Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt filed the lawsuit along with more than 20 other property owners and residents affected by the Palisades Fire.

In the era when American cities regularly caught fire, the widespread destruction seeded what looks, in retrospect, like possibility.

As a string of wildfires hit Los Angeles County, social media users spread claims that authorities purposefully set the blazes to encourage the development of so-called "smart cities." While America's second-largest city does have long-term plans to implement digital technologies to improve services,