A little after midnight on New Year’s Day, Francine Sohn was jolted awake by a phone call from a neighbor, who sounded hysterical. “There’s a fire on the hill,” the neighbor told her.
Sohn, 72, looked outside and saw a small brush fire perilously close to her Pacific Palisades neighborhood in western Los Angeles. She watched firefighters douse the flames, waiting to see if she should flee. But there was no need: the wind was a brisk but manageable 15 mph, and the fire was contained before dawn with no homes damaged and no one hurt.
A week later, the same thing happened: another small fire spotted in the same area. But this one turned into a monster.
The Palisades Fire, now one of the most destructive natural disasters in Los Angeles history, began in the backyard of Palisades Highlands, a secluded and well-to-do community overlooking the coast between Malibu and Santa Monica. Residents and hikers first saw it as a modest brush fire looming in the parched scrubland.
