Destruction from the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., January 8, 2025.Scott McKiernan/ZUMA
It has been a week since Los Angeles’ devastating wildfires began, driven by powerful winds that have made the blazes highly difficult to fight.
More than 40,000 acres have already burned, with at least 24 deaths; by comparison, the entirety of Washington, DC, is 43,000 acres. More than 12,300 structures have been destroyed, and at least 90,000 people are without power. Disinformation is skyrocketing as influencers peddle questionable products, right-wing commentators blame the devastation on ‘wokeness,’ and landlords look to profit. AccuWeather estimates the total damages and economic losses at more than $250 billion.
President Biden has promised six months of full federal funding for California’s efforts to combat the fires, while top-level Republicans continue to discuss placing “conditions” on federal aid to California. The Trump administration has a history of withholding aid in disasters, and Trump was quick to cast blame on California Gov. Gavin Newsom (and a fish).
Observers across party lines have criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over the crisis, some critiquing Bass’ presence in Ghana on an official trip for the inauguration of its new president John Dramani Mahama on the first day of the fires. Others, like Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia and city fire chief Kristin Crowley, have criticized the city government’s recent $17.6 million budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department, which led to the loss of 61 positions as calls for service went up.
Meanwhile, more than 22,000 emergency personnel have been activated to fight the fires, including more than 900 incarcerated firefighters working for for barely $10 a day.
California’s recruitment of wildland firefighters from prisons has faced sharp criticism in the past week, despite Californians’ rejection of a November ballot measure that would have banned all prison labor, including firefighting. Many incarcerated and formerly incarcerated firefighters have spoken positively about the program. Others point out that it’s simply better than being in California prisons.
Officials expect the true death toll to exceed the two dozen fatalities, a figure that inclues multiple disabled residents, documented so far. United Nations research shows that disasters kill disabled people at a rate two to four times that of the general population.
What actually sparked each of the three fires is under investigation; while misinformation about arsonists spreads online, experts are investigating the role of power lines and embers from fireworks.
But the fuel—including strong Santa Ana winds, low rainfall, and climate change—is undeniable. There’s “no question…that climate change is exacerbating our fire regime and affecting fires,” Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist with the US Geological Survey and adjunct professor at University of California, Los Angeles, told Mother Jones‘ Jackie Flynn Mogensen last week.
Of the three active fires in Los Angeles, the Hurst Fire in San Fernando is 97 percent contained, at 799 acres; the Palisades Fire, which has gotten attention for devouring celebrity homes in particular, is just 17 percent contained, and has already burned more than 23,000 acres, making it the most destructive to ever hit Los Angeles County.
Finally, the Eaton fire, which has burned over 14,000 acres in and around the city of Altadena, is 35 percent contained. As the Civil Rights Movement chipped at pervasive redlining in the Los Angeles area in the middle of the 20th century, Altadena became known as a place where Black residents faced fewer obstacles to homeownership. Today, the Black homeownership rate in the city is higher than 80 percent, almost double the national average among Black households. Multigenerational family homes have been lost, and a coalition of Black organizers has raised over $10 million to support displaced Black families from the area.
A prominent resident of Altadena was MacArthur “Genius” grant–winning science fiction author Octavia Butler, who wrote an eerily prescient novel in 1993, The Parable of the Sower, that predicted massive wildfires in Los Angeles—including Altadena—in 2025, alongside the rise of a far-right president with the catchphrase “Make America Great Again.”
In an essay titled “A Few Rules For Predicting The Future,” Butler wrote that a student had asked her whether she believed they were in for the futureshe’d predicted. “I didn’t make up the problems,” she replied. “All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.”
Butler was laid to rest in 2006 in Altadena’s Mountain View Cemetery, which caught fire last week.
