Los Angeles faces several more days of hell before the wildfires that are still raging can be brought under control, experts warn.
A week after the Palisades Fire broke out only 17% of it has been contained and it is still burning about 24,000 acres — an area about half the size of Brooklyn, New York.
More than 40,000 acres of southern California have been set ablaze in recent weeks.
The Auto Fire burning in Ventura on Jan. 14, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA
Homes burned down by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 2025. REUTERS/David Ryder
The biggest challenge remains the hot, dry wind — which picked up early this week, though not as badly as forecasters had feared.
“We’re already seeing some improvement [in the weather]. That has led in large part to why you see such gains in the containment of those fires. You really need to have those winds not working against you,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Heather Zehr told The Post.
“Last week, those winds were so strong that they were out-racing the firefighters,” she said.
Fortunately, the bellowing breeze has just about blown itself out, and Zehr expects fire crews to make big gains in containing and knocking down the fire this weekend.
A firefighter spraying water at a home burned by the Palisades Fire on Jan. 13, 2025. AP Photo/John Locher
Firefighters and a cadaver dog searching through the remains of a beachfront home in Malibu on Jan. 14, 2025. Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images
“Once the winds calm down they should pretty quickly be able to get control,” Zehr said.
The direction of the wind also matters: So far, the Santa Ana winds have brought dry, desert air, but if the winds change direction, they’ll bring moist air from the sea.
In addition to the wind, a delay in the rainy season helped spark the blazes. This has been the second-driest winter on record for Los Angeles, which has only seen 0.16 inches of rain.
Stay up to date with the NYP’s coverage of the terrifying LA-area fires
But Angelenos can’t expect those rains to return anytime soon.
“Normally the rains come around this time, but there has been a very slow start to this. There will be very minimal chances between now and the end of January, ” Zehr said.
Jacob Weigler, Wildlife Coordinator for Central Pierce County, Washington, said although it’s tricky to predict when the fires will be contained in a large urban sprawl like LA, he said he expects it to be “soon.”
A plan dropping fire retardant on a neighborhood in Topanga on Jan. 10, 2025. Getty Images
“Sooner rather than later. They have overwhelming force down there. The Palisades Fire has over 5,000 people fighting it,” he told The Post.
On top of that, he said authorities might be reluctant to declare a fire “contained” even after it has stopped spreading.
One way to tell if a fire is functionally – if not officially – contained is to keep an eye on the acreage reports.
“If the acreage doesn’t go up, it hasn’t gotten any bigger,” Weigler said.
A California Conservation Corps fire crew clearing bush from the side of the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica on Jan. 14, 2025. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The official acreage tallies for the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst fires have not budged since Sunday, CalFire reports — which according to Weigler’s assertion means they’ve remained the same size.
However, while the fires should be contained soon, fully putting them out could take more time.
“The overall size of that fire is not tremendously large. We have fires larger than that all the time. But the impact and location is extreme. We could see a month of forces committed there, ensuring that it’s fully extinguished,” he said.
LA wildfires timeline
Jan. 1:
Midnight: Firefighters respond to the Lochman Fire northeast of Pacific Palisades.
4:46 a.m.: Los Angeles Fire Department contains the fire after it burned 8 acres.
The Lachman Fire seen at 1:50 a.m. northeast of Pacific Palisades on Jan. 1, 2025. Alert California
Jan. 7:
10:15 a.m.: Pacific Palisades homeowner resident Michel Valentine sees smoke near the site of the Lochman Fire. His wife calls 911 to report the fire, according to the Washington Post.
10:33 a.m.: Firefighters report seeing smoke and say they must divert resources from the two other fires, according to radio traffic.
This aerial satellite image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission depicts the smoke billowing from the fire near Santa Monica at 10:36 local time on Tuesday. ESA
10:45 a.m.: Valentine calls 911 again, but gets a busy signal, according to the Washington Post.
10:48 a.m.: Firefighters warn in radio traffic that the fire is moving with the wind and has the potential to spread to 10 acres.
Smoke at the start of the Palisades fire from 10:24 to 10:46 a.m. on Jan. 7. Alert California
11 a.m.: The first firefighters arrive at the blaze.
11:28 a.m.: The fire grows to 200 acres, according to radio traffic.
11:30 to 11:45: Valentine sees the first fire trucks arrive in his own neighborhood.
Smoke from the Palisades Fire seen over the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica on Jan. 7, 2025. AP Photo/Eugene Garcia
12:20 p.m.: The first evacuation orders go into effect in the Pacific Palisades
1:40 p.m.: LA Fire Department reports the blaze is now around 300 acres and growing.
7:30 p.m.: Fire grows to nearly 3,000 acres
By 9:00 p.m.: The fire reaches the center of Pacific Palisades
Fuel can smolder underground long after a wildfire has stopped visibly burning. Firefighters could spend weeks stabbing the ground with heat sensors – and that’s on top of inspecting damaged buildings and searching for dead bodies.
But for now, legions of firefighters are focusing on keeping the still-raging inferno from growing, which can be much more difficult in a city than a forest.
Home damaged in Pacific Palisades seen from Sunset Boulevard on Jan. 14, 2025. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Firefighters can’t just destroy sections of buildings and infrastructure to deprive a fire of fuel, as they do with trees and undergrowth in a forest wildfire.
Instead, they try to form a perimeter using existing barriers like roads, rivers, and drainage canals (firefighters call these “anchor points”) and bolster them as best they can.
As for the houses and storefronts blazing within that perimeter: They’re on their own.
“There are not enough humans, not enough fire engines, to grab a hose and do what the general public would think of: squirt water at it and put it out, Weigler said.
“The long game is to let the fuels consume themselves. Confine it and let it burn out.”
“Once you have 10 homes burning in a community of 100, you’re not extinguishing those 10 homes, you’re trying to protect the other 90.”
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