Ellsworth

It's a horrible way to start the new year,
devastation, loss of life.
May those who passed rest in peace, and may those still in the storm be safe.

"What happened on Monday, Jan. 13 during the Eaton, Palisades firestorms in Southern California"
https://www.latimes.com/california/l...isades-updates

What really 'caused' the LA fires, and why similar incidents will likely happen in the future:

Climate change... time and experience made me believe in climate change (aka, incidents of weather extremes).
But for the moment I ignore that controversial topic and looked for other reasons.

I looked at the first graph in this article:
"2020 (mega) wildfire season"
https://sierranevada.ca.gov/2020-mega-wildfire-season/
The graph is showing number of acres burned, year over year since the 1920's.
I noticed that rate of acres burned annually in forest fires has increased in the last twenty years...

And then I considered how much forest land has been lost since the 1920s.
"The forest cover of the United States mapped"
https://vividmaps.com/us-forest-cover/

Then I stacked population on top of the above concepts
"Historical Population Change Data (1910-2020)"
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/t...data-text.html

Lastly I did the math on how increased recreational use of forests.
There has been a mammoth increase in recreational use of forest land, and where there are humans playing in the woods there is more fire.
Higher number of 'forest tourists' = increase fire in the forest.
"States where camping has grown the most in popularity"
https://www.outdoorsy.com/blog/most-...states-camping

Then about two months later I thought about arson (This article was added to on 3/5/2025, when I thought of arson, Covid-19, illegal drug use and mental health issues). When I looked into that topic, it seems there's been a long term trend of an increasing number of arson incidents in California.
"Arson arrests surge in California over past decade, Cal Fire reports."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/public-saf...ts/ar-BB1rcCYd

Regarding the spike in Arson in California. Here's a quote from the article above:
"From 2016 to 2019, the number of arson-related arrests each year remained under 100. However, in 2020, the number rose to 120, followed by 149 in 2021, and reached an all-time high of 162 in 2022. In 2023, there were 111 arrests."

Well, imho, the timing of the spike in arson cases points straight to Covid-19 as a primary reason.
Note correlation is not causation, but... increased boredom, increased drug usage, increase in people negatively affected by mental health issues, and an increase in bored people going to forest / recreational land.

"How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected outdoor recreation in America? "
https://www.psu.edu/news/health-and-...eation-america

"In rural communities, structural and community factors during the pandemic have increased anxiety, depression, and loneliness and altered drug use behaviors"
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publi...-drug-use.html

What to blame for the LA fires:

• Weather/Climate change, extreme weather trend
• Increasing number of acres burned per year in forest fires since the 1920s
• Drastically less forest land since the 1920s
• Massive population growth since the 1920s
• Substantially increased recreational use of forests in the last 20 years
• Increase in arson cases in California over the last 10 years
• Covid-19: increased use of illegal drugs and increased mental health issues -- and an extra big spike in arson (implications regarding future outbreaks of disease)

It's already looking like a complex problem, and surely there's a lot more to consider.

The above links were selected without a lot of scrutiny. Consider them 'representational' of the issue, or just 'concept introduction,' surely with margins of errors and biases.
Consider the concepts, find more specifics. Find your own sources.

____________________________________________

It seems that Firewise is now NFPA.
https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-r...ewise-usa-site

Firewise has great information about how to build wildfire resistant homes. I've been recommending them to students for decades.
If you're going to build a log home in the woods, consider adopting firewise strategies. And now, more and more, the strategies are being adopted by suburban areas.