The start of the new year has not been going well so far for the city of Los Angeles, California and its many people. Why? Wildfires, and lots of them. It all began on January 7, 2025. Numerous wildfires have been damaging and negatively affecting Los Angeles and numerous other surrounding areas. Fueled by numerous powerful winds and other dry conditions, likely caused by the negative effects of the ongoing climate change crisis, these series of wildfires. So far, these fires have claimed the lives of 27 people. Some of these wildfires have been effectively contained. However, some of them are still active. What has led up to these fires happening? 

The main causes for fires are Vegetation, which primarily includes grasses and shrubs, or chaparral — as well as other materials — was highly flammable, and ready to ignite with any spark. “In modern history, it has not been this dry this late in the ostensible rainy season,” University of California, Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain, who has been closely following the L.A. wildfires, told the New Yorker. Even if a small amount of rain had fallen, he added, there wouldn’t have been the “explosively dry vegetation.”The already parched conditions were worsened by unusually fierce weather.

“When it’s that dry, wind has ultimate power,” John Abatzoglou, a climatology professor at the University of California, Merced, told Cal Matters.

It’s typical for California to have strong, dry winds this time of year, but these winds were particularly powerful, with gusts reaching up to 100 miles per hour. “One of the things that everybody wants to know is how did these fires start. And until the team of investigators concludes their investigations, we don’t really know,” U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore told then-president Joe Biden at a briefing on the federal response to the fires on Jan. 14, answering a question about the spread of false claims. “And so, there’s a lot of speculation out there about how these fires started, but there’s no proof to validate a lot of these rumors that we’re hearing.”

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Response Team was tasked with investigating the origin of the Palisades fire, which is the largest fire so far. It started the morning of January 7, and as of January 17, it is only  27% contained and has burned over 23,000 acres of land.

We have had a very divided government response in terms of the disaster. Former U.S. President Joe Biden responded to the wildfire disasters by conducting FEMA operations across federal agencies to help state, local, and territorial partners respond to the disasters. He also issued $770  to each LA resident affected by the wildfire. Following the beginning of his second term, President Trump has begun several visits to Los Angeles and North Carolina to conduct rebuilding operations in those states. There is a lot to do, and the work has only begun.