The morning of January 7th fires began in the Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood east of Malibu in Los Angeles, California.The fire had covered more than 23,000 acres of land destroying 7,400 structures before 65% of the fire was contained on Wednesday night. Not long after this incident, fires ignited throughout national forest lands north of downtown Los Angeles known as the Eaton Fire. The Eaton fire covered 14,000 acres of land destroying more than 10,000 structures. By Wednesday night the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had contained 89% of the fires.
According to Los Angeles county officials 27 people had died in the fires. 17 of them died from the Eaton Fire and 10 from the Palisades Fire. It was later reported that a large number of those who did not evacuate resulted in significant injuries. Furthermore, over 300,000 people have evacuated and many have lost their homes resulting in a significant number of people becoming homeless. As a result of these fires the economic loss could reach anywhere between 20-50 billion dollars.
Late Wednesday morning on January 22nd a third fire broke out near Castaic Lake about 49 miles away from the Eaton and Palisades fire known as the Hughes Fire. While the Eaton and Palisades fires continue to burn for the third week in a row the Hughes Fire has burned around 16 square miles of trees and brush, but they received no reports of burned homes or other buildings. By Wednesday night 14% of the Hughes Fire had been contained.
On Saturday, the 25th of January, until Monday afternoon, rain began to pour helping the fires die down. Though it did help put some fires out it also resulted in lots of flooding,landslides, and debris flow. As a result many main roads are now blocked off making it even more difficult to evacuate from. The debris flow and ash has caused a large concern on health issues for those who live in areas where the flow is prominent.
As a result of these devastating fires we encourage you to donate to these families who have lost their homes and belongings. You can visit redcross.org, call (800-733-2767), or text the word “CAWILDFIRES” to 90999 to make a donation.
