Before the wildfire that destroyed thousands of homes, Altadena was already debating a tense question: should new housing be built in places that could burn?

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.

California bolstered funding to help the Los Angeles area recover from its recent deadly wildfires under a more than $2.5 billion fire relief package approved Thursday by the California Legislature.

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.

These are some of the bold ideas academics have for Los Angeles as it recovers from the Eaton and Palisades fires, which killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures. Together, the blazes charred 59 sq miles (152 sq km) - an area larger than Paris.

At least 29 people are believed to be dead and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as multiple wildfires rage across Southern California.