Burning Questions

Are the Four Horsemen on the Way?

Bill Gralnick

Jan 21, 2025

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Every year seems to have a word. There is no question that the word for 2025 is apocalyptic. It seems to be the word that most satisfies both lay and professional individuals trying to describe what is happening in Los Angeles, or maybe better put, to Los Angeles.

Let’s start with a definition. The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines apocalyptic as “describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world, or resembling the end of the world; momentous or catastrophic.” It offers synonyms: momentous, ominous, portentous, life-and-death, and serious.” To me, given the situation, serious is a great understatement for describing LA’s fire situation. One looks at what the cameras show us and what we see is apocalyptic. The ruins hold decades of befores but only question marks for afters.

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As I write this, those hurricane-force Santa Anna winds are again revving up. Everyone is holding their breath that they won’t pick up pieces of the fires and throw them down, like bolts from Zeus, to start yet more fires. Getting one’s head around any part of what is happening is hard. At one point, the Palisades Pacific fire consumed land and what was on it at a rate of 300 football fields a minute! What does 37 square…