From January 7th to 31st 2025, 14 destructive wildfires affected the Los Angeles area and San Diego Country in California, United States of America. The fires were exacerbated by drought conditions, low humidity, a buildup of vegetation from the previous winter, and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, which in some places reached 100 miles per hour.
+31 people killed
200,000 evacuated
+18,000 homes & structures destroyed
+57,529 acres of land burned
up to 440 deaths connected to the fires
The Pacific Palisades Fire near Malibu, California, started January 7, 2025. Adobe Stock Photo.
Video Interview with Ana Souza
My sister, Ana, lives in Los Angeles and was visiting me in Amsterdam when the fires started. She flew back home to LA soon after the fires began. Here are snippets of our conversation about the situation, focusing on her personal experience of the disaster. Below are some notes from our talk.
• The fires brought together a very strong community feel: people shared resources, information online, offered their houses or businesses to help the relief efforts. There were even too many volunteers at one point. But the support was enormous.
• The 2 biggest fires had contrasting neighborhoods: Altadena was a more historically back and working class population, while Malibu as a wealthier area with lots of celebrity homes received a lot of news coverage. Some people had literally nowhere else to go, while the wealthier affected by the disaster have the luxury to go to another one of their homes, friends or family's houses that have space to shelter them. The more vulnerable population is impacted more drastically in these circumstances.
• A lot of people are facing insurance problems: insurance companies are refusing to pay out, some policies have been canceled.
• Unfortunately in these situations, there are always people who might take advantage of it to make it worse, for example arsonists.
Above are Instagram stories from Ana's social media feed at the time, with examples of people, businesses and organizations sharing information, resources, and offering support online. Some shared scientific information about the air quality with suggestions on how to be safe around the ash or smoke; people shared relief locations where the unhoused could seek shelter and where volunteers could support; therapists offered pro-bono sessions for people impacted by the fires; veterinary hospitals offered their facilities to care for hurt animals; restaurants offered free meals and Airbnbs offered temporary housing through their unoccupied apartments.
Video Interviews with Andrew Callaghan on the LA Fires. Below are some notes I took.
• Firefighters are paid minimum wage. In-n-out (a fast-food burger restaurant) pays $20 per hour, while firefighters get paid $15 per hour
• Fire departments don't have enough resources, overwhelmed & overworked volunteers
• People end up working 1,000 hours overtime to afford living in LA, which is an expensive city
• Firefighters are working 1.5 years' worth of working hours within 6 months just to survive
• Natural burning or “prescribed fire” is necessary to burn “fuel” - what firefighters consider could fuel fires further. Trash, dry brush, etc. Controlled burning is needed to prevent larger fires
• To burn a prescribed fire, you need to write a detailed proposal & approve by multiple authorities. Lots of adminitrative bureaucracy
• People believing they need to protect nature from all fires can end up putting human lives at risk. Which is “more valuable”? more “worth taking the risk for”?
• People won’t be willing to remove trees or greenery they have emotional attachments to, but scientists say removing anything from within 5ft of each house would reduce burn risks drastically.
Poet, musician & artist who created a performance/video piece about the LA fires. Below are a few excerpts from the work and a comment from her on social media when the fires first broke out.
An arsonist’s wet dream
/
Shattered winds ash on the lung
A sky of blazing breath
A flame on the distance looking back
The hue of a cough
The scent of a tickling sneeze
It has not rained
Dry as silence in the dragon’s mouth
/
Hungry for water
A rusted sunset
/
But everyone’s donating their wardrobe to people without closets
Can a millionaire be homeless?
All of a sudden, we know the meaning of community
All of a sudden, the spirit of giving is in the air
The people kindle around the flame
Nothing, nothing like disaster to shock a heart into beating
The feel-good volunteers did reiki before they dropped off outfits for people with no events to attend
/
Look at us
Look at us
Look at us who took the breeze for granted
/
The ghosts of consequence stain the air
/
Shattered winds ash on the lung
A sky of blazing breath
A flame on the distance looking back
The hue of a cough
The scent of a tickling sneeze
It has not rained
Dry as silence in the dragon’s mouth
/
Hungry for water
A rusted sunset
/
But everyone’s donating their wardrobe to people without closets
Can a millionaire be homeless?
All of a sudden, we know the meaning of community
All of a sudden, the spirit of giving is in the air
The people kindle around the flame
Nothing, nothing like disaster to shock a heart into beating
The feel-good volunteers did reiki before they dropped off outfits for people with no events to attend
/
Look at us
Look at us
Look at us who took the breeze for granted
/
The ghosts of consequence stain the air
"In times of disaster what we NEED from each other is collective participation and competence. especially in the face of complete government neglect and leadership failure. [...]
What we need is pertinent information about immediate survival and possible helpful actions to take. In times of great catastrophic events we need to be better first responders for and with one another because this wasn’t random. Nothing ever truly is. Who do we CHOOSE to be in the face of adversity and destruction? If you can detest devastation elsewhere it should be a more readily available muscle one has to detest it everywhere. This is life. Real people are being affected. And if you want to truly shift the conditions of poor and oppressed people everywhere ORGANIZE folks. Bring people TOGETHER on VALUES. [...] Embody some heart.
Because anyone with common sense knows: nature doesn’t care about your tax brackets. It has its own funny way of playing out justice. And none of us are above reproach. We all have work to do. Get it done.”
Anyone with common sense knows: nature doesn’t care about your tax brackets. It has its own funny way of playing out justice. And none of us are above reproach.
- Aja Monet