Background
When Pacific Palisades resident Julie MacIntosh Levin left for work in the early hours of Jan. 7, the radio crackled with a forecast of high winds, stirring unease in her stomach. But once she arrived at work, her anxiety took over, and she quickly rushed home.
“As I drove into town, heading west, I could see the entire hillside right behind the Palisades village on fire,” MacIntosh Levin said reflecting on her drive home from work. “With the wind blowing toward the village and toward the bluff where I live, I got extremely choked up because it just seemed so different from times in the past.”
MacIntosh Levin said that after she arrived home, she and her husband began packing up to immediately leave, just as they had done in two previous evacuations.
“I had never actually seen the flames close by, and so the threat seemed so much more real,” MacIntosh Levin said. “As I was coming back on Sunset, I could already see the cars bumper-to-bumper as people were trying to get out of the Palisades.”
The day after she evacuated Palisades, MacIntosh Levin received a video confirming her fears that her house had burned in the fires.
According to the New York Times, although the Los Angeles Fire Department was aware of an increased fire risk due to the strong winds and sent out extra firefighting personnel before the fires broke out, there was too much wind and not enough resources on the ground to stop the fires from spreading. The Palisades and Eaton fires eventually burned a combined 37,728 acres of land, some of the most destruction in California history.
While the original cause of the Los Angeles fires remains unknown, many recent fires in California have been a result of energy infrastructure flaws, yielding multiple PG&E lawsuits from power lines above ground catching fire. The sheer number and scale of these fires have had devastating impacts on the people and communities that have burned.
Chris Field, a wildfire researcher and director of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, said fires are a natural occurrence in California’s chaparral biome with the region’s hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
“Wildfires have always been a part of the ecology of the West,” Field said. “We have ecosystems, whether they’re grasslands or shrub lands or forests, that really have evolved with fire, and, in many cases, where fire is important for healthy ecosystems.
However, Field said extreme fires are not supposed to occur as regularly as they have in recent years.
“These super high-intensity fires that we’ve seen in the last 10 years or so are very unusual in the history of California, and it may be overwhelming the ability of the plants and animals who reside in these places to cope with these conditions,” Field said.
A history of fire suppression in California, where forest management immediately puts out fires in any form to minimize damage, has led to the buildup of large amounts of dry vegetation, contributing to the recent intensity of the wildfires.
“This recent Los Angeles event is (a) super dry winter combined with these really bad winds that leads to the fuels being so dry and ready to burn, and the winds being so overwhelming that a fire crew can’t even stop the fire,” said Pete Stewart, a firefighter at the Sonoma Mayacamas Volunteer Fire Department.
AP Environmental Science teacher Nicole Loomis said winds blowing in opposite directions further fueled the fires and prevented first responders from quickly putting them out.
“Normally, wind blows from west to east, so from the ocean onto the land, but when they flip, you get really dry, hot winds coming from the Mojave Desert blowing toward the ocean,” Loomis said. “That is really going to increase the risk and also the magnitude of fires because you have no moisture. If any spark happens in that situation, it’s going to be a disaster.”
Disaster and Divisions
By most accounts, the morning of Jan. 7 seemed unremarkable, other than the strong winds that began to pick up as the day went on. The day before the fires started, the National Weather service alerted residents of a “life threatening and destructive windstorm.” The first sighting of the Palisades fire occurred at 10:20 a.m. By noon, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency as the fire grew to 1,200 acres.
At 6:18 p.m., fueled by winds of up to 100 mph, the Eaton Fire had reached the town of Altadena. There, the fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures, including 6,000 homes. The rapid spread made evacuation difficult, according to Altadena Treasurer Milissa Marona.
“There was a wall of fire coming to my house,” Marona said. “Driving out, there was a huge tree that had blocked the road out of our neighborhood … There was a tornado, a fire, coming at us … I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West as I tried to drive. It was unreal.”
When Marona returned to the area after evacuating, parts of the town were completely gone.
“The northwestern part of the city was hit very hard,” Marona said. “Street after street after street — just decimated. I went back on a view of the city with the sheriffs, and I was with one of my fellow council members as she saw her house for the first time. As we stood and looked up to the mountain, all you could see was fireplaces all the way up and nothing else, just one tree that maybe remains and the rest half-burned to the ground.”
Many Altadena residents, who are primarily working-class, owned properties that have grown in value over the years. Now, much of that wealth is gone. Marona said she worries a lack of compensation from insurance will force those who lost their homes out of the community, without many options for other places to go.
