Even as flames in Southern California continued to carve a destructive path on Friday and fire officials sought to assess the damage and determine how the fires began, a larger question loomed: Could this level of devastation somehow have been minimised, or is this simply the new normal in an era of climate-related calamities?A CNN review of government reports and interviews with more than a dozen experts suggests the ultimate answer is a mix of both.Los Angeles city and county officials have characterised the fires as a "perfect storm" event in which hurricane-force gusts of up to 160km/h prevented them from deploying crucial aircraft that could have dropped water and fire retardant on the drought-ravaged neighborhoods early on.
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