It seems that not a year goes by when Los Angeles doesn’t suffer from wildfires raging out of control. This year’s fires are threatening 12,000 homes in California, with national parks battling to keep the blazes from spreading out of control.

3,500 acres of woodland is burning in this latest disaster, with 100 fire engines and 12 helicopters battling to stop them from spreading any further. Hundreds of people are fighting the fires but it’s clearly not enough.

The California fires are obviously disastrous to both the human inhabitants and the wildlife that inhabits the area. However, even such a damaging natural phenomenon can be turned into something beautiful.

This video shows a time lapse recording of the L.A. wildfires as viewed from Elysian Park. The smoke formations are mesmerizing and then after the sun goes down we get to see the flames themselves.