In the wake of the disaster that will be known collectively as the Los Angeles Fire but was really three or four or even five big fires pressing in on the city from the north and east, we can now start taking stock of the size of this catastrophe.
Some 36,000 acres have burned, or 56 square miles, more than the footprint of Miami.
Nearly 10,000 structures, both homes and businesses, were destroyed by the two biggest fires, the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire. The final figure will undoubtedly be higher.
Over 100,000 people have been evacuated.
AccuWeather estimates that the economic damage will likely be between $52 billion and $57 billion, making it the costliest fire in U.S. history.
Although only 11 people are known to have died, President Joe Biden said on Friday that “There are a lot of people still unaccounted for. We don’t know where they are.”
Behind the numbers, of course, are the people who lived in the neighborhoods that burned to the ground. Most of them have lost everything, but none have given up hope. Here are four stories of the fire from Angelenos who lived through it.
Meghan Daum, 54, Altadena
There were no phone alerts. This seems hard to believe, since the phone lets out a screeching alarm for anything these days, including when an elderly person wanders away from home—a “Silver Alert.” But there was nothing, at least nothing that I received. On Tuesday when the winds picked up, I took some videos of my enormous Newfoundland dog, Hugo, sitting in the front yard, his fur blowing dramatically and his body standing firm even in 60 mph winds. A few hours later I saw there were deadly fires in the Palisades, some 25 miles away, and felt badly for posting fun videos on Twitter, though not badly enough to take them down, since they were getting a lot of likes. Around 6:30 I learned of a fire in Eaton Canyon, a few miles to my east. I learned of it on Twitter.
There were still no phone alerts so I didn’t think too much of anything until I walked into the front yard around 7:15. On the other side of my across-the-street neighbor’s house, I could see flames at the top of the canyon. Another neighbor told me they were still far enough away and not to worry about it too much. We just don’t get fires over here. By now, I was following the chat in a WhatsApp group for people who use the dog park in the neighborhood. The winds seem to be blowing in the other direction, someone wrote. So that’s good.
