On January 7th, wildfires erupted and stormed across Southern California, specifically the Los Angeles area. The fires were fueled by dry conditions and powerful Santa Ana winds. The Santa Ana winds, also referred to as the devil winds, are strong, extremely dry winds that originate inland and affect the coast of Southern California and northern Baja California. They get their start from cool, dry, high pressure air masses in the Great Basin. As of today, at least 27 people have died as result of the fires. Some even died protecting their homes from the fires engulfing them.
The first fire started in Pacific Palisades, a Los Angeles neighborhood east of Malibu. Although it started as a brush fire it grew to be one of the biggest fires L.A. had ever seen. The blaze spread over 23,713 acres of land, destroying homes, businesses, and people’s lives. Luckily by Wednesday the fires were 65% contained. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, reported that the fire damaged or destroyed more than 7,400 buildings.
A couple hours after the Pacific Palisades fire started, the Eaton fire ignited. It started near a canyon in the national forest lands north of downtown Los Angeles. It quickly grew to cover over 14,000 acres of land and was 89% contained by Wednesday night. Cal Fire reported more than 10,400 structures were destroyed or damaged as a result of the fires. While firefighters risked their lives battling huge fires, additional fires broke out in the Los Angeles area. Thankfully, crews were able to stop the forward spread and contain most of the fires. As of Friday night, the Lidia, Archer, Woodley, Sunset, Kenneth, Hurst and Auto fires were 100% contained and no longer considered active. Between them, the infernos burnt 2,399 acres.
As stated earlier, at least 27 have died as a result of the fires. The county medical examiner’s office has ongoing investigations regarding the deaths. The department states that they cannot confirm human remains until they have been processed at the facility. According to the M.E. ‘s office 17 deaths were due to the Eaton fire, and 10 were as a result of the Palisades fire. The M.E.’s office said it could be a slow process to confirm the identities of the remains. Both fires have also left a hefty amount of people injured.
Throughout the span of the last two weeks close to 200,000 people were under evacuation orders. By Tuesday morning the number had lessened to around 88,000. The infernos have destroyed entire neighborhoods, leaving people without their homes, grocery stores, businesses, and schools. The fires insured losses will most likely exceed $20 billion. JPMorgan estimates that total economic losses could reach $50 billion. Up until these fires, the 2018 Camp fire was the costliest fire in United States history. The official cause of the fires is currently unknown.
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