MARCUS YAM

CALIFORNIA BURNING

A 16-year-old resident of Island View Drive wipes her tears, as she looks on at her family's home destroyed by the Thomas fire, the morning after the fire started, in Ventura, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2017.

California wildfire season is now all-year-round. The last five years were the most devastating seasons on record, which saw numerous wildfires burning across the state at the same time. Ten of the twenty most destructive wild-land, urban interface fires in the state's 85-year-old list of large wildfires, took place in the last five years.

These wildfires have burned several million acres of land across the Golden State, including tens of thousands of homes and have caused more than a hundred deaths. In a state with more than 39 million residents, firefighters are tackling faster-moving and more destructive wildfires as these extreme fire-prone conditions continue to persist year after year.

These images serve as documentation for what keeps devastating California and traumatizing its residents at a more frequent and alarming rate.

The Thomas Fire burns in the Los Padres National Forest, near Ojai, Calif., on Dec. 8, 2017.

A Contra Costa firefighter breaks the wall with an axe as they work to put out flames burning inside a home that caught on fire along Highway 29 north of Calistoga, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2017.

Palm trees burn in Ventura, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2017.

Firefighters combat the front lines of the Sherpa Fire to avoid it from moving onto the 101 freeway, along Calle Real road, in Goleta, Calif., on June 16, 2016.

The Coffey Park area, which quickly went up in flames in the early morning of Oct. 9, 2017, was one of the most densely populated areas in Santa Rosa affected by the fire. About 1,500 homes were destroyed in the small neighborhood.

From left, Johnny, 15, Madeline, 13, Donita and Erik, 15 months old, get ready to sleep in their car to stay warm in the freezing cold after getting displaced by the Camp fire, at the Walmart parking lot in Chico, Calif., on Nov. 15, 2018.

Two Ventura residents take cover from the embers as they try to help stop the fire from burning a stranger's home as the Thomas Fire spread rapidly with gusty Santa Ana wind conditions in Ventura, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2017.

A firefighter ducks as the wind changes direction and blows ember towards their direction, at the Sherpa Fire in Goleta, Calif., on June 16, 2016.

A family packs up and evacuates as the Thomas fire moves closer to their home in Ventura, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2017.

Firefighters from Helicopter Crew 527 work on removing fuel as they battle the Calgary fire along Evans road in Wofford Heights, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2017.

Firefighters watch as air tankers drop fire retardant ahead of the River Fire in Lakeport, Calif., on Aug. 1, 2018.

In this Oct. 31, 2019, photo, smoke from the Maria Fire billows above Santa Paula, Calif. California regulators are voting Wednesday, Nov. 13, on whether to open an investigation into preemptive power outages that blacked out large parts of the state for much of October as strong winds sparked fears of wildfires. The state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., initiated multiple rounds of shut-offs that plunged nearly 2.5 million people into darkness throughout northern and central California.

Ryan embraces his wife Kimberly, after he recovers a coin that he and his wife made during their honeymoon in 2004, from debris of his home that was destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 18, 2018. The coin reads: “KIM & RYAN SOULMATES 4EVER.”

News cameras often focus on the destruction and death from a wildfire, but overlooks those who survive or are displaced. In the aftermath of the "unprecedented" monster of a wildfire — 85 dead, more than 13,900 homes destroyed and Paradise decimated. Many of the displaced – more than 50,000 people – seek shelter at a Walmart parking lot in Chico, Calif. and brace the winter temperatures in their vehicles and await their fate. Some try to return to recover items or check on their homes and some try to figure out a future after Paradise.

Marcus Yam is a Los Angeles Times staff photographer. Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he left a career in aerospace engineering to become a photographer. His goal: to take viewers to the frontlines of conflict, struggle and intimacy.

In 2019, Marcus was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award for his intimate body of work documenting the everyday plight of Gazans during deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip. Marcus was part of two Pulitzer Prize winning breaking news teams that covered – tragic San Bernardino, Calif. terrorist attacks in 2015 for the Los Angeles Times and the deadly landslide in Oso, Washington for the Seattle Times. His other work has also earned the Scripps Howard Visual Journalism Award, Picture of The Year International’s Newspaper Photographer Of The Year Award, Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award and a National Headliner Portfolio Award.

Prior to the Los Angeles Times, Marcus was based in New York and worked as a regular contributor to The New York Times. His most notable work includes his contributions to The Times's three-part multimedia series, "Punched Out: The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer," and "A Year At War," a Times series that included his feature short film, "The Home Front," which have earned him numerous accolades, including an Emmy Award, a World Press Photo multimedia grand prize, a Picture of the Year International Multimedia Award, a DART Award for Trauma Coverage and a Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.