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A Scientific Look Into The Recent Los Angeles Fires

A severe drought and the Santa Ana winds caused multiple fires to spread across Southern California region
A Scientific Look Into The Recent Los Angeles Fires
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The recent southern California wildfires have raised many concerns. From the destruction of homes to poor air quality, the long lasting effects of the wildfires currently remain uncertain.

The initial fire began in the Palisades Tuesday, Jan. 7, springing up as a small cloud of smoke. Later that night, the Eaton fire erupted in Altadena. 

As hours slowly passed and days continued, 40,000 acres of land was burned throughout southern California. 

Stephanie Pincetl is a professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and runs a research center called the California Center for Sustainable Communities. Pincetl believes that human ignition played a large role in the fires. Human ignition is an all-encompassing term that includes dry vegetation, fireworks, and electrical poles.

“We have to remember that the first thing that creates a wildfire is almost always human 

ignition,” she said. “We’re seeing a cycle of burning that is much more intense because of human ignition.” 

Although human ignition plays a significant role in starting wildfires, the infamous Santa Ana winds also influenced the escalation of the fires. Various types of dry vegetation, like the dry brush chaparral, were detrimentally affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires. 

“The winds were over 100 miles an hour, and you can’t fight that kind of fire with air support,” Pincetl said. “It’s too windy for helicopters and airplanes to come in and drop payloads of fire retardant or water because of the speed and velocity of the wind.” 

Because of the extreme conditions the wildfires were difficult to contain and manage, “it was just not possible to control,” Pincetl said.

With the fires’ close proximity to Los Angeles, the air quality worsened. Numerous types of unnatural metals, smoke, and chemicals were emitted into the air.  

This bad air quality can lead to long term effects such as heart attacks, lung damage, and respiratory issues for children, elders, and people with asthma. 

Human ignition and lack of care for natural resources and lands are two leading causes of environmental issues, according to science teacher Esmeralda Lopez.

“If we are not properly caring for the hiking trails or the forests and we allow all this dry brush to accumulate, then when there is a fire it’s going to feed it much more,” she said. 

There are three different components that start and feed wildfires. 

“They need to have fuel, oxygen, and a source of ignition,” Lopez said. 

Southern California’s historic drought period was another important factor that impacted the way these fires acted. 

This drought played a major role in the dry vegetation scattered across the mountains. Very densely packed and dry vegetation served as fuel for this fire. 

Lopez said that the chaparral biome in southern California occasionally requires hot temperatures in order for habitats to flourish. 

“Sometimes it’s really necessary for desert areas to experience high intensity temperature events,” she said. Sometimes fires are also prescribed in order to help seeds germinate or to serve as fertilizer for the soil, plants, and animals. 

However, due to these severe fires our ecosystems will struggle with regeneration. 

“We’re seeing a cycle of burning in California that is too frequent and too intense,” Pincetl said. 

Los Angeles residents attempted to pinpoint the cause of fires and how they became so harsh but now preventative measures should be at the top of our priority list. 

Los Angeles lacked many necessary resources such as firefighters and water in order to combat fires, according to Lopez.  

Watch Duty became a very important app for residents during this time, which had 8 million users within the first week of the fires according to marketplace.org. 

People were able to keep track of things such as evacuation warnings and orders, weather warnings, and shelters. 

In order to prevent future catastrophes like the recent fires, Lopez believes that one efficient way we can combat damage to buildings is by changing the architectural materials of buildings. 

“A lot of structures here rely on wood, and wood is easily consumable in fire,” said Lopez, “We should think about what alternative materials we could use when we are designing our buildings or our homes to minimize damage.”

Although nature is sometimes beyond our control, Angelenos are able to take preventative measures such as having drought resistant plants, prescribed fires, and keeping mountain vegetation in good condition, Lopez said. 

“I think they did the best they could the best that they could with the limitations that they had,” she said.

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