Are more fires popping up in LA than normal? What we know

We have all been glued to our phones over the last few days tracking a hellscape of fire activity.

This week, several brush fires broke out — some over the course of a single day.

Apps like Watch Duty have vastly grown in popularity because of the ability to send users practically real-time updates on wildfire conditions, including new fires that pop up.

As worried Angelenos continue to focus on the flames, are we actually seeing more blazes happen or are we just more aware of them? Here’s what we know and don’t know yet about the spinning roulette of fires.

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Thousands of fires happen every year

In between the major wildfires ravaging Los Angeles County, a number of smaller fires — like the Woodley Fire in Van Nuys, the Foothill Fire in Pacoima, and the Creek Fire in Tujunga — also cropped up. Just in the course of writing this story on Friday, the Archer Fire in Granada Hills started and got under control.

Some of these may be spot fires sparked by embers, which can travel three to four miles away from the primary blaze. But it’s still unclear what the cause is behind the fires that have happened this week.

Margaret Stewart, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said we have two buckets of activity happening. During this time of the year, with the low relative humidity, if things like auto and trash fires reach grass, it can cause it to ignite. That’s normal — but then we have those massive wind-driven fires, which aren’t.

“We have a lot of abnormal incidents that are layered over our normal everyday operations, which makes it seem even worse,” she said.

Firefighters in the region respond to thousands of blazes here each year.

The L.A. County Fire Department, which covers 60 cities and unincorporated parts of the county, such as Altadena, handled nearly 11,000 incidents alone in 2023, including 613 brush fires. In addition to that, CalFire responded to 82 fires on state land in L.A. County — with a majority of those under 10 acres.

For the city of L.A., the latest yearly data from the city controller’s office shows the total number of non-structure fires was almost 33,000 in the 2023 fiscal year. (It’s unclear how large or what kinds of fires they were.)

How is this moment different?

Firefighters spray water onto a burning property in Altadena in Los Angeles County.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Former vice president of content for KPCC before it rebranded as LAist, Russ Stanton, lost his Altadena house in the Eaton Fire and has experienced both kinds of activity.

He said he saw about three small brush fires break out near his home over the past 18 months.

The L.A. County Fire Department responded quickly to those, he said, knocking them out within about 10 minutes. Crews flew in on helicopters to respond, and after one of the fires, he recalled seeing a plane come and dump fire retardant.

“It was almost overkill,” Stanton said. “It was just really impressive. We never took for granted where we were living that there was always going to be some risk.”

But on Tuesday, unusually strong winds began blowing, which fueled the Palisades Fire. It meant that when the Eaton Fire broke out in Altadena, it was exacerbated by those winds, leading to a bigger blaze. The helicopters that would normally be called out weren't able to fly in the winds, and the fire resources that before had responded so quickly were now focused on the west side.

When Stanton’s son tuned into fire scanner traffic, it was clear any help coming would only be able to focus on saving lives, not homes. So, they packed up and left once they could see the flames.

“Had the Pacific Palisades fire not started, I think there would have been a very different outcome to what happened in Altadena,” he said.

It was a perfect storm. But as winds improve, and more fire resources have arrived from other counties and states, some smaller fires are again getting knocked down quickly before they get too big. (Fingers crossed.)