Oliver Marques, 37, a Brit who moved to Los Angeles two years ago, saw the wildfire raging from his aeroplane window as he, his wife and his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter returned from Christmas in the UK on Tuesday.

They looked down on their community and saw “utter carnage and devastation”, he says.

“One of the most desirable areas in LA, and perhaps the world, completely gone. It’s shocking. 

They’d bought the Palisades house six months ago and are now staying in a hotel going through the “painful” process of insurance claims. How is it possible to lose everything in a moment?

“I don't know if it was a positive or a negative but we never got to our home. We landed in LA and there was no way to get home," he tells the BBC. "There was no chance to get anything - our cars, clothes, memories. All we had on us were the clothes on our back and what we’d packed for Christmas.

“The house looks like a bomb has gone off. It’s like it’s been nuked or carpet bombed. And it’s the whole area, not just our street."