SAN FRANCISCO — California is burning — along the palm-fringed shoreline near Los Angeles and the evergreen forests of the Sierra Nevada foothills. An entire town in the Sierra was nearly erased this week by the most destructive fire in California history. At least 29 people were killed there, and more than 6,400 homes were destroyed. In Malibu and other cities in the hills west of Los Angeles, residents fled their homes — mansions and modest ranch houses alike.

Wildfires have long been a fixture of the California experience. But not like this.