January's wildfires in Southern California killed at least 29 people and left thousands without homes, juggling insurance claims, and questions over whether to rebuild.

Another huge loss amid all the rubble, the legacy of historic buildings throughout Los Angeles County.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has this look for our arts and culture

series, Canvas.

First, of course, come the individual lives, livelihoods, and homes.

An enormous devastation measured in thousands of very specific losses.

But the story of a community, a city, a region is also told through its cultural, historical, and architectural heritage.

And here, too, the recent Los Angeles fires have been devastating.

Adrian Scott Fine is president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Los Angeles has many things, and certainly that is the case for the palisades and

out to Dina.

It's not one thing.

It's layers of history.

You have to work for it a little harder to understand its story, its heritage, and why

it's important, but it's here.

And I think, again, now we're understanding just how important it was and also so much

we've lost. In normal times, the Conservancy works to bring out that story, documenting and

preserving buildings and other parts of the culture. Now it's a documentation of loss, just beginning

to assess the possibility of rebuilding and restoration.

Within almost a blink of an eye, everything that really forms the ingredients of your community

disappear.

Those places and spaces, I think people understand how important they actually are in our lives.

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