California can be recognized by a lot of things. It could be its cities, people or culture, but one of the most recognizable things about California are its wildfires. California has a long history with wildfires, and they are sometimes a great danger for its citizens. The most devastating wildfires in California’s history occurred in 2018. These 2018 wildfires burned millions of acres of land, caused thousands of people to evacuate their homes and cost the state millions of dollars in operations. And now in 2024, a similar story is unfolding, with wildfires raging in Southern California causing thousands of people to evacuate their homes, burning millions of acres, and putting hundreds of firefighters at risk. These 2024 wildfires seem to be one of the worst wildfires in California’s history, and they aren’t likely to slow down any time soon because of the dry conditions and strong winds that make it difficult for these firefighters to fight these wildfires, so they seem are far from being contained, at the moment.
Where are the fires happening?
The biggest fires are the Palisades and Eaton fires. The Palisades fire along the Pacific Coast is the most devastating, burning more than 21,000 acres of land. It forced evacuation along the Pacific Highway, Malibu and Santa Monica. The next one is the Eaton fire which has burned much more than 14,000 acres of land and has also forced thousands of residents to evacuate and has burned thousands of their homes. These are the fires that are currently the most devastating and the ones that the firefighters are currently trying to suppress before they grow stronger and sparse into other areas because of the high winds that might return soon, so containing these fires is a major priority for California. Fires have also affected the beach communities in Santa Monica and Malibu, suburban neighborhoods in Pasadena and parts of Ranch Country in the San Fernando Valley.
Other fires have been erupting in other parts of California, but these are smaller compared to the Palisades and Eaton fires. These have been, for the most part, contained by firefighters such as fires in north of the Palisades fire and northwest of the Eaton fire. Some progress has been achieved with the Kenneth fire, a fire that erupted on Thursday evening in the West Hills neighborhood in San Fernando Valley. Another fire called the Sunset fire that erupted on Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills, which threatened beloved landmarks such as the Hollywood Bowl and TCL Chinese Theater, was fully contained.
What have these fires caused?
The Palisade and Eaton fires have been recorded into the top 5 most destructive wildfires in California’s history. According to Cal Fire, the Palisades fire has destroyed roughly 5,000 structures and the Eaton fire around 7,000 structures that include homes, garages and businesses. These will have a great impact on California afterwards, leaving thousands of people homeless and thousands of people without jobs. Not only this, but children will also be affected by these fires. The Palisades fire for example, destroyed the Palisades Charter high School, leaving many children without school for a while, hindering their education. The fire also destroyed the alma mater of certain celebrities and various filming locations for movies and TV shows.
The national guard and local law enforcement have been constantly enforcing curfews and making sure that evacuated neighborhoods are in lockdown until residents can safely return.
Another impact these fires had is fatal, 24 people have been killed as a consequence of these deadly fires, at the moment. The Eaton fire killed 16 and at least 8 have died in the Palisades fire. 23 other people have been reported missing in the areas between two fires and the death toll mentioned before is expected to increase.
At last, probably the most impacting thing about these fires among the chaos is the various arrests that have been happening around this time. At least 34 people have been arrested for various crimes during the Eaton and Palisades fires including looting, identity theft and more. It is probably expected that more arrests will be made in the next few days as these fires rage and amidst the chaos, some take the chance to loot and propagate these fires, only resulting in more chaos.
What is being done to stop these fires?
Days before the fires occurred, high wind gusts could reach up to 50 to 80 miles an hour, even 100 mph. This, with the built up vegetation from the past two winters turning into tinder, high winds, dry air and dry vegetation made the perfect combination for fires in California. And more winds are coming up, preoccupying firefighters because, even if they are weak winds, these winds could serve as fuel for these fires making them last longer and worsen the conditions.
As a result and to slow down the spread of wildfires, something that is known as pink retardant is now being used. This suppressant is used in places where firefighters can’t reach on land, so suppressants such as pink retardants serve as a valuable tool into stopping these fires from spreading into other areas. While this suppressant is useful some are concerned about its impact on the environment.
Pink retardant is considered safe for people, yet some worry what might happen if it impacts the environment in a negative way. For example, because of the high and strong winds, it can be difficult for aircraft to dump this suppressant into a designated area and it can spread into non designated and non desired areas. That’s why the Forest Service bans the use of aerial suppressants over waterways and habitats of endangered species unless there is a serious threat to human and public safety because of the potential risks of harming the wildlife in these waterways. What is harmful to wildlife are the heavy metals usually found in these suppressants such as chromium and cadmium that could end up in the environment if they are mismanaged.
Yet, even with these risks and limitations, suppressants are pretty important in stopping fires as these help starve the fire of oxygen and slow the rate of burning and coating vegetation and other surfaces. And prevents thousands of people from being exposed to health risks caused by wildfires such as wildfire smoke. Recent studies have found that wildfire smoke accounted for up to half of all health damaging particle air pollution in the western U.S in recent years. And research from the Alzheimer’s Association has also recently found, in a recent study, that wildfire smoke may be the most dangerous type of air pollution, and it could raise the risk of dementia.
President Biden has said that their administration is doing whatever they can do to help those affected by the fires, since the fires are expected to increase in power and size.
For now, the fires are expected to grow as high winds are expected to return, thousands more residents will probably be needed to evacuate their homes and neighborhoods leaving everything behind but with the hope that after the chaos passes, something new will be born from California’s ashes.
