Burn Baby Burn: LA Inferno ****

Climate change has had a devastating impact already on the 21^st century. Politically, a combination of wilful refusal and culpable neglect is exacerbating the crisis before our very eyes. Devastating images of floods, fires and more fill our networks from around the world – events from which nobody is immune, not even in the well-heeled surroundings of Los Angeles…

It’s January 2025 and wildfires are taking hold in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Erin Hunter is living in London, but her parents’ family home in the Palisades lies worryingly close to the affected zone. Hurricane-force winds fuel a conflagration and, alarmingly, firenadoes - vortices of flame formed when intense wildfire heat triggers rising air, combined with strong winds. They sound like the invention of a disaster movie writer, but they are terrifyingly real.

Hunter’s parents appear to be in denial as to their looming mortal danger. She looks on helplessly as they belatedly flee the area, only just escaping.

It takes weeks to fully contain the fires. A combination of freak weather conditions, firefighting budget cuts, scarcity of resources, political posturing (enter Donald Trump) and poor local decision-making creates the perfect storm. Firefighters had run out of water, partly due to a local reservoir, capable of holding 442 million litres, having been drained for repairs.

More than 30 people are known to have perished, with 200,000 evacuated. 90,000 square miles of land and around 18,000 homes were destroyed. The aftermath resembled a nuclear disaster scene.

Emergency relief funds (FEMA) and insurance companies were simply not geared up for the scale of assistance required. FEMA became politicised by Trump, its funding frozen allegedly illegally. Insurance companies had refused to renew fire risk to nearly 3 million homes. Hunter’s parents lost virtually everything – and they were not alone.

A dark topic, but one empathically conveyed in Slackline Productions’ Burn Baby Burn: LA Inferno, carefully directed by Kristin Duffy, giving space to Hunter’s charming and assured performance.

Hunter describes the episode with adept storytelling, humour and music accompanied by a ukelele. She shifts between characters, including a splendid Meryl Streep impression, the banality of the influencer broadcasting while the flames approached, and a cynical land buyer preying on the desperation of the newly homeless, reminiscent of the post-Civil War carpetbaggers.

Sadly, there will inevitably be further tales of destruction as this century unfolds. The 1.5°C Paris Agreement target will be exceeded, bringing irreversible climate damage and catastrophic impacts on human civilisation – a sobering thought.