Fires in Los Angeles: the urban and social fabric in the grip of flames
This article is originally available in French but presented here to all readers given the high level of interest.
The massive fires ravaging Los Angeles and its suburbs are generating a lot of media noise due to their scale and the notoriety of specific victims, Hollywood stars. The City of Angels, which was often engulfed in flames, could not stem the disaster, aggravated by urban growth and structural inequalities within the population.
The firestorm that has affected the Los Angeles region since the beginning of January 2025 is exceptional in its extent (nearly 12,000 homes and businesses destroyed and 150,000 people evacuated), in the number of victims (a little over twenty dead), as well as in its media coverage, linked in part to the celebrities involved.
This event is unprecedented because it occurs in the middle of winter. It arises from well-documented consequences linked to climate change. Two particularly wet seasons in 2022-2023 encouraged the rapid growth of vegetation and were followed by an arid summer season. Strong, hot, dry Santa Ana winds blowing from the desert northeast of Los Angeles fueled the fire and spread the embers. A scenario which had already occurred in 1968 and which was then described as follows by the American journalist and novelist Joan Didion:
“There is something ominous in the air of Los Angeles this afternoon […]. This means that tonight, Santa Ana will begin blowing a hot northeast wind coming down over the Cajon and San Gorgonio passes, kicking up sandstorms along Route 66 and drying the hills and sinews to conflagration."
