Greenville residents find remnants of former lives as they return home after Dixie fire

A photographer captures moments as residents return: I'm doing what I can, which is to take pictures and have the story be told'

As some families in Greenville, California started to return home this week after the Dixie fire tore through this town of about 800 residents, they were confronted by burnt remnants of their former lives. Some returned to find a makeshift grave for a family pet. Others walked through debris which, just a few weeks earlier, they had planned to sell.

Photographer Josh Edelson was at home, recuperating from a stretch of 20-hour days photographing the California wildfires, when he saw the alert from CalFire, the state's department of forestry and fire protection, saying this week that residents could return home. The news came one month after the Dixie fire - which has burned 893,852 acres since erupting on 14 July - struck Greenville, and Edelson wanted to capture the moment.