The devastating Palisades fire ripped through Pacific Palisades, California, leaving behind a trail of charred buildings and displaced residents. Fueled by strong winds, the blaze consumed over 11,802 acres, forcing tens of thousands from their homes. Authorities reported injuries and arrests for looting as the fire raged, prompting fears of a new, tragic normal for the region.
The Palisades fire off Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades , California, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. By Laura J. Nelson, Rebecca Ellis, Noah Haggerty, Daniel Miller, Jack Dolan, Ruben Vives and Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times As the catastrophic Palisades fire receded from one of the city’s iconic thoroughfares, smoke and ash rendered the once-picturesque landscape into something oddly lunar.
“Despite the exceptional nature of what’s transpired and is transpiring, I fear we are getting a look at a new, terrible and tragic normal,” said William Deverell, a historian and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. Much of what remained Wednesday of the “Alphabet Streets” neighborhood of the Palisades, a mostly flat residential grid in a U-shaped pocket just north of Sunset Boulevard, was blackened rubble and dust.
The Palisades fire off Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, California, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. On most blocks, the only things left standing were fireplaces. Power lines sagged down onto ruined streets. Some homes were still on fire. “Historically, from my experience, when we talk about disasters in Southern California, in L.A. County, and specifically when we talk about fire disasters, there seems to be a disconnect between those of us who live in the flats, far from the foothill areas,” said historian D.J. Waldie.From the flats, the flames at higher elevations can seem far off and like “somebody else’s Los Angeles, where things burn down all the time,” Waldie said.
“I was planning to have the day off,” while watching the news last night, Curiel said with a shrug, but he awoke to find the job was still on. “A lot of people are still working.”
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