photo credit: Kenzie Carder
The beautiful city of Los Angeles has been taken by storm with massive wildfires forcing people to evacuate the city. The city’s newest fire, the Hughes fire, ignited Jan. 22, and left many civilians in the area in distress, according to bbc.com.
The Golden State is familiar with the tragedy of these fires unfortunately. In 2020, California suffered 8,648 wildfires and the burning of 4,304,379 million acres of land, according to fire.ca.gov.
“The current theories, though still under investigation, is that a small fire from a fireworks celebration on New Years was reignited by the Santa Anas to start the Palisades Fire. And equipment owned by the electric utility company may have caused the Eaton fire. But people have been lighting fireworks on New Years in LA for decades, and high power electric lines have also been used for decades,” Long-time LA Resident Eric Karkheck said. Investigators are still trying to uncover the origin of the fires. However, the likelihood of these fires being human caused is high because between 1992 and 2012, 84 percent of all U.S. wildfires were caused by man according to scientificamerican.com. Many residents of the Golden State have been unfortunately forced to evacuate due to the threat of these fires,
“I know a couple of people who had to evacuate their homes for about a week. One lives in Brentwood, and one in Pasadena,” Karkheck said.
Not all parts of California have been left in unlivable conditions though. Karkheck, living in Central Los Angeles, has not been in a position where he was forced to evacuate. Wildfires, although obviously chaotic and unpredictable, typically remain within wildlands according to climatehubs.usda.gov. What makes these wildfires such as the Palisades Fire so odd though is that they are quite close to the city.
“I first learned of the fires as I was biking to work. I saw the huge smoke plumes rising up. It was quite a scary sight! I didn’t think it was a wildfire though, because it was so close to the city, and all of the wildfires in recent memory had been further away,” Karkheck said.
The news of the LA fires has become widespread with many individuals from out of state also worrying for the residents of California.
“I’m sorry (that they have to deal with the fires) and if I could do anything to help I would,” Sophomore Mubi Kapasi said.
The catastrophic situation that California has been left in is gut-wrenching. Investigators and law enforcement are doing everything they can however to stop them and restore California to the vacation ideal paradise that it is.
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