Wildfires in California are affecting many lives causing many people to evacuate their homes. photo by Noah Berger
Southern California has been hit by terrible wildfires that are drastically affecting numerous people in the area.
On January 7th, Southern California was initially hit by an awful wildfire that left the region in ruins. The rampantly spreading fires killed 29 people, causing the evacuation of 170,000 people from their homes. The Eaton fire burned over 14,000 acres of land while the Palisades fire burned 22,713 acres of land. Both disasters had different containment percentages (meaning the amount of the fire that has been secured by firefighters). Firefighters are still trying their best to combat these awful wildfires.
The Hurst fire ignited on the 7th of January to the north of Los Angeles, and the fire has been 100% contained as declared by Incident Commander Fuller. The containment percentage of the Palisades fire is around 96% currently, and the containment percentage of the Eaton fire is 99%. The Auto fire is located to the west of Los Angeles and is 100% contained according to Cal Fire.
No detectives have been able to discover the cause of the wildfires, but there is speculation that a possible cause of the Palisades and Eaton fires could be lightning, which would not be an uncommon catalyst. Another possible cause of the fires is the drought that followed California’s very wet year between 2022 and 2023. This drought resulted in significantly drier weather, which made the ignition of fires more likely. It could, an arsonist who started the fire, but it is very unlikely according to NBC News.
The rapid spread of the fire is also a large concern. Some of the causes of this spread include the Santa Ana winds and the dry climate. The dry climate is due to a high pressure system above the desert, which forces winds to descend and causes a decrease in humidity. This weather factor in combination with the high winds exacerbates the spread of the fire, and the strong winds are very dangerous. These Santa Ana Winds are preventing firefighters from extinguishing the fire, allowing the flames to engulf large portions of California. These conditions have caused many firefighters around California and some from Mexico to fight the fires.
To add on to the state of disaster California is already in, many houses are burning and the home owners are now dealing with an insurance crisis. This is because State Farm had to cancel 1,600 policies in the Pacific Palisades as well as 2,000 more policies in other neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area. With a new state regulation, insurance companies have to increase their coverage of homeowners’ insurance policies by 5% every couple years until the insurer covers 85% of the market share. An example of this is if an insurer writes a 100 policies, they will need to write 85 in a high risk area.
Experts say that the rise of climate change is directly related to the influx of wildfires because global warming causes higher temperatures and drier climates, which can dry out vegetation and create fuel to start fires. The current wildfires in California have been the worst that the state has ever seen. So far, the wildfires have cost damages of between $250 to $275 billion in destruction. Firefighters continue to fight and contain the wildfires to prevent further damage being done.
