Unpacking the Factors That Fuel Wildfires in Los Angeles

More than a week after the wildfires in Los Angeles, officials and experts are gaining a clearer understanding of the various factors that contributed to the event’s severity.

NBC News reports that the LA blaze is the worst-case scenario that experts fear. It resulted from a combination of factors: suburban sprawl in the fire hazard area, fierce Santa Ana winds, dry conditions, and the limits of firefighting.

The wildfire in Los Angeles in early January 2025 is now regarded as the costliest wildfire disaster in modern U.S. history. AccuWeather estimates that these fires’ total damage and economic loss range between $250 billion and $270 billion. The losses from these fires surpassed those from the very active 2020 wildfire season and the Maui wildfires in 2023 and even outstripped the damages from Hurricane Helene in 2024.

As of writing, the LA fires have claimed 27 lives, destroyed more than 12,300 structures and forced thousands to evacuate.

Dry fire hydrants

As wildfires rage in California, dry fire hydrants have created a nightmare for emergency officials and homeowners. Additionally, high winds have prevented helicopters from dropping water and fire retardant. The impact of the lack of fire hydrants would not have been as severe if helicopters or planes had been able to fly overhead and provide firefighting support.

The devastating impact of the fire has led to strong criticism on social media, aimed at California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Many people blame their policies for reducing water supply and firefighting resources, which they believe have contributed to this tragic loss.

These policies include Governor Newsom’s opposition to a 2020 presidential memorandum from then-President Trump, which aimed to divert water from Northern California to Southern California. Newsom said the diversion would threaten “highly imperilled fish species close to extinction.”

Ultimately, California’s attorney general blocked the measure, citing potential harm to endangered species.

Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, stated in a BBC interview that Newsom’s actions at that time would not have made a difference in the current firefighting efforts in Los Angeles.

“While efforts to save Delta smelt, along with salmon and steelhead trout, do reduce the amount of water moved from Northern California by the state at certain times, it has no bearing on the current availability of water for firefighting,” he explained.

The fire began on January 7, fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds. By the following day, fire hydrants had run dry, and by Thursday night, firefighters had stopped using them altogether. Additionally, a large reservoir in Pacific Palisades, the Santa Ynez Reservoir, was closed for maintenance and empty when the fire broke out.

Officials from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) indicated that the Santa Ynez Reservoir might have increased the water supply if it had been operational. However, they were uncertain about the reservoir’s ultimate impact on the firefighting efforts.

Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass faced backlash over a $17.6 million cut to the city’s latest fire department budget. LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told CNN that this budget reduction had “severely” affected the department’s ability to respond to the disaster.

By Friday, three days after the fire started, Governor Newsom had called for an independent investigation into the issue of dry hydrants.

The scale of the wildfires exceeds LA’s water system capacity

According to The Independent, Los Angeles relies on a complex municipal water system network that draws from 200 different utilities. This system manages lower-level urban fires, not the large-scale wildfires that can descend from the surrounding hills.

Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, indicates that the Palisades water system has been stretched to its limits due to the immense water demand. The fires’ blackouts have disrupted the pumping system, making it difficult to deliver water to hydrants. At the same time, the simultaneous use of all the hydrants has resulted in a drop in water pressure.

Prescribed burns halted

Prescribed or controlled burning is a forest management tool used to minimise wildfire risk. This ancient practice, employed by Native American tribes, helps reduce fire hazards by thinning trees and brush while creating fuel breaks. These strategically placed clearings can lessen the intensity of wildfires and slow their spread.

However, prescribed burns have recently faced challenges, particularly following a controlled burn in New Mexico that inadvertently triggered two major blazes in 2022, the largest wildfires in the state’s history. Furthermore, the high insurance costs—up to $100,000 per year—have discouraged smaller organisations from conducting these burns.

In October 2024, the U.S. Forest Service paused prescribed burning “for the foreseeable future.” Officials stated that this decision aims to preserve staff and equipment for firefighting efforts when necessary. KQED reports that this announcement comes during a critical fall window for controlled burns, which is vital for removing fuel and protecting homes from future wildfires. This raises concerns about increased long-term fire risks.

However, the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force announced that the U.S. Forest Service successfully treated over 325,000 acres of California’s national forests for forest health during the 2024 fiscal year, including more than 72,000 acres through prescribed burning alone (U.S. Forest Service, 2024).

New thinking is needed

Faith Kearns, a wildfire and water expert at Arizona State University, noted that understanding the impacts of wildfires on water systems is a relatively new area of research. “Everybody has known that there was the potential for something like this to happen because we’ve seen it on a smaller scale,” Kearns said.

She believes several issues contributed to the overall lack of water where and when needed. “It was like a worst-case scenario, but I think we should be planning for those worst-case scenarios,” she said. “You can’t predict everything, but also, I do think this is where we’re headed.”

“We are looking at a situation that is just completely not part of any domestic water system design,” Marty Adams, a former general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told The New York Times. “If this is going to be a norm, there will have to be some new thinking about how systems are designed.”

Improving wildfire response and forest management for the future

In response to the wildfire tragedies that Los Angeles has experienced, Governor Newsom outlined plans to protect California from the increasing risk of wildfires exacerbated by climate change, which brings hotter and drier conditions. His plan includes boosting resources for wildfire response and forest resilience, with an additional investment of $1.5 billion over the next several years on top of the previous $2.5 billion funding.

This initiative will involve recruiting more firefighters, enhancing firefighting strategies, accelerating fuel reduction and prescribed burns, tracking wildfire prevention efforts, and investing in cutting-edge drone technology to implement prescribed burns and offer real-time wildfire assessments for better-prescribed burns and real-time wildfire assessments and containment (Here’s how California, 2025).