where are the fires ravaging California?

The American president is making his first trip this Friday, January 24, since his inauguration on Monday. Donald Trump will travel to North Carolina then to California, a Democratic bastion where the city of Los Angeles, in particular, has been facing deadly fires fueled by violent winds since January 7 and whose management of the natural disaster has turned into a political battle between the new Republican tenant of the White House and Governor Gavin Newsom.

On Wednesday, the latest report showed 28 deaths. Four fires are still active around Los Angeles, according to data from the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). Those in Pacific Palisades (northwest) and Eaton (northeast), which were triggered at the beginning of the month, are still active. They are respectively controlled by the firefighters at 75% and 95%. Two others broke out on Tuesday and Wednesday: Hugues Fire (north) and Sepulveda Fire (west) and evacuation orders were issued to 31,000 residents.

Mudslides and landslides

State emergency services are dealing with other fires outside of Los Angeles. Clay Fire and Gibbel Fire in Riverside, Border 2 Fire and Gilman Fire in San Diego, on the Mexican border as well as Laguna Fire in Ventura. In total, CalFire reports, more than 20,000 hectares and approximately 16,200 «structures» (house, schools, buildings, etc.) were destroyed.

Southern California has been critically short of precipitation for the past eight months, turning the region into a tinderbox. In this context, the expected rain this weekend will be welcomed with relief. Hit by fires in the middle of January, Los Angeles is now preparing, with the rain, for possible mudslides and landslides in areas devastated by the fire, filled with charred toxic waste.