When Los Angeles brought home the Olympic flag from Paris at last year’s closing ceremony, the host-city-in-waiting did so in style.

Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise leapt from a plane, parachuting over LA’s sprawling hillsides before landing at the feet of the Hollywood sign.

Now, LA is burning.

More than 90,000 residents are under evacuation orders.

At least 12,000 structures, from homes to businesses, have been either damaged or destroyed entirely.

So far, 24 people have lost their lives — including one Australian — with the death toll expected to rise as the search for victims begins.

As a result, the insurance price tag for the Los Angeles fires is estimated to be more than $US20 billion ($32 billion).

It may be years away, but the 2028 Olympic Games are looming on the horizon of a city in the midst of one of its worst disasters on record.

Blazes inch closer to Olympic venues

Three fires are still burning across Los Angeles, and the two largest fires — the Palisades and Eaton fires — are far from being contained.

The Palisades fire has burned more than 9,500 hectares of land, spurred on by wind gusts of up to 160 kilometres an hour and an excess of parched vegetation.

Located within the Palisades fire evacuation zone is the Riviera Country Club.

Founded in 1926, the nearly century-old venue is steeped in history and prestige.

Along with hosting a PGA Tour event next month, the Riviera Country Club is one of the official venues for the 2028 Olympics and will host its golf competition.

Less than 15 minutes away is the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) which is due to house the Olympic Village.

While neither the Riviera Country Club nor UCLA have been damaged by the nearby fires, Los Angeles will be fighting to prevent losing any more structures.

The Los Angeles Organising Committee boasts on its website that “LA28 will mark the first time in Games history that no new permanent venues will be built to host the Games”.

Instead, the Games will be using 80 existing stadiums and venues across the region.

After all, Los Angeles has already hosted the Olympics twice before, first in 1932 and then again in 1984.

Zev Yaroslavsky is the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

He also served on the Los Angeles City Council for two decades, including during the 1984 Games.

“[Los Angeles has] been through a lot, but we’ve never been through anything like this with the intensity and the completeness of the destruction,” he told ABC News.

“Los Angeles is hurting right now, but the people of this city are very resilient and we’ve been through trouble before.

“Maybe not this much trouble, but the same template that applies to a smaller disaster will be applied to the bigger disaster, and it just may take a little longer.”

LA28 ‘not impossible’

Mr Yaroslavsky said the challenge for the Los Angeles Organising Committee would be trying to hold the mega-event in a cost-neutral or profitable way.

“They should be able to pull it off,” he said.

“If for some reason they go beyond their budget […] it’s going to put some stress on the Olympic Games themselves and on the municipality, which is legally obligated to cover any cost overruns for the Games.

“Leaving the cost issues aside, I don’t believe that what has happened here should necessarily make it impossible or difficult to run the Games.”

Los Angeles will not just play home to the 2028 Olympics — the city is also due to host the World Cup next year and the Super Bowl in 2027.

LA Governor Gavin Newsom told NBC News that the upcoming events only emphasised the city’s need to act effectively — and fast.

“My humble position, and it’s not just being naively optimistic, that only reinforces the imperative of moving quickly, doing in the spirit of collaboration and cooperation,” he said.

Earlier this week US president-elect Donald Trump blasted LA officials over their handling of the deadly wildfires.

“The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols [politicians] have no idea how to put them out,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

When speaking with NBC News, Mr Newsom credited Trump with helping LA secure the next Olympics and said it was an opportunity for the city, and the president-elect, “to shine”.

‘Reimagining Los Angeles 2.0’

The fires are still burning in Los Angeles, but Mr Newsom has told NBC the city is “already organising a marshall plan”.

“We already have a team looking and reimagining LA 2.0 and we’re making sure everyone is included, not just the folks on the coast, but the people here that were ravaged by this disaster,” he said.

Mr Yaroslavsky says it was highly likely major construction efforts would still be underway throughout the city by the time the Olympics began.

“People are going to be rebuilding their homes, they’re going to be rebuilding their businesses, they’re going to be rebuilding their schools and churches and synagogues,” he said.

“On the contrary, my assumption is the Games will go forward but the key is that the private committee has to be rigorous in maximising its revenues and minimising its costs more than ever because the city is going to be preoccupied.”

Mr Yaroslavsky said the rebuilding effort “won’t be resolved” by then, but “hopefully it will be on its way”.

“People who live here live here for a reason — it’s a beautiful place, it’s a vigorous place,” he said.

“Don’t bet against Los Angeles.”