THE SOUTHLAND FIRES . . . THEN AND NOW

The flames of last fall’s fires have long since been extinguished, but their memory burns deep in the minds of those who dared, by chance or design, to stand before their broiling onslaught.

A sort of melancholy persists. Thoughts can never linger long on those dry, windy weeks without turning as dark as the smoke that clouded cobalt skies. A friend lost. A home destroyed.

But at the same time, wounds are healing. Houses are being rebuilt. Lungs scorched by hot, dry air sting less with every new breath.

Life continues.

Back then, it was hard to imagine that it could. Over two weeks in late October and early November, it seemed as if most of Southern California was burning. The air was filled with the smell of smoke, at once both pleasing and repugnant.

Locally, two major fires together burned some 36,500 acres.

The first--and smaller--was started in a gully in the Santa Susana Pass early Oct. 27. It spread quickly over the rocky hills, scorching 1,500 acres and injuring four firefighters, but miraculously did little damage to homes before it was contained 15 hours after it began.

Luck would not run as thick a week later when the Calabasas/Malibu fire was sparked in Calabasas. Over 30 terrifying hours, the smoke turned midday to midnight and gobbled up 35,000 acres between the San Fernando Valley and the Pacific Ocean, consuming 350 homes and killing three.

Recently, The Times revisited five subjects or sites from those harrowing days, each image captured then in its own urgent instant. As the fire season returns once more, little in the path of fire is unchanged.