Several fires raged in southern California this past February. Named for the location of origin, the Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires burned nearly 38,000 acres of land, destroyed 19,000 structures, and took the lives of 29 people. The entire state of California was affected by the fires, with 200,000 people under evacuation orders throughout the fires and an estimated $50 billion in economic losses. An aunt of a BSM student living in California was evacuated due to the fires, and though she doesn’t live in LA, she experienced some of the impacts. “The Palisades fire moved so fast, people felt like they were lucky to get out. The roads get really, really crowded …I was afraid that it could start at any time, and [that] we had to go. … so many areas had their power turned off because there was a fear that if they went down, there would be a fire from the wind. A lot of people went five, six days without power,” Stephanie Howard said.

Many experts believe a trifecta of fire-friendly conditions set the stage for the LA county quick-spreading fires: two years of wet winters that stimulated vegetation growth, a record-dry fall, and an extremely strong wind effect. Leading up to the start of the fires in January, Southern California experienced less than 10% of its average rainfall. At the same time, conditions were affected by powerful offshore Santa Ana winds with gusts up to hurricane speeds of 70 mph. As the Santa Ana winds rushed down the San Gabriel Mountains, they created heat and dry air masses. When the winds arrived in Altadena, the Eaton fire, there was no moisture left, which further contributed to the fire conditions.

When it did finally rain, the rainstorm helped temper the fires’ danger, though because recently scoured land was much more susceptible to runoff, the water caused ash and mud to flow through the streets of Los Angeles, which led to a continuous flow of debris down the hillsides.

As with any natural disaster, the consequences are vast, and the clean-up efforts to decrease environmental impacts and get people back to normalcy are immense. Some neighborhoods were completely destroyed due to the powerful winds. Polluted mudslides filled with toxic substances such as incinerated cars, electronic batteries, and furniture, all containing pesticides, lead, plastics, and other harmful substances. The cleanup had begun by removing vegetation, shoring up slopes, and reconstructing roads in areas devastated by fires. Currently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, after the wildfires, has worked with federal, state, and local agencies to complete the debris removal on first residential properties, and will soon undergo the Phase 2 cleanup operations.

Unfortunately, people in the Benilde-St. Margaret’s community have also been affected by devastating losses. Freshman Violet Borggreve lived in both Minnesota and California during the first semester. However, due to the fires, she can no longer live in California and now resides only in Minnesota. “I wasn’t in California [during the fires], but my mom and my dog were and so was my dad … my family lost all of our clothing in California and the house we were in, and now we have to move back to Minnesota, which I wasn’t planning on doing,” Borggreve said.

This natural disaster caused stress on resources and on people, as they struggled to find safety and salvage their possessions. Borggreve feels appreciative after losing the majority of her possessions and house. “It made me much more grateful for everything I have, because I did lose a lot of things, but I am grateful that my family’s safe,” Borggreve said.

Though Borggreve was out of California during the fires, Howard was mandated at one point to evacuate for a few hours, and though her community suffered no direct damage or burning, all of California suffers the weight of these fires’ destruction. The risk of losing everything at one time is hard to comprehend, and like Borggreve, Howard is grateful for safety. “[I kept] jewelry from my mom that I had packed up and ready to go … the photos from my grandmother and her mother, because those are things that we couldn’t replace … and then everything else, I just looked at it. I’m like, it’s just stuff,” Howard said.

In addition to the environmental effects, the fires have also negatively impacted the entertainment industry. Since the strikes in Hollywood and in other entertainment companies, studios have moved out of state to produce in cheaper areas. However, many of the remaining entertainment industries were based in the Pacific Palisades or Altadena, according to Howard. As a newswoman of 30 years, Howard has experience in the entertainment business. Those who work in the entertainment industry, from directors to catering truck owners, have been especially negatively impacted by the fires.“Our entertainment business is really crashing, we had those strikes and shows were put off, so it just hasn’t had a chance to come back, and that impacts the whole area. When you think about it, it’s not even a ripple effect. It’s a wave … all of that is stopped, and the fires just made that worse,” Howard said.

Living in Southern California is not cheap, with the cost of living really paying a toll on the lower classes who can’t afford the rising prices of insurance. “A lot of the insurance companies are leaving California because they would lose so much money if there was a fire, because so much [has] to be replaced … So in the Palisades, you had a lot of people who didn’t have insurance, … our insurance is probably three or four times more than it was just a couple years ago … Everything is more expensive,” Howard said.

Choosing to stay and rebuild or restart in another state depends on those displaced socio-economic status. Though insurance costs are skyrocketing, property prices are dropping which may balance out the cost of living in California. Despite the great expense and constant threat of natural disasters, Howard still desires to live in California. “Here’s the thing, I love it in California, I’ve been through an earthquake. We’ve come close to fires. In Nebraska, I went through two tornados and multiple blizzards,” Howard said.

Help for communities in California and the support from people from around the country is very appreciated. There were big concerts and the Grammys, with the income going to fire victims, not to mention the numerous volunteers who are generously donating time and money to help California recover. The Grammy Awards have raised an estimated $120 million. In addition, the FireAid benefit concert, featuring artists like Billie Eilish, Gwen Stefani, Green Day and Pink, is expected to raise $100 million. Despite these efforts, the long term consequences on the economy are hard to predict. “It’s a horrible impact on people, not only who lost their houses, but think of all the businesses that burned, and even the ones that are still going, like restaurants, [but] their communities are empty. Who’s going to come? Once again, it’s a ripple effect,” Howard said.