Wildfires Engulf the LA County

  On Jan 7, 2:30 p.m. the Pacific Palisades fire erupted between Santa Monica and Malibu, burning at 100 miles per hour from the Santa Ana winds, ordering over 100,000 people to evacuate from their homes and businesses. The preexisting extinguished Lachman fire on New Year’s Day rekindled itself in the Palisades, quickly erupting over 23,000 acres.
  Within hours, about 30 other fires spread in Los Angeles County, including both Eaton and the Hollywood Hills, making these flames the most destructive wildfires in Southern California history.
  The strong Santa Ana winds gusted between 55 and 70 miles per hour, reaching its peak at 100 miles per hour. The unexpected wind patterns increasing the speed of the flames forced firefighters to cease containment of the Eaton and Palisade fires until Thursday. The majority of Southern California was put under a Red Flag warning until wind warnings were lifted and firefighters were active.
  Canadian Scoopers were quickly rushed down to Los Angeles and firefighters from around the country were put on duty in the county. While attempting to put out the flames, fire extinguishers were found empty and water was dry from all sources. On Jan. 9, Canadian Scoopers were forced to take water from the ocean.
  In efforts to protect historic landmarks from the fires, the Getty Villa, Hollywood Bowl and Hollywood Sign were successfully preserved, though unfortunately, the 1998 Bunny Museum was caught in flames.
  Los Angeles Mayor, Karen Bass, had previously warned people on Jan. 7 about “erratic winds” soon to come in Southern California, vacationing to Ghana. However, when questioned on how to halt the fires, she had nothing to say to LA citizens as the fire broke out, speechless about the disaster.
  Over 12,000 homes were lost in the flames of the various fires, leaving dozens of schools were also destroyed and damaged. This created a spike of 75,000 in the homeless population. About 50,000 are left unsheltered, only left with the clothes worn due to the sudden evacuations.
  The total estimate to rebuild all damaged and destroyed structures will cost between 250 to 275 billion dollars so far. This is the costliest wildfire in US history, surpassing the Camp Fire of 2018.
Although the Santa Ana winds have died down in comparison to the previous week, the fires continue to spread, destroying an estimated 12,300 structures, confirmed to take the lives of 25 people.