- 29,000 acres destroyed
- 57 billion in economic damage
- 180,000 people evacuated
1. The fire is the size of the entire city of San Francisco.
Covering ~45 square miles or 29,000 acres.
2. The estimated damages are upwards of $57B.
It is estimated to be the 7th most expensive natural disaster in US history.
3. The latest response deployment numbers from Governor Newsom:
- 🧑🚒 7,500+ Personnel
- 🚒 1,162 Fire Engines
- 💧 23 Water Tenders
- ✈️ 6 Air Tankers
- 🚁 31 Helicopters
- 🚜 53 Dozers
4. 180,000 people have been ordered to evacuate.
200,000 are under evacuation warnings.
With 7 confirmed deaths, which is likely to increase.
5. There are 16 investigators looking into the cause of the fire.
At least 23 people have been arrested for looting homes in evacuation zones.
“Some 95% of wildfires in LA are started by humans.”- Fire Chief David Acuna.
6. The fire will lead to air pollution that will remain for weeks.
Breathing this smoke can kill you.
It has been shown to increase risk of lung disease, heart disease & dementia.
7. Many insurance companies dropped people’s fire protection last summer.
State Farm announced in March 2024 that it would not renew 72,000 property insurance policies.
Approximately 1,600 of those homes were in the Pacific Palisades.
8. So why did this fire happen?
A combination of factors:
- 1. Dry Weather
- 2. Fast Winds
- 3. Water Shortage
- 4. Policy Failure
9. LA has experienced little rain over the past few months.
With humidity levels dropping below 5%.
Santa Ana winds descended with speeds upwards of 70 mph.
When you combine dry vegetation and strong winds, you get massive fires.
10. The LA water system is not designed for large fires.
It was primarily designed for urban use (~524 million gallons per day)
The size of these fires meant we needed to quadruple that usage during peak hours (~2 billion gallons)
11. Some fire hydrants stopped working because local water tanks hold only about ~1 million gallons.
Water also needed to be pumped upwards to places like the Pacific Palisades.
12. Firefighters have known about this risk for years.
“If the wind hits the wrong way, it’s just gonna burn straight through LA, and there is nothing we can do about it.”
Overall, there will be a massive investigation at the end of all this, plenty of blame to go all around.
