The Los Angeles fire is among the most serious in the history of California: what the data says

In these hours the city of Los Angeles is engulfed in flames: in less than three days thousands of structures were destroyed, causing at least 10 victims and about 180 thousand displaced. The images are undoubtedly impressive and it is therefore natural to ask whether, on balance, this is the worst fire to ever hit California. In reality, as also confirmed by an interesting report by New York Timesthis is certainly one of the worst fires in terms of damage, especially for the metropolis of Los Angeles, but not particularly relevant in terms of extension.

If we talk about surfacein fact, the fires are rather contained and far from the terrible values ​​reached in 2020 byAugust Complex Firewhich is considered one of the largest ever recorded in California if not the largest ever with approx 4000km² burned (an area larger than the Aosta Valley and almost as large as Molise). For comparison, the fires in Los Angeles in recent days amount to just under 120km²more or less the extension of the city of Naples.

At the same time, however, it is good to keep in mind that the latter affected sparsely populated areas, destroying an overall hundred of buildingswhile today’s fires are devastating an entire city.

The most destructive fires occurred in California

To better understand the gravity of the situation, we can list the California’s four most destructive wildfires:

• Camp Fire (2018) – 18 thousand structures destroyed;
• Tubbs Fire (2017) – 5600 structures destroyed;
• Palisades Fire (fire in progress) – 5300 structures destroyed so far;
• Eaton Fire (fire in progress) – 5000 structures destroyed so far.

From here it is clear that among the top four positions, two are linked to currently active fires.

The Palisades Fire is the worst fire ever for the city of Los Angeles

Overall, therefore, the fire currently underway is probably the worse that ever hit the city of Los Angeles. Specifically, the fire would have destroyed approximately 47km² of territory in an area located approximately 30 km from Downtown Los Angeles. Among other things, it seems that the fire started right here on the afternoon of Tuesday January 7.

There are currently five affected areas of the city:

• Coastal town of Pacific Palisades (Palisades Fire);
• Forests north of Los Angeles (Eaton Fire);
• Some neighborhoods north of San Fernando (Hurst Fire);
• The region between Sierra Pelona and the San Gabriel Mountains (Lidia Fire);
• Hilly area west of Los Angeles (Kenneth Fire).

The situation is maximum alert and, unfortunately, it is likely that the above numbers are likely to rise in the coming days – even if accurate reports on the damage and causes of this disaster will only be available in several weeks. These are the words of Anthony Brown, Chief of the Fire Brigade:

There are not enough firefighters in LA County to tackle four separate fires of this size (…) especially given these sustained winds and low humidities.