轉移以拯救“一種基本上毫無價值的魚，叫做胡瓜魚”。
