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TIt is five The fires still burning in and around Los Angeles on January 9 were among the most destructive in California history. The scale is staggering, even for a country accustomed to natural disasters. Nearly 130,000 people were asked to leave their homes; 2,000 buildings were destroyed. With wildfires now looking more like a certainty than a risk here, not many will be insured. Insurance company State Farm has decided not to renew 70% of its policies in Pacific Palisades, one of the hardest-hit areas. ABC Los Angeles believes this has left 1,600 homes there uninsured. Fire crews faced an unequal battle: in the early hours of the morning fire hydrants in the neighborhood ran dry.
People abandoned their cars and fled on foot as the fire approached. Firefighters then bulldozed their vehicles to reach the fire. Workers evacuated patients in wheelchairs from the nursing home. The sky over the Pacific Coast Highway turned orange and thick with smoke. Palm fronds were burned. Strong winds It sparked several firestorms throughout Los Angeles starting on January 7. Nine months without measurable rain led to the city burning.
By January 9, two major fires were burning on opposite sides of Los Angeles Province, home to 10 million people. One of them destroyed Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood on the coast, and swept through Malibu. Another was burning in the foothills above Pasadena, northeast Los Angeles. Ash fell like snowflakes on the city centre. Flames glowed crimson on the peaks when they were not obscured by black smoke, on Mount Doom in Southern California.
Los Angeles is particularly vulnerable to fires. Its affluent neighborhoods and suburbs are where cities meet nature, extending into the region’s jagged mountain ranges: Santa Monicas, Verdugos, and San Gabriels. Climate change is causing more extreme and frequent fires, but more people are moving to these areas to find cheaper housing or, Los AngelesHigh heels, this perfect mountain view. Until recently, January was not considered part of fire season. But emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming have also increased the number of days each year with blazing weather conditions.
On this occasion, northeasterly winds reaching speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h) in some places swept across the mountains dominated by the city. This is Santa Anse, also known as the “Devil’s Wind.” In the cold months, warm, dry air blows from the vast Basin El Gebir desert towards the coast. Winds can dry out plants that are already parched due to a drought that began after two unusually wet years. But they can also carry embers great distances, starting new fires as they blow.
It did not take long before the natural disaster turned into a political disaster. Donald Trump has blamed California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, arguing that he diverted water from Californians to protect endangered fish, referring to a new water management plan in the California Delta, which has no impact on fighting fires in California. Los Angeles. “One of the best and most beautiful areas in the USA [is] “Ashes,” he wrote on Truth Social, “and Gavin Newscomb should resign.” It’s a reminder of Trump’s version of leadership and an ugly prelude to what will be a tense relationship between him and the governor at a time when the state will need federal help.
This ordeal reminds Angelenos of their weakness. At any given time Los Angeles is at risk from fires, floods, extreme heat, mudslides and earthquakes. “The weather of Los Angeles is the weather of disaster, the end of the world,” Joan Didion wrote in 1969, in an essay about Santa Ana. Violent winds “affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, making it more unstable and unreliable.” “The wind shows us how close we are to the edge.” ■
Correction (January 12, 2025): An earlier version of the piece misstated the California Delta.
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