Deciding to Rebuild After a Fire Is Just the First Step

To step into Barbara Ferris’s new house, you have to first grapple with what took out the old one. A charred black curve of eucalyptus arcs up the front door—it’s a handle but also a piece of the neighbor’s tree, which exploded in the November 2018 Woolsey wildfire. The fire first sparked 17 miles northeast, then burned all the way here, to the Ferrises’ front door on Point Dume in Malibu.