We packed the car as the flames erupted a mile away

IT IS 2am and I am writing by torchlight in the dark, acrid smoke hanging in the cold night air, waiting for my home to burn down. I have been without power for more than 30 hours.

- PETER SHERIDAN

I hear from yet another friend who has lost a home. David is an architect who after a bitter divorce spent two years crafting a beautiful new ocean view home in Pacific Palisades, LA. Gone.

"My entire neighbourhood was burned to the ground," he said.