For centuries, California has been victim to wildfires, with the earliest known fire taking place in 1889 and burning more than 300,000 acres according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association. California’s dry climate, hot temperatures and periods of drought make its landscape highly flammable.
On Jan. 7th, 2025, California caught fire once again, this time affecting the Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga regions for almost a month before the flames were contained. The fires left tens of thousands of people homeless and decimated businesses, schools and communities. Kiran Eyre (11) lived in California for 13 years before moving to Memphis and attending White Station High School (WSHS).
“My house was like five miles from the fire: house, elementary school, middle school,” Eyre said. “It was all around that area … I still have a lot of friends and family there.”
Beyond the wave of displacement that many residents experienced, locations with emotional and sentimental value have been destroyed. Eyre’s memories there can no longer be tied to the physical locations at which they were made.
“[The fire] certainly displaced a bunch of people,” Eyre said. “Their homes burned down. Personally, I’m very attached to my elementary school and middle school because I have so many memories built up in my formative years. Thinking about that now, I wouldn’t be able to go back and reminisce about those little happy memories. It just makes me sad for them.”
Though the Palisades fires garnered widespread media attention, not all California fires are covered in national media. Many believe that due to the fires affecting such a densely populated and popular area increased the media coverage of them.
“I feel like a lot of fires don’t get a lot of media attention,” Phoebe Plumley said. “The [Los Angeles] fires got a lot more [attention] just because of where [they were]. Sometimes I hear about fires and [think], ‘I didn’t even know that was happening,’ so I feel like there could be more media attention.”
Also a topic of media discussion was the contrasting weather conditions from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. As California fires thrived in hot temperatures, schools across the country, like WSHS, were out of session for inches of snowfall.
“It was really odd, the juxtaposition in the world,” Eyre said. “It was really weird because it was freezing here and then burning there. It’s my two homes, and it’s very different.”
After the fires were contained, efforts for rebuilding and recovery began. Fundraisers of many forms — concerts, GoFundMes, nonprofit actions and even the Grammy Award Ceremony — raised profits for rebuilding and relief. Additionally, among the fundraisers, there are discussions about preventing fires in the future.
“I’m not sure if you could do anything about the natural parts, like the ground being super dry and the plants being dead and spreading the fire like that, but I’m certain there could be more preventative measures taken,” Eyre said. “[Encouraging] students to take up a job like [firefighting]. Do more programs introducing them to the career path, because it’s [a] constant danger.”
Typically, fire season — or the time of year when conditions in California are most conducive to fires — lasts from May to November, but the Pacific Palisades fire took place in January. According to the World Weather Attribution, global warming from human actions has increased the dry season by 23 days, increasing the overlapping of ideal wildfire conditions. As a result, wildfires will continue to become increasingly more prevalent on the American Pacific coastline.
“I don’t think any of [the fires] have been this bad in this time of the year, because they’re usually in the fire season,” Plumley said. “As the seasons are changing, the fires are getting worse.”
