On the evening of January 7, the Santa Ana winds had just started up, everyone had just gotten home from work, and the quiet neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena were still standing. The following morning, by 10:30 a.m., the Pacific Palisades had begun evacuations for a fire that started as a 10-acre brush fire, which quickly grew to 200 acres within an hour. By 2:00 p.m., the fire had grown to 700 acres, and thousands were being told to evacuate immediately. This pattern continued through the rest of the week as the Santa Ana winds, which blew at upwards of 90 miles an hour, continued to ravage the region. Meanwhile, around 6:00 p.m., Altadena had its own fire started by what was later revealed to have originated from electrical infrastructure in the mountains. This fire also grew into thousands of acres within hours, triggering evacuations for the majority black community of Altadena.
While these two fires both started on the same day under terrible weather conditions, the winds were not the originating factor of these fires. Southern California had not seen considerable rainfall in over 8 months, with many areas drying up, and water demand going up. The area of the Pacific Palisades also had non-native plants that consumed copious amounts of water and were not meant for the periodic fires that happen in California. California native plants tend to be bred and grown to withstand fires, with trees developing thick layers of bark to prevent easy fire spreads, and shrubs having leaves that stay on the branches to prevent the wind spread of fire.
The second part of the story on how these fires happened is related to the neighborhood architecture and, construction. Altadena and Pacific Palisades are two of the relatively newer neighborhoods in Southern California. Though this does not mean they have modern construction techniques, most houses in the area are primarily wood construction with wooden exteriors. Modern construction techniques near fire hazard areas are nowadays built with fire-resistant stucco and insulation.
Our last part in this equation is the weather. If you have never lived in California, I can bet that you have never heard the term “Santa Ana winds.” Santa Ana winds are strong, sometimes hurricane force winds that are unique to the Los Angeles area. These winds can push 90 or more miles an hour and is the most damaging weather in California has on a yearly basis. Freeways clog up with slowed down trucks, trains slow down to a crawl, overhead cables fall, and even buildings get their windows shattered. These winds are the bane of our existence in Southern California, and the worst part is, we usually never know when they happen and how many times a year they will happen until just hours before they happen.
Now with this combination of puzzle pieces coming together, the Palisades and Eaton fires were not a surprising event, but it was still an absolute shock when they did happen. The Palisades fire cause millions of dollars’ worth of damage, displacing thousands of residents, and killing 12 people. The Eaton fire also caused millions in damage, killing 17 and displacing thousands more. While both neighborhoods lost a lot, Altadena suffered the most due to the racial disparities present in Altadena during the civil rights era of the United States. The majority black neighborhood of Altadena lost businesses, homes, and infrastructure, with much of it unable to be replaced.
The City and County of Los Angeles have begun to implement steps and programs to begin rebuilding both regions by designing new water infrastructure to prevent future fires from hitting as hard as these two did, improving building codes so that homes are reinforced against fires, and providing financial assistance for those impacted by the fires. The state of California will also be providing resources to assist in recovering from the fires, and new laws will go into place preventing non-native plant species from ending up close to forests and mountains prone to fires.
While I did not get impacted by these fires, I still would like to thank CalFire, the Canadian Government, LA County Fire, the Inmate Firefighters, and the pilots who flew the fire planes for their bravery over the 24 days that these two fires took place. I would also like to thank LA Metro and Big Blue Bus for a suspension of fares during the fires to provide easy access to food banks and shelters during the fires. Without these groups, the residents of Altadena and Pacific Palisades would not have been the only ones to lose their homes and businesses.
https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/eaton-fire
https://www.nbcnews.com/weather/wildfires/palisades-eaton-fire-la-contained-rcna188338