What we know about LA area fires, what caused them, who is affected and more

How many people are affected?

At one point, nearly 200,000 people had to be evacuated while emergency services tried to fight the fires. As of Tuesday morning, the number had dropped to around 88,000, with another 84,800 in evacuation warning zones throughout Los Angeles County.

On Thursday, officials announced limited repopulation of some areas evacuated due to the Palisades and Eaton fires.

The fires have destroyed entire neighborhoods and city blocks and left an unknown number of people homeless.

How much damage did the fires cause?

Insured losses from last week’s fires could exceed $20 billion and total economic losses could reach $50 billion, according to estimates released Thursday by JPMorgan.

Those losses would far exceed the $12.5 billion insured loss from the 2018 Camp Fire, which was the costliest fire in the country’s history to date, according to Aon.

What led to the fires?

The official cause of the fires is not clear.

The combination of drought-like conditions — Southern California has had less than 10% of average precipitation since Oct. 1 — and strong offshore winds that swept across the region last week sparked a fire weather that, in the words of the National Weather Service, was “roughly as bad as it gets.”

The agency issued an advisory warning to 19 million people indicating an increased risk of fires. Wind gusts exceeding 70 miles per hour were recorded in several locations across the region.

Climate scientist Daniel Swain pointed to the weather whiplash that California has experienced in recent years — the oscillation between drought and heavy rains — and said such fluctuations are a key element in the fire weather gripping the region.

“It’s not just that drier conditions are becoming increasingly likely in a warming climate,” he said, according to Inside Climate News. “It is that this back and forth between states is something that particularly impacts wildfire risk in Southern California.”