More big fires will come. Our new newsletter series will help you prepare
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Good morning. I‘m Karen Garcia, a reporter for the breaking news team. Today I’m filling in for Ryan Fonseca all the way from sunny Redondo Beach. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
- Wildfires aren’t going anywhere. The best way to cope is to prepare in advance.
- Southern California’s wild winter continues with record-threatening heat, then a chance of rain.
- Head to this South Bay pop-up bakery for your new favorite croissants and sticky buns.
- And here’s today’s e-newspaper.
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As the threat of wildfires increases, we want to help you be ready. We’ll guide you through advance preparations and what to do if disaster strikes. Emails will land in your inbox every Thursday for seven weeks.
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More big fires will come. Here’s how to prepare
When people were forced to abandon their cars and flee on foot from the advancing flames of the Palisades fire in the afternoon of Jan. 7, Times staff was there to report on the chaos.
Hours later, reporters were in Altadena as fire trucks raced to the Eaton fire, navigating the pitch-black streets.
In the weeks that followed the devastation, the entire newsroom worked around the clock to investigate what the fires destroyed, lives that were lost, what state and federal officials were doing to support fire survivors as well as the complicated road to rebuilding.
I had the opportunity to offer another type of reporting: I spent my time thinking about how the fires were upending people’s lives and what reporting could give Times readers agency in a situation that felt out of your hands.
I and several other colleagues began figuring out what questions possible evacuees, fire survivors and the greater community had about the fires and how best to answer them.
The questions were:
- What to pack if a fire is forcing you to evacuate?
- Do you still need to pay your mortgage, rent or utility bills if you were forced to evacuate?
- What can Southern Californians do to help those immediately affected by the fires?
- How can you protect yourself from wildfire smoke?
- How can you replace essential documents lost to the fires?
This type of reporting is what I’ve been passionate about since I joined The Times in 2021 because the goal of these how-to articles and explainers is to provide you with answers to your questions in a way that’s easy to understand and can help you solve problems and make decisions about your life.
One thing I realized while compiling this work is that readers don’t just want to know how to deal with fire disasters in the moment. They want to be able to prepare for the next one.
In that spirit, we have compiled all the Los Angeles-area wildfire explainers into a disaster preparedness newsletter guide so that anyone in California and beyond can be better equipped for the worst-case scenario.
Sign up here and you’ll get installments in your inbox every Thursday with instructions for how to prepare your property, family and yourself.
You may be thinking, “I don’t live in a fire-prone area so this information doesn’t pertain to me.” It’s time to reconsider that assessment.
Engineers at UC Irvine found that “very high wildfire density” hot spots were increasing. Data from 1920 to 1999 showed only one such hot spot: Los Angeles County. Data from 2000 to 2019 showed several.
“In the past 20 years, that designation has expanded greatly in Southern California to include Ventura County, portions of Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino Counties,” according to the report published in 2021.
This finding isn’t isolated to just the Golden State.
Colorado, Texas, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho and Montana have an increased risk of property damage and loss due to wildfires, according to a recent Statista report.
Climate change and suburban sprawl are fueling more dangerous fire behavior.
Fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2000, and 10 of the most costly and destructive fires to life and property in the state have occurred since 2015, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported.
What adds fuel to the fire? Wildfires are influenced by a number of factors including temperature, humidity and lack of moisture in trees, shrubs, grasses and forest debris. Warmer and dryer conditions on top of previous drought effects are leading to longer and more active fire seasons.
As we experience more destructive fires in our backyards you’ll realize there’s a lot to think about when it comes to creating wildfire defense for your home, how to prepare in the event of an evacuation, understanding health risks associated with a fire, how to rebuild if the worst happens and how to cope with the devastation.
I’m here to walk you through these topics with best practices and experts’ guidance so you know how to handle the worst-case scenario and how to support others who experience loss caused by a wildfire.
Sign up here, and forward this to your friends, neighbors and relatives. After all, it takes a village.
Today’s top stories
Southern California’s wild winter continues
- SoCal’s recent unusually warm temperatures are expected to ramp up over the next couple of days, peaking by midweek, when some areas will see highs in the low 90s.
- “Warm weather lovers are in luck as much of the nation will be 10-20 degrees above average,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center posted on X over the weekend.
Fire debris is washing up on L.A.’s beaches
- The gunk has turned up on shorelines from Malibu to Redondo Beach. It’s a mix of ash, sand and pulverized flecks of burned wood and plastic, material destroyed during January’s fires and then washed into the sea by recent rains.
- L.A. County officials declared last week that the mix of ash and sand from recent fires showing up on local beaches wasn’t harmful to beachgoers or the environment.
- But the county is still advising beachgoers to steer clear of visible fire debris. Local environmental groups also urged caution.
What else is going on
- California officials push to cut energy credits to households with rooftop solar panels.
- Scammers towed Eaton fire victims’ cars and held them hostage for cash, authorities say.
- Raw milk jitters? In this immigrant L.A. subculture, they spike theirs with alcohol.
- Lester Holt will depart ‘NBC Nightly News’ this summer.
- Roberta Flack, timeless R&B singer-songwriter behind ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song,’ has died at 88.
- A judge blocks Trump immigration policy allowing arrests in churches for some religious groups.
- The Menendez brothers’ alleged history of ‘lies and deceptions’ slows their freedom bid.
- Apple plans to hire 20,000 people and invest $500 billion in the U.S. amid tariffs by President Trump.
- Beyond Joy Reid: MSNBC makes major schedule changes as it prepares for NBC News split.
- Starbucks lays off 1,100 corporate employees as the coffee chain streamlines.
- More than a dozen sea lions along the Malibu coast are reported sick. What’s making them ill?
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Commentary and opinions
- 100 years ago, Anaheim recalled its KKK city council. Columnist Gustavo Arellano asks, why don’t we remember?
- Whether Russia invaded Ukraine is not a ‘complicated’ question, writes columnist Jonah Goldberg. Why say it is?
- Trump and GOP budget cuts have been criticized as ‘devastating, immoral, cruel’ to vulnerable Californians, writes columnist Phil Willon.
- The Eaton fire claimed her home, studio and this ‘powerful’ piece of Oscars history, writes columnist Mary McNamara.
This morning’s must reads
‘We are here; we see you’: Making quilts for fire victims resonates far beyond L.A. People from all over the country are donating and sewing quilts for victims of the Eaton fire in Altadena. The quilts feel like a hug. Textile artist Shaadee Ighanian started a grassroots quilt campaign, Stitch by Stitch: Quilts for Altadena, to benefit people in Altadena who lost their homes. She knew she couldn’t replace what the Altadena community had lost, but her quilt campaign could offer comfort to people living in temporary housing. “I thought of it as a gesture to let them know that we are here; we see you,” she said.
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].
For your downtime
Going out
- 🥐Head to this South Bay pop-up bakery for your new favorite croissants and sticky buns.
- 🙃Fyre Festival revived? The viral botched influencer event sets a ‘second chance’ in Mexico.
Staying in
- 📺‘Beyond the Gates’ is making history, but it’s also a ‘messy and entertaining’ soap.
- 📖 ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’ author revisits WWII Europe with less satisfying results.
- 👨🏾🍳 Here’s a recipe for fried jerk catfish from Post & Beam.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.
A question for you: What’s your comfort TV show?
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And finally ... your photo of the day
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Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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