LA Wildfires Rage On As Firefighters Bravely Battle The Flames

With TikTok users bringing back the TikTok of 2020 into 2025, a period that certainly contributed towards shaping the iconic app into what it has become today, 2025 has ironically begun the same way 2020 began five years ago—with a ravenous inferno.

Fueled by the unusually dry winter and now powerful Santa Ana winds, a series of ferocious fires have been raging across much of the Los Angeles area since around the beginning of January, having burned down around 12,000 homes and claimed the lives of 28 people to date.

A Los Angeles County fire official stated that an untold number of significant injuries were linked to two of the fires, and another city official in Los Angeles further describing the fire as “one of the most devastating and terrifying” that she had ever seen in her corner of the city. Officials are bracing for even more fire related threats as firefighters continue to battle the fires that continue to rage through LA, with more than 100,000 residents remaining under evacuation orders.

The largest of the three fires is the Palisades Fire, which began in the Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood east of Malibu. It originally started as a brush fire but quickly spread with the favorably dry conditions, growing to about 23,448 acres by Wednesday and 70% contained by then. Federals are still looking into whether this fire could have originated from a fire that began New Year’s Eve.

The Eaton Fire, the second largest of the fires, ignited near a canyon the same night of the Palisades Fire and sprawled across national forest lands north of downtown Los Angeles. The fire has currently burned 14,021 acres so far and was 95% contained by Wednesday. An electrical transmission tower is being suspected as the possible culprit behind this blaze.

The Hurst Fire, the smallest of the three major fires, also began on the same day in Sylmar, a suburban neighborhood north of San Fernando as another brush fire. 799 acres burned and it was finally contained by January 16th.

While firefighters were battling the larger blazes, additional smaller fires broke out in other parts of the Los Angeles area; other firefighters, however, were able to quickly stop the spread and contain the blazes. The Archer, Kenneth, Lidia, Sunset, and Woodley fires were 100% contained by January 10th and between the five of them burned 1,539 acres.

Close to 200,000 people at one point were under evacuation orders as firefighters fought back the flames. That number eventually dwindled down to around 92,000 with another 89,000 in evacuation warning zones, the fires destroying entire neighborhoods and blocks, leaving an unknown number of people unhoused, forcing 90,000 people to flee their homes and neighborhoods.

A contingent of 72 firefighters from Mexico received a briefing from US fire officials alongside their American counterparts before heading out to fight the fires still plaguing Southern California January 11th, bringing along with them a mix of doctors, engineers, military specialists, and search and rescue personnel that was essentially Mexico's equivalent to the US Forest Service. These firefighters will join several other states and Canada as they attempt to rein the flames under control.

Governor Gavin Newsom has recently issued an executive order to suspend requirements from the state’s hallmark environmental law in order to rebuild homes and businesses in the affected areas faster. It’s estimated that damages and the economic hit to the regional economy is now at least $250 billion.

These losses would far exceed the $12.5 billion in insured damages from the Camp Fire in 2018, which until now was the costliest blaze in California’s history.

The state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Liara, stated that the fires are expected to “complicate an already complicated market,” and has banned insurance companies from canceling or rejecting renewals on policies for a year. Republican state lawmakers are urging Newsom to call a special session focused on wildfires and the state’s insurance market crisis.

Newsom recently extended an invitation to President Donald Trump to visit California and survey the damage after securing relief aid from the Biden administration.

Trump proceeded to publicly insult Newsom and the state’s water policies as part of the blame for the fires—severe winds and the dry regional climate are actually the reason behind why the fires are so intense, sending more water from the state’s north as he later suggested would not have helped at all. While Trump has yet to respond to Newsom’s invitation to visit California, he did take to social media to describe the officials handling the wildfires as “incompetent.”

“The fires are still raging in LA,” He wrote on his Truth Social site. “The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out. Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?”

The combination of drought-like conditions in Southern California and the powerful offshore winds—coupled with the fact that the region received less than 10% of rainfall since October 1st—has prompted fire weather that was, in the words of the National Weather Service, “about as bad as it gets.”

The agency issued a red flag warning, indicating an increased risk for fire danger to 19 million people. Wind gusts topping 70 mph were recorded in several locations across the area.

The weather California has been experiencing in recent years has been torn between droughts and heavy rainfall, mimicking ‘mood swings’ and being the key element towards the fire weather currently gripping the area.

The country’s medical examiner’s office is still investigating the causes of the 24 deaths that have currently occurred. They noted that they cannot confirm any human remains until they are processed properly at their facility, stating that it could take weeks to fully confirm the identities of those killed.

At least 16 of the deaths were caused by the Eaton Fire, 8 of them due to the Palisades Fire, officials state. They have warned, however, that the death toll could continue to grow as they begin to gain access to affected areas in response to missing person reports and welfare checks.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone stated that a significant portion of people refused to heed evacuation orders and have been injured in the Palisades Fire as a result, further stating that there had also been significant injuries in the Eaton Fire as well. The official cause of the fires has yet to be determined.