Why did LA’s wildfires explode out of control?

A combustible combination of factors laid the groundwork for disaster as the city struggled with catastrophic blazes

Gabrielle Canon, Lois Beckett

 Dr Edith de Guzman watched the flames of the Palisades fire rolling through the Santa Monica mountains out of the windows of her University of California, Los Angeles, classroom earlier this month. First, on Tuesday 7 January, flames surged toward the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, the affluent community overlooking the ocean from the canyons in west LA. Then overnight, they tore through parts of Altadena, a diverse town in the city’s east that had served as a refuge for Black Angelenos. By Wednesday evening, fires were burning in the Hollywood Hills and the San Fernando valley. Twenty-five people would lose their lives. Thousands had lost their homes. LA, and much of the US, was asking how wildfires could rage out of control in one of the world’s richest cities – a…

You're reading a preview of

Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 24 January 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.