The greater Los Angeles area is currently battling an onslaught of enormous wildfires, including the most destructive in the city's history. In just three days, the two largest blazes — the Palisades and Eaton Fires — have burned over 34,000 acres and are, as of Friday morning, each less than 10% contained.
What's happening?
Nearly 180,000 people were given evacuation orders to escape the fires, leaving homes, businesses, schools, and other buildings to burn. Five people have died as a result of the blazes.
After at least 2,000 buildings succumbed to the flames, a fire ecologist told the BBC, "entire neighborhoods … have been wiped out."
Palisades in LA before and after fires😳 pic.twitter.com/dsTGxclXtC
— Daily Dose of X (@schuld_eth) January 9, 2025
Efforts to contain the fires have been extremely challenging, as water resources remain limited, and windy, smoky conditions made using helicopters to combat the flames initially difficult.
Fire hydrants across Los Angeles also ran dry as firefighters battled the flames of the Palisades Fire, with the three million gallons initially available being depleted quickly.
At a news conference, Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the L.A. Department of Water and Power, stated that the demand for water was nearly quadruple what "we've ever seen."
Even as firefighters and officials try to contain the destruction of the fires, some estimates of economic damages claim this will be one of the costliest outbreaks in our nation's history.
How did these fires become so destructive?
California is no stranger to wildfires. The region has always had fires and always will. But the magnitude of the destruction has raised questions about how they became so damaging, especially during the winter.
As of Jan. 10, the official causes of the fires were unknown. However, one factor that is known to have quickly hastened the flames' spread is the powerful Santa Ana winds. These fierce winds — common from September through May — had maximum gust speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour, allowing embers and flames to quickly reach new fuel sources.
Perhaps surprisingly, fires during the winter burn faster, even though they're usually smaller. Jon Keeley, a fire scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey, told the Associated Press that winter fires "are much more destructive because they happen much more quickly."
Part of that is the humidity levels in the Los Angeles area are generally lower from November through January. But as UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability covered in 2018, the L.A. area's low humidity year-round for such a hot climate is a "seldom-discussed threat to public health," analyzing risks such as dry air being risky for sensitive groups such as children and the elderly, and "because low humidity promotes the spread of influenza."
So apart from strong winds fanning the flames, the area's hot and dry conditions contributed to the monstrous growth of the fires, causing the vegetation to become more flammable.
Over the past two winters, California faced a whiplash of extreme weather conditions, including severe downpours that produced large amounts of vegetation. But this winter, southern California received a record low level of rainfall. This dry spell, alongside warm temperatures, turned these plants into brittle tinder.
11 months ago the Los Angeles area got a year's worth of rain and faced life-threatening flooding and mudslides now it's on fire after its driest start to a water year on record. These are the increasing extremes of a warming world. pic.twitter.com/37h4LuvEZZ
— Eric Zerkel (@EricZerkel) January 8, 2025
As the wildfires took off across Monday and Tuesday this past week, most of Los Angeles County was experiencing "severe drought" conditions. Together, the area's hot, dry conditions, alongside the powerful winds, created an environment where fires could quickly burn vast swaths of Southern California.
How does the changing climate play a role?
So, how exactly does our overheating planet contribute to fires like these? Simply put, climate change didn't cause these fires, but it increased the likelihood of them being more destructive.
According to Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior researcher at Climate Central, "more days of dry, warm, windy weather are amplifying the risks of wildfires spreading rapidly. As our climate warms, the chances of intense, fast-growing fires like the ones Californians are facing today will keep rising."
The burning of dirty fuels like gas, oil, and coal creates warmer and drier conditions in many parts of the world. In the southwestern U.S., these effects are undeniable — one 2022 study found that the region has seen its driest conditions in over 1,200 years.
Although California usually has a fire season from May through October, we're now seeing that the danger extends beyond those months. Governor Gavin Newsom explained this at a press conference, bluntly saying "there's no fire season; it's fire year" and "it's year-round."
Dr. Michael E. Mann, a climatologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, further explained the implications of this extended season, telling MSNBC, "What we're seeing now is that the fire season has expanded to the point where it's overlapping with the Santa Ana wind season. They didn't use to overlap."
But beyond the perfect storm of conditions that allowed these fires to rage out of control, our changing climate contributed to the danger in other ways. Examples include stressing water resources needed to fight the fires and reducing the days available for prescribed burns, which can protect us when fires do break out.
How you can help
There are tons of different ways to help the first responders and victims of the fires, and TCD put together a list of organizations seeking donations here.
One of those easy ways is to donate to the California Community Foundation. The group uses data from both the CDC and CalFire to identify communities most in need of immediate and long-term aid. You can donate to the group's Wildfire Recovery Fund here.
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If you're interested in supporting first responders, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation is seeking funds to purchase hydration backpacks, emergency fire shelters, and other firefighting tools.
Direct Relief, an aid organization, has a Wildfire Response Fund to provide free N95 masks and other resources to protect residents from dangerous smoke.
Additionally, the Canine Rescue Club is looking for foster homes for dogs who were displaced by these fires. If you can foster a dog, please fill out this form.
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