TRUTH BEHIND LA WILDFIRES, UNCOVERED

This is a fact-based explanation of the conditions enabling the tragic Eaton (3% contained), Palisades (8% contained), Kenneth (35% contained ), Hurst (37% contained,) and Lidia (75% contained) Fires (as well as the now 100% contained Sunset Fire), in Los Angeles (LA).

While an official source of the first spark has not yet been declared—as containing the fires, putting out the flames, and relief efforts take priority—let’s look at what we know.?

TEN ESSENTIAL FACTS

1. Extreme rainfall from the 2023-2024 El Ni?o season—one of the five strongest on record—spurred excessive vegetation growth (trees, mosses, plants) in LA. El Ni?o is a natural climate pattern that occurs every 2-7 years, aligned to warmer ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific. In Southern California, it is often marked by high rainfall.

According to a recent study in Nature, scientists predict one in two El Ni?os will be ‘extreme’ by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions (pollution blanketing our atmosphere, warming the planet up) continue to increase.?

2. The alternate climate pattern, La Ni?a, was announced Thursday. It occurs when sea surface temperatures are below average in the central and eastern Pacific, often bringing drought to Southern California.

Drought dries out vegetation, making it more flammable.?Various regions of LA are now experiencing moderate, severe, and extreme drought, per the U.S. Drought Monitor. According to Golden Gate Weather Service, as of January 5, Downtown LA had received 1% of normal seasonal rainfall, compared to 1991 to 2020 data.

Climate change impacts drought in many ways—from changing seasonal rainfall patterns to causing hotter conditions which leads to more evaporation.

3. Santa Ana winds—dry, warm, and gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and often cause humidity levels to plunge—at speeds of 60-100 MPH are fanning the flames. What conditions led to such strong Santa Ana Winds??

Preliminary findings from some scientists indicate that climate change impacts the jet stream, or “the river of air that moves weather systems around the globe.”

4. Winter fires cause more destruction and happen faster. A study in the journal Science linked faster-moving fires—which have more than doubled in frequency since 2001—to a warming climate.

5. Los Angeles is getting hotter—far faster than many other places. According to the Washington Post, LA is already 2.3 degrees Celsius hotter on average than it was back in 1895. LA is a “hotspot” because of the “urban heat island effect.”?

If you’re not familiar with this concept, it means cities have fewer natural features like trees and waterways but more roads, sidewalks, and buildings that trap the sun’s heat and prevent cooler air circulation, as explained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

6. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cites "Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere” as a “key driver” increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the Western U.S.

7. In CA, wildfire season now stretches 7 months, when according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it only lasted 5 months in the 1970s. So what changed in the past 50+ years??

8. Human-induced climate change, tracing back to the Industrial Revolution, is now accelerating. According to NASA, two-thirds of the planet’s overall temperature increase has happened since 1975.

9. As such, the United Nations Environment Programme projects extreme fires will continue to increase globally, up to 14 percent by 2030, 30 percent by 2050, and 50 percent by the end of the century.

10. 2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record. It was also the year that the planet surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. Above this critical threshold, Earth’s natural systems stop functioning as they should.

Climate experts agree that at 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, extreme events like what we’re seeing in California will become the catastrophic norm worldwide—posing risks to human life as we know it.

So, while no one has come out and said climate change is directly responsible for the blazes in LA, based on these ten facts, there is a clear connection, yet misinformation is spreading. Many of the conspiracy theories that are circulating can be explained or flat-out debunked.

UNSUBSTANTIATED THEORIES

1. A false conspiracy implies the current fires are a way to pave the way for LA to become a “smart city” by 2028. In fact, action towards this goal has been happening since 2020.

The plans are publicly available, and the next steps include positives like expanding LA's environmental sensors and building out a smart power grid. The fires are unrelated.

2. Rumors are circulating that the reason insurance carriers dropped wildfire coverage for many Angelenos in recent months is that these fires were planned or insurers somehow knew they were coming.

Insurers did decline to renew coverage, but it is a clear symptom of the climate crisis.?

This unconscionable trend has also been documented nationwide in other climate-vulnerable areas like Florida and Louisiana. Insurers want to protect their bottom line and reduce the risks of excessive payouts in areas prone to more climate-driven disasters.?

3/4. I have also seen social media users posing questions about how concrete structures are buckling and yet trees are still standing. To clarify, concrete is fire-resistant—not fireproof.?

At sustained temperatures, concrete cracks, binding materials give out, and reinforcing steel is weakened. Meanwhile, trees in fire-prone regions have evolutionary adaptations that build resistance to wildfires—such as pyrophytic (or fire-activated) seeds that require the heat of a fire to release and germinate.?

5. Lastly, as to the 20% of hydrants that Mayor Karen Bass indicated had run dry, the issue was not that they had been turned off in advance.

Rather, with demand four times greater than the LA firefighting system had ever faced, three 1-million-gallon tanks needed to be refilled. In the areas at higher elevations, lower water pressure presented logistical challenges after 15 hours straight of fighting blazes.

Hopefully, this clears up any confusion about fringe theories you may have seen. They aren’t logical, ignore the bigger picture of a changing climate, and distract from relief efforts.

GET HELP/HELP OTHERS

In response to the most destructive wildfire event in LA history, please:

1. Seek out / support relief efforts on the ground,?
2. Make use of / share resources with those in need,
3. Spread the truth in a sea of disinformation.

Here are a few key organizations leading relief efforts and how they’re helping.?

American Red Cross has already provided more than 1,700 overnight stays in response to evacuations and displacement due to the fires across LA. Visit redcross.org/Shelters to find a nearby location and for food, basic hygiene items, first aid, and mental health care.

Airbnb partnered with #211 to offer free temporary housing to those displaced by the LA fires. They committed to helping an additional 25,000 survivors, evacuees, first responders, and firefighters on January 20th, 2025.

If you were not impacted and want to help, consider supporting the California Community Foundation and their dedicated wildfire recovery fund and/or donating to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation .

A more comprehensive list of resources is available here: recovery.lacounty.gov/resources/

Please share any verified resources or support efforts you’re aware of that I did not list.

Lastly, if you or those you love suffer through this tragedy, my heart is with you. I remain dedicated to finding and supporting climate crisis solutions for you and future generations.

Article current as of the time of publication, January 10th, 2025.

For live updates on fire containment, visit CNN.