“Lower-income people who maybe had a $1 million property are being offered $750,000,” Marona said. “That’s more money than they’ve ever seen in their lifetime. But … what are they going to do with that in Southern California? Nothing. You can’t buy a house for that.”
Following the fires, major insurance companies have been refusing to insure homes and companies still willing to insure homes have significantly raised prices, leaving lower-income and undocumented residents particularly vulnerable.
“I’m sure lots of people checked on the status of their insurance,” Fox said. “I have heard stories of some insurance companies canceling people’s insurance shortly before the storm. A lot of people have had to go to California Insurance, the state insurer of last resort, and they generally have less attractive coverage.”
Field said many insurance companies are pulling out of the state due to California’s insurance protection laws, which make the cost to cover the risk of wildfires significantly higher.
“California tries to be proactive socially and has for many years been trying to protect people from unfair increases in their insurance premiums,” Field said. “They set very strict rules on how much premiums could increase … What’s happened in the past and what we’ve seen in the last few years is that … (insurance companies) don’t charge nearly enough premium to cover the risk — that’s why insurance companies have been leaving the state.”
Another complication was that some fire hydrants ran dry, prompting a surge of misinformation claiming the mismanagement of the water system caused the water shortage. Officials and experts have said the slow flow was due to low water pressure caused by the vast amount of water that was being used to fight the fires. However, President Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that shortages are happening due to water being held in the north that state officials aren’t sending to Los Angeles.
Marona said the politicization of the fire response by Trump creates unwanted distractions for victims.
“All this talk about the fire hydrants — a fire hydrant only can handle (a few) houses,” Marona said. “You don’t fight forest fires with fire hydrants. Also, our reservoirs of water burned to the ground, pumps and everything, and the electricity was turned off. If you want to pump the water, you’ve got to have the electricity on.”
According to ABC News, Trump has perpetuated much of the online misinformation and used it to criticize California leadership and threaten to withhold aid. Brian Fies, who lost his home in the Tubbs Fire of 2017, said this politicization has been deeply frustrating.
“This whole idea of ‘We’re not going to help California unless California adopts our policies’ is just outrageous to me,” Fies said.
Nevertheless, Mark VonAppen, a retired Palo Alto fire captain, said emergency responders commit to serving their communities and try to remain unaffected by political conflict.
“Any time that firefighters or police officers are working, there’s good people that are out there trying to do good work and help people, and they try to stay out of politics as much as they can,” VonAppen said.
Community Response
The 2017 Tubbs Fire, which was the most destructive fire in California at the time, destroyed much of Sonoma and Napa Counties, burning over 36,000 acres of land and killing 22 people.
“My wife and I got up and evacuated about 1:30 in the morning, and we think our whole neighborhood of 200 houses was gone by a half hour later — just gone,” Fies said. “And I walked back the next day. It was seven in the morning and the fire was already out. It had burned through so fast and so intensely, and then was over.”
Craig Fox, a Santa Monica victim of the Palisades fire and professor at the University of California Los Angeles, said he had stressfully evacuated both his family and another.
“I was teaching a class Wednesday night, and I didn’t know if my house was gonna even survive the class,” Fox said. “There had been rumors that there was a fire less than a half block from my house. Turns out it was an electrical fire that was put out quickly. But when you hear there’s a fire, you assume it’s from an ember and that your house is going to go.”
Fies said he too had an emotional reaction as his house burned down.
“One of the most well-meaning and cruelest things people say is, ‘Well, y’all got out alive. It’s just stuff,’” Fies said. “And in response to that, I always say, ‘I used to have a little Polaroid picture of my twin daughters in utero, an ultrasound of my twin daughters, their little heads right next to each other. I used to have that, but I will never see that again.’”
Fies said the recovery process after the fire was also draining.
“Our entire neighborhood was destroyed,” Fies said “We had a little time to put some things in the car, but we lost almost everything. It was just a matter of getting up every day and making a checklist of what we have to get done.”
As a doctor, Brooke Vezino, another Sonoma County resident affected by the 2017 fires, said hospital and pharmacy care soon became overcrowded.
“Because of my profession (as) the family doctor at a federally qualified health center, we were immediately a first responder crew, (which) meant that we were waiting to get people their medications because everybody lost their medication,” Vezino said. “Oftentimes communication lines were overloaded to get people medical care.”
Vezino also said the 2017 fires left lasting anxiety in the community.
