Southern California Fires
Status: Active
January 10 Update | Summary
Posting Date: January 10, 2025, 12:00:00 PM
A series of wildfires driven by fierce Santa Ana winds continue to burn across southern California, primarily in Los Angeles County. The Palisades fire – which could ultimately end up the costliest wildfire event in U.S. history – has now burned 20,438 acres and is 6% contained, per CAL FIRE. The Eaton fire, the other major ongoing event, has burned 13,956 and remains uncontained as of Friday morning. In addition to those fires, the smaller Hurst and Lidia fires continue to burn, though with increasing containment, and a new fire as of Thursday, the Kenneth fire, is at 960 acres with 35% containment.
ALERT™ subscribers can download a list of impacted ZIP codes along with the proportion of total area of each ZIP which is currently within the latest NIFC perimeters for the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, and Kenneth fires from the Downloads tab of this posting on the ALERT website.
Damage assessment is underway in the impacted areas, and reports from CAL FIRE indicate the damage is severe and widespread. For the Eaton fire, at least 4,000 structures have been destroyed, and at least 5,000 structures have been destroyed in the Palisades fire. As firefighting efforts are still ongoing in many areas, these counts of damaged or destroyed structures will continue to develop in the coming days.
Regarding the forecast for the coming days, winds will weaken somewhat later today, though there is a chance for higher winds on Tuesday, and generally speaking, fire weather will continue to be conducive to the potential for fire spread through the next week, with low humidity and a low likelihood of any precipitation.
The Verisk ALERT Team will provide an updated set of impacted ZIPs on Saturday, January 11, by 10:00 am EST. We will provide additional guidance on other steps, including the potential release of an industry loss estimate, as the situation continues to evolve. In the meantime, linked below are some additional resources to support response to this ongoing event: