T here has been no shortage of explanations for the devastation wrought by the wildfires still burning across greater Los Angeles. Some commentators have argued that sclerotic loc

Small canvas bags that Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighters used as makeshift water containers to quickly put out a trash fire have been misdescribed on social media as women’s handbags, suggesting the LAFD is under-resourced because of budget cuts and donations of firefighting supplies to Ukraine.

Context: Los Angeles, which is about the same size as two small U.S. states, can be hard to picture. Disasters or riots might occur on one end of the city while those on the opposite end are far removed from the scene. These wildfires, though, have assaulted the metropolis as a whole.