Wildfires are raging across Los Angeles, turning the skies red, destroying homes and businesses, and blanketing the region with smoke and debris. The largest fire is in Pacific Palisades, which has grown to nearly 3,000 acres as of Wednesday and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
Three other major fires have engulfed Los Angeles County: The 2,000-acre Eaton Fire in Altadena, the 500-acre Hurst Fire north of San Fernando, and the 30-acre Woodley Fire near Sepulveda Basin. Several more small fires have also broken out throughout Southern California as powerful winds continue to sweep the region.
Devastating wildfires like these are becoming increasingly common, even in places that have not historically been at risk, with climate change exacerbating the conditions that fuel them.
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In February 2024, a heat wave persisted for days in the Chilean coastal city of Viña del Mar. The landscape, already affected by an El Niño-supercharged drought, was baked dry. So, when wildfires sparked, they ripped through densely populated and mountainous terrain. In just a few days, the fires — the deadliest in Chile’s history — burned 71,000 acres and killed at least 134 people.
Devastating wildfires like these are becoming increasingly common. Climate change is partly to blame — while research has found that both El Niño and climate change have contributed to intense wildfires in Chile in recent years, scientists disagree whether climate change had a statistically significant impact on these particular February fires. But the Chilean fires also underscore another ominous dynamic: Grasses, shrubs, and trees that humans have introduced to new ecosystems are increasing wildfire occurrence and frequency.
This story is the second feature in a Vox special project, Changing With Our Climate, a limited-run series exploring Indigenous solutions to extreme weather rooted in history — and the future.
Silas Yamamoto’s favorite part of his job is starting fires.
The Park Fire, a wildfire in Northern California spanning over 370,000 acres, has rapidly become the fifth largest in the state’s history, prompting evacuations in four counties.
The fire, which officials say was started by arson, has grown in the past week as the western US eyes what could be another potent wildfire season. A combination of strong vegetation growth due to heavy precipitation over the past few years, and high temperatures this summer could mean larger wildfires in the coming months.
It’s not enough to trust the senses to know when it’s a bad air day. Well before you can see or smell smoke, it can start wreaking havoc on the lungs.
That haze you can see and smell on a particularly polluted day is made of ozone and fine particulate matter.
