
By the time the Los Angeles Fire Department had succeeded in putting out the blaze, more than six thousand acres had been scorched and nearly five hundred houses had been destroyed, including ones belonging to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Aldous Huxley.
Faulted for its part in the disaster, the L.A.F.D. turned to Hollywood. In 1962, it released a movie, narrated by the actor William Conrad, aimed at answering its critics. Part instructional video, part film noir, the movie opened with the sound of whistling wind and a shot of rustling vegetation. When the Santa Ana winds blow, Conrad intoned, channelling Raymond Chandler, the "atmosphere grows tense, oppressive. People tire easily, argue more. Even the suicide rate rises." According to the film, the L.A.F.D. had known that danger was coming and had positioned crews around the city. As the flames raced through the brush, the chief engineer ordered "everything available into the fire." But "everything was not enough." The streets became clogged with people trying to escape by car and on foot. Then the water ran out.
How had the situation got so out of control, the movie asked. The answer lay in precisely those qualities that made L.A. such an attractive place to live: its climate, its canyonside homes, its wild ridges accessible only by narrow roads.
The whole arrangement was a "design for disaster," which was also the name the L.A.F.D. gave to the film. "These are the odds," Conrad said, in closing.
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Techniques and cIdiosyncrasies

FEAR FACTOR
How the Red Scare reshaped American politics.

PLAYTIME
The old film studios had house styles: M-G-M’s was plush and sentimental, Warner Bros.’ stark and intense.

TIME AND PLACE
“Tatlin: Kyiv” explores a Russian Constructivist’s Ukrainian identity.

MOURNING BECOMES HER
Akram Khan’s “Gigenis: The Generation of the Earth.”

TEXAS ROUNDUP
How Greg Abbott made his state the staging ground for Donald Trump's mass-deportation campaign.

HOUSE CALL
To rent or to buy is the eternal question.

INDESCRIBABLE
The human disaster of the Irish famine.

Louisa Thomas on John Updike's "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu"
The original idea was an assignation. On a dreary Wednesday in September, 1960, John Updike, \"falling in love, away from marriage,\" took a taxi to see his paramour.

LIP SERVICE
Zyn and the new nicotine gold rush.