Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world and home to many of the celebrity elite, is currently starring in an unfolding American drama of the wild wildfires of the west, writes Ruta Mave.

We sit here in our days of soaking rain and watch with wide eyed interest the videos of an unimaginable amount of burnt coverage in acres across the country some with famous names we are familiar with from movies, tv shows and songs like Malibu and Pasadena.

It is devastating and unbelievable and hard not to watch in awe as if it is an epic Hollywood movie. As they sometimes say, life far outreaches art – you couldn’t write this script as no one would take it seriously. Well, they are now, and no doubt someone will make a movie out of it.

A lot of social media posts have identified various celebrities who have lost their multimillion dollar homes in the fires. Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Billy Crystal, Dick Van Dyke at 98 years old, like the others, has had his whole life go up in flames. These are people who may have the reserves to rebuild or live elsewhere, but at the end of the day they are still people and they are people we think we have come to know over the years so it creates within us some empathy for what is happening to all levels of people right now, and it is not over.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth lost their home a couple of years ago in one of the LA wildfires. Paris Hilton lost her Malibu home, so she might have to live with her parents -at the Paris Hilton hotel, they joke.

This recent event is considered the most destructive fire to date with estimates of costs from 60 billion to 130 billion USD.  16 people have lost their lives so far but it is not the only destructive fire to have ravaged LA.

In 2018 in a town called Paradise, 85 people died and 19 thousand structures destroyed, amounting to 95 percent of the town. It was active for 17 days.

2020 the August Complex fire destroyed over one million acres and 935 structures in a remote area so only one death. It was active for a total of 87 days.

2021 the Dixie fire covered nearly one million acres over 1500 miles which is three times the area of downtown LA. Was active for 104 days.

2025 so far these fires have claimed 16 lives and destroyed approximately 40 thousand acres including 12 thousand structures of prime real estate of whole suburbs and communities, all reduced to ashes. Over 150,000 people have been evacuated, with the two largest fires being only 10 percent contained. The winds are predicted to increase tomorrow and it is only day five.

Fire is a complete destroyer. Earthquakes and cyclones can wreak havoc and destroy homes and take lives but for the most part you can still find or see what you have lost albeit may be broken, buried or miles away. With fire there is nothing but ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

We had the threat of a cyclone until yesterday and not much mind was put to it as we don’t regularly suffer from them.

Each year the combined religions come together to pray for our safety during our cyclone season and since 2005 Rarotonga can say they pretty much have not been affected. This can make us complacent. Do we currently build homes to withstand possible weather events or do we build cheaply and quickly to save or make money?

We are very casual about the rubbish we burn here even when we are in a drought dry time. I would guess most of us are not insured if anything was to happen. Not that it probably matters, as insurance companies are very good at avoiding payment if they can, by saying this type of event was not covered or it was an act of God, again not covered.

In LA donated goods are being distributed from various churches; Cathedral church, Mandarin Baptist, Presbyterian, Victory Bible church, New Jericho Church and Do Right church to name some. Displaced people are coming in to lend a hand, even when they don’t know what they themselves have lost.

This is what community looks like, having people from different beliefs, different walks of life working in partnership to help others.

We class ourselves as Christians, we all come together to pray for everyone’s safety in the upcoming cyclone season, and we come together during various crises to raise funds for others like the Christchurch earthquake.

Why then can we not continue living in harmony accepting everyone for who and what they are in our community instead of creating division between who is a Christian and who isn’t?