“The conditions that night were once in a hundred years. And it just happened so quickly that I'm still in shock.” When wildfires ripped through LA, meteorology graduate Edgar McGregor became a local hero. His Facebook weather warnings helped save thousands of lives, with official alerts failing to spread fast enough. But not all neighbourhoods burned equally. In Altadena, Steven Scipio lost the house his family had lived in for four generations. “Of course I miss the home and the memories. But it’s the community,” that makes the real difference, he says. Meanwhile, in the wealthy Palisades, residents hired private firefighters to protect mansions—sparking public anger. As Chief California Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant notes, “It’s really not about how many firefighters you respond to, it’s really about how hardened a community is or isn’t.” As new tariffs threaten rebuilding efforts, communities are left wondering if they can afford to stay, or survive the next one.