As the smoke clears, communities face a harder question than recovery: whether to rebuild at all.
The scale of the damage has forced a reckoning that many had postponed for years, as neighbourhoods once considered safe now sit inside expanding risk zones.
Insurers have begun to withdraw, and without cover, the economics of rebuilding shift dramatically.
Living with fire
Planners are floating managed retreat — a phrase that carries enormous emotional weight for those who call the area home.
"We are not just rebuilding houses. We are deciding where it is still safe to live."
Analysts point to a handful of forces driving the story forward:
- Expanding high-risk zones on updated maps
- Insurers retreating from exposed areas
- Debate over buyouts and relocation
Whatever is decided here will become a template, watched closely by regions facing the same slow-moving emergency.