On January 7th, 2025, huge forest fires broke out in southern California. The fires began in the Pacific Palisades but quickly spread into Malibu and all over Los Angeles. These fires have burned down an inconceivable number of peoples homes, schools, towns and many other buildings. Whole towns have been reduced to only ash and smoke. The fires have been limited from further spreading and are no longer considered active, but have permanently affected this state and its community in a plethora of ways.
Many reasons have been proposed as to how the fires started, but there is no definite reason yet. Different sources say different things started each fire. Some lawsuits state that the fires first began due to utility equipment owned by Southern California Edison. The dry conditions in Los Angeles also helped the flames spread. This weather made it easy for the forest to quickly catch fire and spread the fire into towns. The windy conditions also contributed to the spread by continuously blowing the fire across the dry area.
The fires raged for the majority of the month of January and have now been mostly detained. Firefighters had attempted to put out these fires since they began. This was a very difficult feat, and putting out all of these fires was impossible with the limited amount of water they had. After stopping the fires completely, they worked on slowing down the spread but ultimately had to let the fires begin to burn out. Rain eventually came gradually and helped put out the flames.
Many families have suffered from this devastating time and it will take years for the state to recover fully. 29 people died either defending their homes or just not being able to escape, and over 180,000 structures have been turned to ash. Freshman Claire Laronde talked about her family in California’s experience. “My cousins live in the Palisades and thankfully they made it out but their house, school and majority of their town did not.” So many people have been negatively impacted and even watching these people struggle is so hard. Freshman Mia MIlligab agrees with this statement and said, “I do not know anyone in the areas affected but even watching how people are hurt makes watching the news so hard.” These fires were so awful and it is so good they are beginning to rebuild now.
