As Los Angeles recovers from its devastating wildfires, environmental engineers, urban planners and natural disaster experts are casting forward with visions of what could come next for neighborhoods that have been reduced to ash and rubble.

First discovered: 9:30 a.m. Jan. 27 A new wildfire was reported today at 9:30 a.m. in Los Angeles County. The wildfire has been burning on private land. At this time, the containment status is unknown and the cause of the fire remains undetermined.

By Chris Kirkham, Judith Langowski and Peter Henderson LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Seven years before wildfires tore through opposite ends of the Los Angeles area, the Tubbs Fire in Northern California's Sonoma County jumped a six-lane freeway and decimated Santa Rosa's Coffey Park subdivision,

Recent wildfires not only brought lose and heartache to the residents of the Los Angeles area, they also scorched state, city and county politics. While the initial voting in the races for California governor and Los Angeles mayor is more than a year away memories of how politicians dealt with the fires and its aftermath will linger.

Wildfires are endemic to California and natives used fire to shape the land. Orange County and California must learn from the wildfires and decades of government failure in Los Angeles County, and prevent the next disaster.