On January 7, fires exploded across Los Angeles County, California, killing at least 29 people, burning approximately 40,000 acres and devastating the city, its citizens and its economy.
The Palisades Fire erupted that morning and was the largest of the major fires, having burned over 23,000 acres and at least 6,800 buildings in western Los Angeles. The second fire, the Eaton fire, arose just a few hours later in the Angeles National Forest and Altadena, slightly north of Pasadena. It scorched 14,021 and damaged 9,418 structures, but is now fully contained along with the Palisades Fire. The third and final fire, the Hughes fire, began in northwestern Los Angeles County on January 22. It quickly spread across 10,400 acres, but is now 95% contained.
Though the worst of the blazes seem to be under control, new fires continue to rage across Southern California, including the 6,625-acre Border 2 fire in San Diego County, which is only 10% contained. In all, the fires have caused an estimated $20-$30 billion in insured losses. Additionally, AccuWeather estimates that with the addition of long-term and uninsured losses, costs will reach $250 billion.
Insurance changes and cancellations in Southern California have left evacuees in limbo, waiting to see if they can receive insurance coverage for the damage. Over the last two years, seven out of California’s 12 most prominent home insurers have “paused or limited policies,” in the state according to a report from NBC. State Farm, one of the top insurance companies in the state, dropped 30,000 home policies last March due to the high risk of fires in the area. This caused thousands of residents to flock to the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan (FAIR Plan), an insurance pool run by California since 1968. The FAIR Plan, like other home insurers in the state, is doing its best to provide for residents, but with losses only increasing and insurance companies’ resources depleting, problems will soon start to arise. Homeowners have lost thousands of dollars, and the uphill insurance battle will only steepen.
While facing insurance troubles, Californians must also confront major health threats. The smoke from the fires affects everyone, but particularly those with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, for whom the smoke can increase the severity of their diseases. Wildfire smoke is particularly dangerous because it burns toxic materials in buildings such as plastic.
The official cause of the fires has not been identified, but their intensity was undoubtedly aggravated by the dry and hot air, drought and extreme wind patterns in Southern California. Not only did these winds feed the fires, they also made it more difficult for firefighters to reach the sites by helicopter, and for planes carrying flame retardant to fly safely. Fortunately, these Santa Ana winds have died down for now, and rain graced the area recently, helping put out the fires without causing serious mudslides. However, the future of the fires depends on many factors: when the Santa Ana winds return, whether or not the rain returns and the severity of the drought throughout the rest of the year.
Climate change is a compounding factor: it increased the severity of the Santa Ana winds that fueled the fires and increased the likelihood that those winds would have the effect they did. “We are seeing fire behavior like we have never seen in the last three decades,” said Zachary Resnick, a firefighter in Los Angeles who has worked on putting out the recent fires. “The most important way [climate change affects the fires] is fuel moisture. Simply put, that’s how much water is in trees and brush and grass.”
He explained that the constant dry, hot conditions—even in the middle of winter—caused by climate change accumulate and make fires worse each and every year. “There’s supposed to be a relief period in the winter. The winter is supposed to bring water and snow, but it’s doing that significantly less and less every year that goes by. So, by the summertime… the fuel [(the grass, trees and brush)] has never recovered, so it’s even more volatile and subject to being on fire than last year. And that just compounds every single year; it gets slightly worse and worse and worse.”
Unfortunately, outside of L.A., the tragedy of the fires has been largely overshadowed by the transition of political power. With so many clamoring to share their opinions on Trump’s presidency, the fires that charred the U.S.’s second-largest city for weeks have fallen under the radar.
According to Palma Repole, a biology teacher at Fieldston, the L.A. fires hammer home the idea that nowhere—even big cities—is impervious to the effects of global warming. “There is no place that won’t be affected by climate change. We are all on the same planet. It’s like being in the same boat. Some of us might be in different places on this boat, but the boat itself is sinking. So, the tragedies of the wildfires in L.A. really bring home the idea that there isn’t a climate-immune ecosystem.”
How to help?
Repole urged Fieldston students to put in effort to help mitigate the effects of climate change. “When we understand the mechanisms that cause climate change—which have to do with overconsumption of resources, expenditure of energy, combustion of hydrocarbons and fuels—…we should be willing to make choices to live within the system, within our carbon budget. And it might mean we don’t get everything we want,” said Repole. “Maybe don’t take that vacation to a tropical island. Maybe don’t upgrade your phone to the newest version. Maybe sew the hole up in your jeans instead of buying a new pair.”
Additionally, Repole emphasized the importance of the government in helping slow the effects of climate change. “We not only should be willing to make different choices personally, [we] should be willing to vote in leaders who would limit… our choices, and say ‘we shouldn’t be consuming at this level.’ …There need to be systemic changes to the way the economy is run, and the way our infrastructure is built, and the way energy is provided. Those have to be done on the political level.”
