Wildfires in Southern California in January 2025: A Natural Catastrophe with Political Ramifications
The Palisades Fire is said to have started in the exclusive oceanside enclave of Pacific Palisades in western Los Angeles County on 7 January 2025. Other wildfires, bearing such names as Archer, Eaton (Altadena, Pasadena), Hurst (Sylmar), Kenneth (West Hills), Lidia (Acton), Sunset (Hollywood Hills), and Woodley have since ravaged Los Angeles County in the latest outbreak of southern Californian wildfires, which is being described as the “worst natural disaster in US history.” The fires are indiscriminate and do not respect social boundaries. The exclusive locations of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills have been affected, among others, as is the unincorporated lower-income foothills community of Altadena. The homes of ordinary citizens have been destroyed along with those of celebrities, leaving thousands homeless and bereft of their personal possessions. Others have been placed under evacuation orders. Hotels, hostels, and shelters have filled up with people, while small and large animals have been taken to their own shelters. Air quality has deteriorated, as the fires emit toxic gases and fine particulate material, potentially damaging to the health of humans and animals alike. By the time of writing, at least 25 people have lost their lives to the inferno.
Local and county fire departments, Cal Fire (California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection), and federal firefighters were among the first responders. The National Guard has been deployed, and firefighters also drafted in from neighbouring US states, Mexico, and Canada, while some wealthier residents have turned to private fire crews. On the ground, the flames are being battled with hoses, while aircraft drop water or pink fire retardant (Phos-Chek) on burning hillsides. Curfews have been imposed as looting has broken out, while other criminal activity includes price gouging and scams. President Biden has committed full federal funding for the first 180 days of disaster relief efforts.
These extreme weather events are being attributed to a preceding drought, warm temperatures, low humidity, and an abundance of combustible, tinder-dry vegetation. The flames have been fanned by strong Santa Ana winds blowing from the inland mountains, which gain in speed as they descend towards the south and west. Much of southwestern California has a Mediterranean-type climate, with long, dry summers and periods of thunderstorms, interspersed with cool, wet winters. These climatic conditions make the region prone to wildfires, to the extent that insurers are increasingly unwilling to provide homeowner insurance in fire-risk areas. A wildfire can be defined as a fire, in a rural area, involving combustible vegetation, which may then spread to urban locations. A particular problem is thus posed by Wildland-Urban Interfaces, where houses abut on, or intermingle with, forests and grasslands. The frequency and intensity of such wildfires has been increasing in recent years as California becomes drier and warmer from global warming.
Like other fires, wildfires thrive on fuel, heat, and oxygen. Combustible material, in this case vegetation, is ignited in warmer temperatures and burns with the aid of oxygen in the ambient air. The sparks that trigger self-perpetuating combustion may be produced by lightning, arson, accidental ignition (faults in power transmission lines, discarded cigarette butts, fireworks, campfires, barbecues), or may even arise spontaneously. Chapparal, which comprises dense woody evergreen shrubs, provides the dominant vegetation cover over much of the foothills of southern California’s mountain ranges and often fuels wildfires. So-called “whiplash” swings between drought and rainfall may lead to the accumulation of tinder-dry vegetation. The propensity of wildfires to spread depends on the amount of available combustible vegetation, its moisture content, and its vertical arrangement. Periodic controlled burning, as practised in the past and since replaced by a policy of total fire suppression, may reduce the amount of flammable material available for any future wildfires, as can mechanical removal of brush with hoes and power tools. Deliberate fire suppression may indeed have led to a build-up of potential fuels in wildlands, making wildfires more likely.
Even as the fires have raged, recriminations are abounding and the matter has become politicised. In a social media post on 8 January, President-elect Donald Trump accused an “incompetent” California Governor, Gavin Newsom, of refusing to sign a “water restoration declaration” that would have released “millions of gallons of water” to quench the fires, even as the governor’s press office responded that there was no such document. On 10 January, Newsom confirmed that a water shortage had led to fire hydrants running dry, hindering firefighters in their duties, and ordered an independent investigation into the causes of “lost water supply and water pressure in municipal water systems.” It didn’t help that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, a 117-million-gallon reservoir in Pacific Palisades, was empty and closed for maintenance at the time the fires broke out. Republican politicians are blaming California’s ruling Democrats for mismanaged water distribution policies, neglect of vegetation control, alleged cuts to firefighting budgets, and many other perceived failings rather than rallying together to deal with a catastrophe in America’s third-largest and most populous state, which has the fifth-largest economy in the world.
There can be no single common cause for these Californian wildfires, past expressions of which have been thoroughly investigated, analysed, and written about. The enormous costs, both human and material, of the most recent fires will undoubtedly concentrate minds and could even initiate a mini-exodus from those areas where progressive encroachment on to wildlands has increased the risk at a time when California’s fire seasons are becoming longer. Global warming may well explain why 13 of the state’s 20 largest wildfires have occurred since 2000. The recovery is expected to be prolonged, painful, and expensive, notwithstanding state and federal government interventions. The losers, as usual, are the victims of unprecedented devastation, which will disproportionately affect the poor, just as political leaders chose to resort to finger-pointing over who is most to blame for their predicament.
Ashis Banerjee