But is the main victim the truth? Two dozen fires have devastated Los Angeles, the beating heart of US cultural life. Even while they blaze, the record is already being rewritten.
‘The costliest disaster in US history’
Wasteland: Entire neighbourhoods of Los Angeles have been wiped out by multiple fires, with TV personalities Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag, songwriter Diane Warren, actors Billy Crystal, Mel Gibson and Anna Faris and comedian Rosie O'Donnell among the celebrities losing their homes.