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0 to 10,000 acres in just hours: Why did the Hughes Fire explode in size so fast ?

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প্রকাশিত জানুয়ারি ২৪, ২০২৫
0 to 10,000 acres in just hours: Why did the Hughes Fire explode in size so fast ?

A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire around a burned structure in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

নিউজটি শেয়ার করুনঃ

A fast-spreading wildfire that erupted this week about 45 miles northwest of Los Angeles roared from nothing to nearly 10,000 acres − in a matter of hours.

The Hughes Fire that started Wednesday and continued to burn Thursday is the latest in a series of disastrous blazes that have broken out in southern California since Jan. 7. Most have spread incredibly fast, a hallmark of many of the state’s most catastrophic fires.

These rapid-pace fires have exploded against a backdrop of extreme drought, lack of rain and howling Santa Ana winds, a dangerous combination that’s proved deadly as the wildfires continue to rage.

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Why did the Hughes Fire explode so fast?
One of the reasons for the fire’s rapid spread is that Southern California has gone without significant rain for nine months, contributing to hazardous conditions, experts said.

“This vegetation is extremely dry,” LA County Fire public information officer Fred Fielding told NBC Los Angeles on Wednesday. “We’ve had two years of above average rainfall (2023 and 2024)… so you’ve got a lot of these light grasses where these fires can start, and if it gets into that old growth vegetation there’s a lot of energy there. Combine that with the winds, and you’ve got a recipe for a very high rate of spread.”

Extremely low humidity also helps dry out vegetation, making it a better fuel for fires.

Fast-moving fires are ‘particularly destructive’
California’s wildfires have become increasingly destructive in recent years. “Research my colleagues and I have conducted shows U.S. wildfires are up to four times larger and three times more frequent than they were in the 1980s and ’90s,” said Virginia Iglesias of the University of Colorado, writing in the Conversation. “Fast-moving fires have been particularly destructive, accounting for 78% of structures destroyed and 61% of suppression costs between 2001 and 2020.”