FRISCO, TX—The fires were first reported on Jan 7. According to Fox News, Santa Ana winds have fueled the Palisades fire to nearly 3,000 acres in 24 hours and has burned 24,000 acres. Currently, it is 63% contained. The Eaton fire has burned 14,000 acres and destroyed the Altadena neighborhood and parts of Pasadena. Currently, it is 90% contained. The fire in Ventura County that started late Monday of last week grew to 61 acres by Tuesday, but the fire’s progress was quickly stopped and was contained by Friday. Small blazes like the Kenneth, Lidia, and Sunset fires are fully contained.
According to the New York Times, the damage caused by the Palisades and Eaton fires made them among the five most destructive wildfires in history. The Palisades fire destroyed about 6,000 structures, while the Eaton fire destroyed over 10,000. The Eaton fire devastated an enclave in Altadena, while the Palisades fire destroyed local landmarks like the Palisades Charter High School.
The Eaton fire has killed at least 17 people, making it one of the deadliest in California’s history, and at least 10 have died in the Palisades blaze. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department also said last Thursday that at least 24 people were missing in the Eaton fire area, and at least seven were missing in the Palisades fire area.
Last week, colder temperatures and winds helped decrease the effects of the Los Angeles fires. This changed Monday when gusts of 90 miles per hour were reported in the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County. FOX Weather Meteorologist Craig Herrera warned residents to keep a close watch on more extreme fire weather, as fire conditions will have a high risk of extreme fire behavior and rapid spreading.
“With Santa Ana winds back in the forecast, that is a concern,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Craig Herrera said. “Containment, a reminder, means they’ve surrounded the fire. But with winds returning, some of those embers can jump some of those fire lines, and they’ve got to be careful with this.”
Climate scientist Daniel Swain believes there’s a connection between climate change and the increasing severity of wildfires in California, with climate change contributing to a “whiplash” between very wet winters and dry conditions in summers and autumns in Southern California.
Swain said the recent fires show that “the ‘worst climate for wildfire’ may not be one that becomes steadily hotter and drier but instead one that increasingly lurches back and forth between episodic wet and dry extremes, yielding increasingly large swings between rapid fuel accumulation and subsequent drying (especially in grassland, shrubland, and woodland environments).”
Blazes burn grass and brush in southern coastal California. When winter rain increases, more grass and brush grow in the spring. As global temperatures rise, the atmosphere dries out grass and brush more through evaporation, making it easier to burn when any spark occurs.
An analysis by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) climate scientists discovered vegetation in the area where the Palisades and Eaton Fires ignited was 25 percent drier than it would have been without climate change.
“We believe that the fires would still have been extreme without the climate change components noted above, but would have been somewhat smaller and less intense,” said the analysis’s authors in a press release from UCLA.
A separate analysis by the ClimaMeter, a group of climate scientists working to provide rapid assessments of weather extremes using climate models, also found that climate change had amplified dry conditions with temperatures up to nine degrees Fahrenheit hotter and conditions up to 15 percent drier in the past few decades than in the period from 1950 to 1986.
After the fires, California faces the danger of wildfire debris creating landslides when it rains. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order yesterday to speed up wildfire debris removal to prevent more destruction in burn zones for winter storms that could create flooding and landslides.
With rain forecast later this week, Mayor Karen Bass issued an emergency order today to prepare for possible rainstorms in neighborhoods impacted by wildfires.
“I’m directing city crews to swiftly install reinforced concrete barriers, lay down sandbags, and clear debris to shore up burn areas and stem the flow of toxins. These communities have already endured unimaginable loss – we are taking action against further harm,” Bass said.
California residents can take precautions, such as avoiding air conditioners that only bring in outside air and don’t recirculate; using fireplaces, candles, or vacuums; and going outside (using an N95 or P100 mask if they must go outside in smoky conditions). Additionally, residents should clean dusty surfaces with a damp cloth and not smoke. If any areas nearby were affected by the wildfires, they should watch the news in case Santa Ana winds spread the fire.
