Planners and residents working to rebuild Los Angeles won't be starting from scratch, however. Existing roads, infrastructure and land will all determine how the city is redeveloped. Some residents may want to rebuild immediately on the same land, while others may be willing to sell the land to create a buffer zone.

On January 13, Mayor Bass issued an executive order that will expedite the approval of “like-for-like” redevelopment permits and waive reviews that would slow down the redevelopment process. Governor Newsom also relaxed California Environmental Quality Act permitting rules to speed up rebuilding.

How Los Angeles chooses to rebuild is a "question of social values," Moritz said. "This is no longer a scientific question. As a society, shouldn't we be able to weigh where and how people build or rebuild so that it's safer and has less impact in the future from a public funding perspective? Because a lot of these incidents happen again and again.”

California’s wildfires have grown larger and more destructive in recent years. Between 2009 and 2018, approximately 7.08 million acres burned in California, more than twice the area burned between 1979 and 1988. There has also been an increase in the number of fires that invade urban areas. In the 10 years between 1979 and 1988, about 22,000 acres burned within the so-called wildland/urban interface, areas where housing is located near natural areas prone to wildfires. By 2009 to 2018, the area increased to 32,000 acres.

One result of all this is that California authorities have detailed maps of high-risk areas. Many of the areas hit by the Palisades and Eaton fires are classified as extremely high fire danger areas, meaning new developments in these areas must take steps to minimize the risk of fire spreading from wild vegetation to homes, including planting fire-resistant vegetation and pruning all other trees and shrubs away from the house.

But housing demand is so high in cities like Los Angeles that developers often end up building in these areas where fire danger is extremely high. Nicholas Owen, who studies real estate economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said developers tend to temporarily slow down construction in high-risk areas after wildfires, but then return to their previous pace of development after a few years.

Owen said cities and local authorities need to consider how to prevent development in high-risk areas. One way is to increase development taxes in fire-prone areas, and another is to incentivize developers to build more homes and apartments in underutilized urban areas.

"We do need denser development, especially in a place like Los Angeles. The real estate market there is out of control and it's going to get worse," he said. “We need to think about ways to rebuild that allow more units to be built to help affordability, but also ways that are more resilient to future wildfire risks.”

Burying electrical wires may also go a long way in protecting your home from wildfire risks. The fire that destroyed Paradise was sparked by faulty power lines, as were at least seven of California's other most destructive wildfires. Burying power lines isn't cheap, and those costs are passed on to utility customers, many of whom don't live in areas at risk from wildfires.

“It’s the little things that make a difference in the long run,” Owen said. Bury power lines to encourage denser development and build stronger communities. But these long-term investments require changing the way people think about living in wildfire-risk areas and accepting that more resilient communities come at a cost. "I just don't know if we're going to learn anything," Irving said.