Residents were already on edge as more fires broke out across the Los Angeles area, traumatizing millions of people who feel that after four days there is no end in sight.
Then Thursday afternoon came another jolt in the form of a text alert.
This message was mistakenly sent to every mobile phone in the province – home to about 10 million people – warning them that a fire was imminent and they should prepare to evacuate.
Rebecca Alvarez Beatty was on a business video call when her phone started ringing.
“An evacuation warning has been issued for your area,” the text message read.
The sound echoed around her as each of her classmates received the same startling message.
“It was like a massive panic that I was watching in real time,” she said.
She and her colleagues began searching and trying to find out if they were in imminent danger.
She said immediate relief came in the form of a corrected warning telling them to ignore the warning, but this quickly gave way to new anger.
“We were all very stressed out, sitting impatiently next to our phones, staring at the TV, turning on the radio – trying to stay as informed as possible because there wasn't a good system in place,” Ms Alvarez said. – Betty, who lives in West Los Angeles.
“And then. It's like you're kidding me.”
The death toll from the bushfires has continued to rise, with at least 10 people known to have died, and that number could rise.
For many, anxiety about saving lives and property has turned into frustration about dealing with fires.
Frustrated mayor
Officials have acknowledged some complaints, ranging from dry hydrants that have hampered firefighting efforts to questions about preparedness and investment in fire mitigation.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass returned to the city from a previously planned trip to Africa to find it in flames. She faced intense questions Thursday about the district's preparedness and leadership in this crisis and the water issues that have failed firefighters.
“Are you frustrated by this? Of course,” Mayor Bass said in response to a question about water issues and whether the region was adequately prepared. She noted that this was an “unprecedented event.”
She, like other officials, stressed that the fires were able to spread on Tuesday because of strong winds, the same winds that prevented planes from dropping water or fire retardants on the blazes. She said urban water systems and neighborhood fire hydrants were not designed to handle putting out thousands of acres of fires.
She indicated that there will be reviews of how the accident occurred, which will examine how officials and agencies dealt with it.
“When lives and homes are saved, we will certainly conduct an evaluation to look at what worked and what did not work, and to correct or hold any body, department or individual accountable,” she said.
“My focus now is on life and on homes.”
Water shortage questions
The emerging disaster turned into a need to understand why this happened and how it developed into the most devastating fire in Los Angeles history.
As one of five fires now burning in Los Angeles County approached Larry Villiscas' home Tuesday, he grabbed the only tool he could get — a garden hose.
He and his neighbor made quick work of removing embers falling on their homes from the Eaton Fire and burning grass.
Then the hose ran dry.
He watched his neighbors' house in Altadena catch fire. Then there was a bang, as a nearby house caught fire and sounded like it had exploded. He had to leave.
As he drove away, he watched the fire take over his garage.
“If we had water pressure, we would have been able to fight it,” said Veliscas, standing in front of the charred remains of his home.
He recalled seeing firefighters that night — while the community was burning — sitting in their trucks, unable to help.
“I remember being angry. It was like I was doing something, but they couldn't — there was no water pressure,” he said. “It's infuriating. How could this happen?”
Some experts said the water shortage was due to unprecedented demand rather than poor management.
“The problem is that the scale of the disaster is so vast that there are thousands of firefighters and hundreds of fire engines hauling in water,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the California Water Resources Institute, told the BBC.
“Ultimately, only so much water can flow through the pipes at one time.”
Other neighbors expressed the feeling that the state was not prepared despite routinely seeing devastating fires.
Hipolito Cisneros, who was surveying the now-destroyed remains of his home, said public amenities in the area have needed improvement for years.
“We've lived here 26 years and have never seen it tested,” he says of the fire hydrant at the end of his building that failed to draw water when it was needed most.
In the street, Fernando Gonzalez helped his brother search through the ruins of his home of 15 years.
He noted that his home in Santa Clarita — about 45 minutes away in Los Angeles County — was also threatened by a different set of wildfires.
“We've just been on high alert,” he said. “It's all around us, you know.”
