On assignment in the fire zone with iPhone X

Blocks and blocks of homes were destroyed when the Tubbs Fire roared into Santa Rosa on a windy Sunday night, October 8, 2017. 

The charred remains of a car sit in the driveway of a burned home in the Coffey Park neighborhood. 

This week, I used Apple's new iPhone X to photograph alongside the EPA as the cleanup moves ahead. 

Lyrics from a Danny Gokey song "Tell Your Heart to Beat Again" are scrawled on what's left of a home alongside an American flag in Santa Rosa, California.

Framed in the doorway of a lone standing wall, an EPA worker surveys a property for household hazardous waste in the Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California.

A charred white wasteland of rubble as far as the eye can see in the Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California.

The scorched remains of a motorcycle -- twisted, warped and melted -- sits in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California. The iPhone X camera picks up incredible detail and tones.

Amid the rubble are signs of life. Two flowers sprout from the ground in an image taken in Portrait Mode on the iPhone X.

An EPA cleanup crew surveys properties in the Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California. 

Technicians first survey a property with a highly sensitive gamma MicroR/meter to detect radiation that can sometimes be present in homes.

A Portrait Mode photo of an EPA clean-up technician taken with the iPhone X camera standing in the driveway of a home where just the frame of the garage door remains standing.

Dolls heads, arms and legs collected from the ashen rubble of a home in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California.

A charred truck parked in street in Coffey Park.

In this iPhone X Portrait Mode image, an EPA crew member gives a double thumbs up during clean-up operations in Santa Rosa, California, on Wednesday November 1, 2017.

Standing in the remains of her home, a woman in her 40s wearing a red shirt wields a wood-framed wire-mesh screen to sift through piles of fluffy gray ash and twisted metal. 

EPA crews have around 6,200 parcels of land to clear of household hazardous waste to clear. 

On many of the properties, the only remains visible are brick chimneys, gas grills, washers and driers, and vehicles.

The fires destroyed nearly everything, including everyday household items that are now toxic ash. That includes remnants of paint, propane, pesticides, plastics, fertilizers, gasoline and other chemicals that must now be removed.

A Portrait Mode image taken with iPhone X of an EPA crew member in white protective suit, hard hat, and respirator.

A burned out car in Coffey Park, Santa Rosa.

Once the EPA has surveyed a property and cleared any hazardous materials, this certified 'complete' sign is posted out front. This image was shot in Portrait Mode and edited on an iPhone X.

An American flag hangs between the brick remains of a driveway gate in Santa Rosa, California where the Tubbs Fire destroyed thousands of structures in October 2017.

A charred statue of Buddha sits peacefully in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Roan sa, California. Photo taken in Portrait Mode on iPhone X.