This summer, three sparks set off a series of violent firestorms in southern Lake County, California, destroying thousands of homes and killing four people.

The fire season has passed, but residents are still recovering from the devastating infernos.

Reveal took a deeper look at the fires using satellite images and government data to explore how and why the blazes moved through the county and what it means for the future of firefighting in the West.

Explore maps and data about each fire with our new interactive tool.

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Eric Sagara is a senior data reporter for Reveal. He joined Reveal following a news applications fellowship at ProPublica, where he worked on projects about pharmaceutical payments to doctors, deadly force in police agencies and the trail of guns in the United States. Prior to that, he was a reporter on The Newark Star-Ledger's data team. Sagara is originally from Arizona, where he reported on business, education, crime, wildfires and government. He is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.