The scale of the infernos devastating Southern California is almost unimaginable.
Between Tuesday, Jan. 7, and Thursday, Jan. 9, nine fires in and around Los Angeles County—including several that aren’t yet contained—burned some 29,000 acres, according to CAL FIRE, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
That’s approximately twice the size of Manhattan—or the equivalent of about 22,000 football fields or 200 golf courses.
And, driven by a confluence of factors including fierce winds, the flames continue to expand. Already, more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed, according to CAL FIRE, and at least 16 people have been killed, according to the county medical examiner—while the death toll is expected to rise.
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As of 12 a.m. Pacific Time, Sunday, Jan. 12, according to CAL FIRE, a 10th fire—the Archer fire in Granada Hills—broke out and has since been contained, and the total burn area in the region over the last five days has expanded to over 40,000 acres: the ongoing Palisades fire, which has wreaked havoc on the coastal community of Pacific Palisades that’s home to many celebrities as well as surrounding neighborhoods, has an incident area of over 23,000 acres; the Eaton fire, which is centered further east in L.A. County around the city of Altadena, has an incident area of over 14,000 acres; the Kenneth fire in the Woodland Hills area has an incident area of over 1,000 acres; the Hurst fire in San Fernando Valley has an incident area of about 800 acres; and the contained Archer, Lidia, Olivas, Sunset, Tyler, and Woodley fires had a combined incident area of about 500 acres.
Still, this week’s California fires, while on track to be the costliest in U.S. history, are far from the largest, even in the state—a record held, per CAL FIRE, by the 2020 August Complex fire that torched more than a million acres.
