When Kyle Kucharski and Nicole Perri moved into their dream home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, they bought a crate of wine to mark the realization of a dream, and put it aside for a special day.That day never came. Now after a raging fire destroyed almost the entire neighborhood, all they have left is the empty box with the brand name written across it: Purgatory.”We bought it when we moved in,” said Kucharski.”It was like we bought wine for our place to celebrate, and we never drank it.””It is kind of funny… ‘purgatory’,” he winced.The couple and their two babies — a newborn and an 18-month-old — were among thousands who fled their homes in terror on Tuesday as a wind-whipped wildfire ripped through Pacific Palisades.Firefighters were helpless in the face of winds hitting 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour that flung fireballs from house to house, reducing whole streets to ash.Around 10,000 buildings have been destroyed in multiple blazes that erupted around Los Angeles, in a chaotic nightmare that has upended the city.The Palisades fire was the first, followed by an inferno that has flattened much of Altadena. Several other fires have sparked fear and evacuations, with over 150,000 people displaced and 11 dead.On Friday Kucharski and Perri crossed police checkpoints to get back into the Palisades evacuation zone to see what remained of their lives.”I was expecting to find… I don’t know… anything,” said Perri as tears welled in her eyes. “Anything to take home and remember this place.”Instead there were ashes and twisted metal; the useless remains of two happy years in what used to be one of the most desirable parts of Los Angeles.”The nursery was right there,” Perri said, gesturing to the still-smoking mess. “The kitchen was there. Our bedroom was right here. And this is the garage… well, was the garage.”As they picked their way through the outline of the ground floor, rubble crunched underfoot — the furniture, artwork, kitchen appliances, books and clothes that made up their lives.”Oh man, oh man,” says a shaken Kucharski, turning to hold his sobbing wife.”I feel broken. I feel lost. I feel devastated,” said Perri.”I don’t want to have to tell my boys that this was their home and it’s gone.”

After being largely reduced to ashes by wildfire, Altadena was being patrolled by National Guard soldiers on Friday.For residents of this devastated Los Angeles suburb, the arrival of these men in uniform is too little, too late.”We didn’t see a single firefighter while we were throwing buckets of water to defend our house against the flames” on Tuesday night, said Nicholas Norman, 40.”They were too busy over in the Palisades saving the rich and famous’s properties, and they let us common folks burn,” said the teacher.But the fire did not discriminate. In the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the first to be hit by the flames this week, wealthy residents share the same resentment toward the authorities.”Our city has completely let us down,” said Nicole Perri, outraged by the fact that hydrants being used by firefighters ran dry or lost pressure.Her lavish Palisades home was burnt to cinders. In a state of shock, the 32-year-old stylist wants to see accountability.”Things should have been in place that could have prevented this,” she told AFP.”We’ve lost everything, and I just feel zero support from our city, our horrible mayor and our governor.”- Not prepared -Multiple fires that continue to ravage Los Angeles have killed at least 11 people, authorities say.Around 10,000 buildings have been destroyed, and well over 100,000 residents have been forced to evacuate.So far authorities have largely blamed the intense 100 mile (160 kilometer) per hour winds that raged earlier this week, and recent months of drought, for the disaster.But this explanation alone falls short for many Californians, thousands of whom have lost everything. Karen Bass, the city’s mayor, has come in for heavy criticism because she was visiting the African nation of Ghana when the fire started, despite dire weather warnings in the preceding days.Budget cuts to the fire department, and a series of evacuation warnings erroneously sent to millions of people this week, have only stoked the anger further.”I don’t think the officials were prepared at all,” said James Brown, a 65-year-old retired lawyer in Altadena.”There’s going to have to be a real evaluation here, because hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people have just been completely displaced,” he told AFP.”It’s like you’re in a war zone.”- ‘Point fingers’ -Mayor Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, have separately called for investigations.Republican president-elect Donald Trump has fanned the flames of controversy, blaming California’s liberal leadership and encouraging his followers to do the same. But the highly politicized attacks by Trump — who made false claims about why fire hydrants ran dry — have also frustrated some survivors in Altadena.”That’s textbook Trump: he’s trying to start a polemic with false information,” said architect Ross Ramsey, 37.”It’s too early to point fingers or blame anybody for anything,” he told AFP, while clearing ashes from the remains of his mother’s house.”We should be focusing on the people who are trying to pick up their lives and how to help them… Then we can point fingers and figure this all out, with real facts and real data.”