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We are driving at speed through the green hills of rural Hertfordshire.

But L.A.’s housing stock is generally older, and many homes scattered across the region’s hills and mountains are sitting ducks — architecturally vulnerable if a fire sweeps through.

Just before Mile 8, my headphones died and that’s when the hills started to get to me.

“It’s got a river that runs through it. It’s got its own hills, it’s got fields, it’s got forest, it’s got marshland,” Cotton says.

Videos from the area showed rescuers rappelling down hills and cliffs in valleys covered in mist.