Recent wildfires not only brought lose and heartache to the residents of the Los Angeles area, they also scorched state, city and county politics. While the initial voting in the races for California governor and Los Angeles mayor is more than a year away memories of how politicians dealt with the fires and its aftermath will linger.

As devastating wildfires fanned by powerful winds ravaged Los Angeles in January 2025, a video of a street shrouded in smoke was shared in social media posts with a false claim that it was filmed in the United States' second-biggest city.

The number of deaths from the wildfires that destroyed entire communities in the Los Angeles area this month has risen to 29, the county medical examiner’s office said Monday.