Five separate wildfires now rage in the greater Los Angeles region, burning nearly 30,000 acres. The conflagrations have forced over 100,000 people to evacuate from the Los Angeles metro area, the second-largest metro area in the U.S. Tragically, as of Thursday, at least five people have died in the Eaton Fire, the second-largest of the wildfires.
Despite the unprecedented destruction—likely to be the most expensive disaster outside earthquakes in California’s history—the high winds that have fueled the blazes are forecasted to subside during the day, meaning firefighters will be able to use helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to dump water on the fires. However, the powerful Santa Ana winds are projected to regain strength Thursday evening into Friday morning. Currently, the Palisades Fire (the largest), the Eaton Fire, and the Sunset Fire (the smallest) are zero percent contained. Meanwhile, the Hurst Fire is just 10 percent contained, while the Lidia Fire is 40 percent contained.
While California Democrats have attempted to blame the wildfires on climate change, President-elect Donald J. Trump continues to reiterate his long-held stance that the state’s poor fire and water management policies are to blame. Throughout his first term in office, Trump repeatedly pointed to California’s inaction in clearing brush and the lack of controlled burns to remove dried plant matter and other materials that fuel wildfires.
In a post on Truth Social, President-elect Trump blasted Governor Newsom (D-CA) and President Joe Biden for their “gross incompetence and mismanagement,” which he blames for the fires. The President-elect also noted that “[t]he fires in Los Angeles may go down, in dollar amount, as the worst in the History of our Country.”
