Man, machine and mutton: Inside the plan to prevent the next SoCal fire disaster

California fast-tracked over 100 fire risk reduction projects after the Palisades fire.

One of the projects is underway in the Santa Monica Mountains, where crews are cutting a miles-long web of fuel breaks between Topanga and Calabasas.

The effort involves heavy machinery, manpower, and hundreds of goats to clear invasive grasses.

Nine months after one of the worst fires the region has seen in recorded history, a helicopter carrying two of the most consequential politicians in the fight against Southern California’s wildfires soared over the Santa Monica Mountains. Rows of jagged peaks slowly revealed steep canyons. The land was blotchy: some parts were covered in thick, green and shrubby native chaparral plants; others were blackened, comprised mostly by fire-stricken earth where chap