“There’s been a lot of acute trauma and just kind of shock going on,” Vezino said. “In addition to the folks who were at the core of the loss, there was vicarious trauma to everybody else around them as well… The folks who lost their houses are now watching that same thing happen again in LA, and it’s just bringing up a lot of anxiety and fear—appropriately so—but it’s hard to remember that you’re safe.”
Despite the hardships, Fies said he appreciated how his local community came together to support one another in the aftermath of the disaster.
“Right after the fires, there was a real spirit of strong community,” Fies said. “When somebody at a restaurant found out you’d been in the fire, they gave you a free lunch. Somebody at the hardware store found out we’d been at the fire, so they upgraded my wheelbarrow … Everybody wanted to help, and everybody came together.”
Gian Ngo-Willis, a highschooler in LA who was evacuated due to the Altadena fire, said he saw a similar response within Altadena as the Eaton fire started to be contained.
“Because we don’t have gas, we can’t cook — we either have to eat out or go somewhere else for a meal,” Ngo-Willis said. “There’s a restaurant right by our house called HomeState giving out free meals, free water, free food. People are … walking up and down our street, handing out food, handing out water. We got a bunch of supplies dropped off to us like flashlights, extra masks, extra meals.”
Historically a Black enclave for families fleeing the Jim Crow South in the 1920s and ‘30s, Marona said Altadena has a rich, vibrant history, making the loss so much more devastating.
“I love our community, ” Marona said. “I didn’t think that was going to bring me to tears, two weeks later. I am so hopeful (the fire) doesn’t change the character of Altadena. Because of white flight in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Altadena had a lot of middle-class and African American families that moved in. There’s also a large number of Hispanic families that live in Altadena. I love the fact that my kids grew up in Altadena.”
Overall, Ngo-Willis said the recovery initiatives reinforced his bond with his community.
“People can be so cutthroat … in regular life, but this is a really nice reminder people are totally still there for you,” Ngo-Willis said. “There’s always an outlet if you need one, especially in a time of need like this.”
Fire Prevention, Community Resilience, and Recovery
Fire suppression has existed in California since the 1850s, when the State Legislature outlawed the intentional setting of fires. By 1911, the Weeks Act made “cultural uses of fire” illegal, which put an end to the traditional Native American practice of controlled burns. In the mid-1940s, the Smokey Bear campaign was launched to inform the public to exercise caution with fire outdoors to prevent wildfires from erupting, as many firefighters were in the military fighting during World War II.
However, ecologists argue that the history of anti-fire messaging has caused the buildup of dry wood and material that fuels fires. Combined with drought and high intensity winds, this has created dangerous conditions for people living in fire-prone areas.
In response, California has adopted new policies that increase the use of controlled burning to reduce the amount of fuel that has accumulated over the years. The state has also put forward fire prevention regulations to protect homes from burning.
“The new standard that Cal Fire is advocating is five feet around the house with no vegetation at all — they call that Zone Zero,” Field said. “It sounds like, ‘How could 5 feet make a difference?’ but it’s turned out to be really effective.”
VonAppen said preventative preparation is essential, regardless of the fire risk of a home.
“Make sure that you know you’re ready to go,” VonAppen said. “If something does happen, heed the warnings. If the local authorities tell you that you need to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Having some things ready to go at all times — a ‘go bag’ is extremely important.”
For people living outside of directly affected areas, Marona said there are ways to help.
“(Altadena residents) have gotten the basics right now, but they want to go out and be able to — just like you would want to — go get what they want to wear and feel comfortable,” Marona said.“(Altadena) Rotary is our trusted source for who we would like the money to go to. You could donate by Venmo or check.”
Although the media and politics can sometimes add unnecessary complications, Fies said the spotlight can help support communities in long-term recovery.
“When you’re the fire survivor, it doesn’t really matter much because you’re not paying any attention to the media.” Fies said. “You’re too busy. You don’t have a TV anymore, so you’re really not seeing it. You’re in the middle of the story, but you don’t really know what the story is. Somebody on the other side of the country knows more about what’s going on than you do because you’re just in the middle of it, and it’s just a whirlwind … I have friends who live in North Carolina who just went through those floods there a month ago. They’re forgotten about because there’s always something bright and shiny and new for the media to chase. But those people are still digging out of mud and trying to rebuild schools and trying to, you know, rebuild lives, as will the people in Southern California a month from now, when those cameras go away.”
