A year after twin wildfire infernos tore across opposite ends of Los Angeles County, the scars were still visible, with thousands of homes reduced to rubble and rebuilding slow, the Associated Press reported.
AP said the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, exploding in size within hours of each other. The story added that it had been updated to correct the eruption date to Jan. 7, 2025, not Jan. 6, 2024.
The rapid spread unfolded under extreme weather. The AP report said Red Flag warnings were issued on Jan. 6 for severe wildfire danger as Southern California was buffeted by Santa Ana winds, with grass and brush described as tinder dry after months with little or no rain. It also said the National Weather Service warned it could be a life-threatening wind event, and that firefighting assets were pre-positioned in areas considered especially high risk.
AP’s timeline said reports began at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7 about a small blaze on a ridge in Pacific Palisades—an area where crews had responded to a fire on New Year’s Day. Shortly after 11 a.m., the revived fire was reported to be about 10 acres (4 hectares) near Palisades Drive on the coastal neighborhood’s western edge.
Over the next two hours, the AP report said roads were jammed with motorists trying to flee as flames roared down streets and decimated homes. Officials issued an evacuation order for the Palisades while warning residents of surrounding areas that they should also get ready to leave, AP said.
As firefighting resources were focused on the Palisades, AP reported that another blaze was sparked about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the east in Altadena. It said the Eaton Fire started at 6:17 p.m., and that all firefighting aircraft in the county were soon grounded because of high winds; by 8 p.m., the fire had doubled in size.
AP said the two infernos charred a combined 59 square miles (155 square kilometers). It put the total death toll at 31 lives—19 in the Eaton Fire and 12 in the Palisades Fire—and said the Palisades Fire burned 31 days before it was extinguished. Investigators determined that the 37-square-mile (95-square-kilometer) blaze had grown out of an earlier fire that started on Jan. 1, AP reported.
The report said the Eaton Fire burned for 25 days before being extinguished, and that it burned 22 square miles (57 square kilometers). In the meantime, AP reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom requested $33.9 billion in federal disaster aid, with the Trump administration and Congress still not having approved it as of the report.
On the legal front, AP said a 29-year-old man charged with sparking the Palisades Fire faced a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison and had pleaded not guilty, while it said the cause of the Eaton Fire remained under investigation. AP also cited Cal Fire figures that 16,246 structures were destroyed across both blazes—9,413 in Altadena and 6,833 in Pacific Palisades and neighboring areas including Malibu.
For recovery progress, AP said city and county data showed 10 homes had been rebuilt so far, with most of them in the Altadena area—one in Pasadena and two in Pacific Palisades. AP said none were finished in Malibu, and that hundreds more homes were under construction across the region.
AP’s figures also included charitable giving: it said a Milken Institute study put total commitments to LA fire relief between at least $860 million and $970 million, noting that most was raised in the first month after the fires. AP said individual donations through GoFundMe totaled $265 million.