In May 2024, when the original video was recorded under a California blue sky, a white building with ionic columns on Sunset Boulevard at the Palisades Village shopping complex was home to a Starbucks and Cafe Vida. It is now gutted, darkened with soot, the palm trees outside denuded, the sky hazy and yellowed.
On the surrounding residential streets, home after home has collapsed in charred piles topped with a scattering of terracotta roofing tiles that withstood the blaze. Still-standing concrete doorways open onto ruins.
