It's exactly three months since bushfires tore through the suburbs of Los Angeles – destroying thousands of homes and threatening some of the city's most famous landmarks. As victims pick up the pieces they face the difficult question of whether or not to rebuild.
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00:00January's fires in Los Angeles destroyed the Altadena neighborhood in the city's north.
00:09I knew it was serious. I just didn't know it was going to take out our entire community.
00:14Steven Sipiel wants to stay and rebuild.
00:18And it's the home, right, and the memories, but it's the community.
00:23But he fears local government could change building regulations.
00:28Just don't change the codes and be money hungry and tell us that we can build, you know, hotels to the roof, like to the skies.
00:39Because then you're going to change everything about this community and you might as well call it downtown L.A.
00:46These sisters lost their family home.
00:49This house was my life, you know.
00:53As they pick up the pieces, they're being targeted by speculators.
00:58Yeah, they're trying.
01:00They're like, oh, you want $200,000 for your property? You want $300,000, $400,000? We're like, no.
01:08There's also the question of whether a rebuild is worth the risk.
01:13No amount of water is going to stop a fire under these extreme weather conditions.
01:18Spreading home to home to home is really about how hardened a community is or isn't.
01:24There's so much work ahead for L.A. There's fear and distrust, but a lot of fighting spirit too.
01:32We're going to have to go through it, get through it, and move forward.
01:37A rallying cry amid the ruins.