In front of Altadena fire station number 12, it was time for the mid-day shift rotation. Teams of firefighters assigned to the Eaton Fire, still burning northeast of Los Angeles, returned with faces and clothes blackened by their close encounter with flames, smoke and soot, while others headed off to battle in the mountains behind Altadena. Every day since January 7, they have been trying to contain the fire that has taken hold in several parts of the Los Angeles megalopolis.

Firefighter Will Smith was glad to be heading off for 24 hours of rest at the camp set up in Pasadena's Rose Bowl stadium, while two of his colleagues, Isaiah, 24, and Kieran, 26 (who requested anonymity), preferred to enjoy the hot food and fruit brought to them by the World Central Kitchen NGO.

Dispatched in the early hours of the Eaton Fire, which engulfed most of the town of Altadena and killed 16 people (out of a total of 24 in the whole town), the firefighters have for the past week been working 24-hour shifts, followed by equally long rest periods.

All around them, Altadena has been virtually razed to the ground. In the ash-covered gardens, only the chimneys were still standing, the last witnesses to the fact that a house was once built there. Altadena won't burn any further, of course, but it's important to avoid a return of the fire to other parts of the huge urbanized area, covered in vegetation that has been dried out by a hundred or so days without rainfall.

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