5 looming questions about California's devastating wildfires

An infernal barrage of blazes continues to ravage the Los Angeles metropolitan region, where the death toll has now risen to at least 10 individuals.

While authorities have yet to identify precise causes for most of the fires, the Los Angeles Police Department apprehended one individual accused of sparking one of them. But what has become abundantly clear is that a mix of copious, dried-out vegetation and windy weather has fueled the flames and shocked an overtaxed water system.

Firefighters on Friday were hoping for a brief respite heading into the weekend, with Santa Ana winds expected to calm down temporarily — but then pick up again Sunday.

A firefighter sets a backburn in front of the advancing Kenneth Fire in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 9, 2025. (Ethan Swope, Associated Press)

Which fires are still burning, and are they at all contained?

As of midday Friday, five fires spanning 10 or more acres were burning, although many smaller blazes also dotted the broader Los Angeles metropolitan area.

• The Palisades Fire, which has decimated the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, began Tuesday morning and has now expanded to 20,438 acres. The blaze is only 8 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
  
• The Eaton Fire, burning north of Pasadena, began Tuesday night and has ballooned to 13,956 acres, with only 3 percent containment.
  
• The 771-acre Hurst Fire, ablaze in the San Fernando Valley, also started Tuesday night and is now at 37 percent containment.
  
• The Lidia Fire, which broke out Wednesday in the Angeles National Forest, is 75 percent contained and has burned 395 acres.
  
• A fifth largescale blaze, the Kenneth Fire, began Thursday near the 101 Freeway in the West Hills region and has expanded to 1,000 acres and is 35 percent contained. LA police are currently investigating possible arson related to this fire and have arrested one suspect.

The devastation of the Palisades Fire is seen in the early morning in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 10, 2025. (John Locher, Associated Press)

Is the air breathable in the LA region?

Potential direct smoke impact from several of the big blazes are causing unhealthy air quality across Los Angeles County, according to the county Department of Public Health. The smoke is expected to most severely affect the northwest coastal region of the county, including Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena and San Fernando, the agency reported.

“Smoke and ash can harm everyone, even those who are healthy," Muntu Davis, health officer for Los Angeles County, said in a statement, adding that higher-risk individuals include those who are pregnant, older adults, children and individuals with heart or lung conditions or weakened immune systems.

Public health officials urged residents to use air conditioners that recirculate air and filter out hazardous particles, while equipping themselves with N95 or P100 masks if they must go outside in smoky conditions.

The federal government's AirNow air quality map makes the extent of the air pollution readily apparent, with much of the Los Angeles region receiving labels ranging from "unhealthy for sensitive groups" to "hazardous." 

While the most dangerous air quality levels were those adjacent to actively burning blazes — with stations in those areas indicating "hazardous" or "very unhealthy" pollutant concentrations — even regions farther from the fires, like Long Beach, showed "unhealthy" pollution levels.

Garrett Yost gathers water from a pool while surveying his neighbors' fire-ravaged properties in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 10, 2025. (John Locher, Associated Press)

What about the water?

As far as water quality is concerned, the public health department said it was issuing an Ocean Water Advisory "out of an abundance of caution," as wildfire debris may run off into the ocean, beach sand, rivers, creeks and ponds.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has issued boil water notices in certain neighborhoods, instructing residents to use boiled tap water or bottled water to avoid stomach or intestinal illnesses.

Another water-related question wreaking havoc across the region has been the dearth in sufficient supplies to quench the flames. President-elect Trump repeatedly blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for water unavailability, after efforts to fill massive storage tanks left fire hydrants high and dry.

Trump accused Newsom of blocking efforts to pump more water from Northern California to the Los Angeles region — an accusation the governor’s team decried as “pure fiction.” Meanwhile, experts have maintained that moving more water in this manner would be impractical from an infrastructural standpoint, as well as wholly unnecessary.

Water is dropped by helicopter on the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (Etienne Laurent, Associated Press)

Did climate change play a role?

Climatologists have long cautioned against definitively attributing any one event to climate change. However, climate change, driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions, creates circumstances that make fires like those in California far more likely and far harder to fight.

In recent years, California experienced what Daniel Swain — a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles — termed a “hydroclimate whiplash.” Leading into the 2020s, the state had experienced years of drought conditions but saw record precipitation in late 2022 and 2023, largely in the form of “atmospheric river” weather events.

This precipitation spurred above-average vegetation growth — and when last summer saw historically high heat, an unusually dry beginning to the rainy season compounded the effect to leave large amounts of grass and brush vulnerable to fire. The downtown Los Angeles area, which has typically received about 4.5 inches of rain by this point in the season, has received less than an inch since October.

Drought conditions have also resulted in less water available to fight the fires and fewer opportunities to conduct the controlled burns necessary to keep dry brush under control.

Flames rise as the Palisades Fire advances on homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (Ethan Swope, Associated Press)

Will the fires impact property insurance?

Total damage from the fires could be as much as $135 billion to $150 billion, according to an updated preliminary analysis from AccuWeather's Global Weather Center on Thursday. Those numbers were more than twice the estimates issued the day before, at which time they were between $52 billion and $57 billion.

"Tragically, lives have been changed forever in just a matter of minutes," Jonathan Porter, AccuWeather chief meteorologist, said in a statement. "The recovery process will be extremely expensive and emotionally challenging in the months and years to come."

The analysts anticipated that the devastation would only worsen California's existing insurance crisis — leading more companies to drop and refuse to issue new policies and causing premiums in high-risk areas to surge.

“Families and businesses need to be able to purchase insurance at a reasonable rate, but insurance companies cannot continue absorbing huge loss after huge loss," Porter said. "This is a major issue that society needs to actually address in a world of increasing extreme weather impacts.”

Meanwhile, California's insurance commissioner on Thursday issued a one-year moratorium on policy cancellations and nonrenewals in the areas impacted by the blazes. The mandate prohibits companies from eliminating or refusing to renew policies for properties located within or adjacent to the fire perimeters.