The ongoing disaster will affect residents’ health, local industries, public budgets and the cost of housing for years to come.

In a matter of hours, entire blocks of the Los Angeles area were destroyed, gutting thriving communities and leaving thousands with only the items they carried as they ran from their homes to escape fast-moving fires. More than 10,000 structures have burned across some 35,000 acres in the region.

Terrified residents caught in blazing neighbourhoods, influencers ignoring the ban on drones and the frightening unpredictability of the wildfires are just some of what journalists covering the fires ravaging Los Angeles for AFP have had to manage.