Quickly describing things...anyway...LA Fires: a little historical background
Hosted by:
[00:00:00]
Jesse Fries:
This is the AnyWay podcast with your host, Jesse Fries. I really do try to be good. You know, eat healthy. Well, ish. Exercise. Everything like that. Don't drink too much ish. You you you know, that sort of thing. And I was doing great, especially on the exercise front. I was doing great for about 4 or 5 years. I'd exercise about 3 to 5 times a week, if not more, and I was really in great shape. Now I had some fat on me because I probably was drinking and eating too much, but I was actually in good physical health. And then somewhere around September, October, I just kinda sluffed off. Didn't care anymore, and it's kinda stuck around. Now, through then I've tried to get back into it, you know, you work out a day or 2, then you get sick.
Then you come up with an excuse because you're sick. And then you go, oh, okay, and then it's Thanksgiving, and then you make up another excuse. And then you know, you work out once or twice, and then you go, oh, it's Christmas. What can you do? And then it comes the new year. And then I was starting to work out, and now I got sick. Anyway, these LA fires are causing great havoc out, in California right now. These are the Eaton and the Palisade fires. Fires have been around in LA for a long, long time. And these fires, they're not the largest wildfires out there when you count per acre.
But when you count just structures destroyed, they are by far the greatest disaster when it comes to wildfires in the LA County. And then you also add in the museums and the history, especially the Hollywood history out there, like the Will Rogers Ranch that's burnt to the ground. Publishing history, Andrew McNally from Rand McNally Publishing. His house went up in flame. Over 12,000 total structures have actually went up in flames and are no longer there. Before this, the largest was roughly around 1400, 1200, something like that. So this is a huge jump, 12,014 100. It's a huge number difference, and so it is a huge disaster to have such a fire in such a populated area is kind of crazy.
But in the LA area, wildfires are a thing. It's just that it's never hit such a populated area. The LA is known for many types of disasters, especially like mudslides, fires, earthquakes, this sort of thing. And throughout human habitation of the LA Basin, there have been fires. No matter what, there have always been wildfires out there. Throughout history, we don't really know about every wildlife fire or wild fire out there. In the 19th century, they started they did write about them a little bit, but there were many, especially in the 19th century, but most weren't recorded because they did not actually affect the population because the population was little.
It was under a 100000 people. And even, like, for most of it, it was even much less than a 100000 people. And so nobody really cared what would happen out in the country. Nobody cared about those fires. Only fires in the town or the city are what people actually cared about. Pretty much it's true to this day. Overall, plus it's also hard to tell how many fires there were back in the day because on the term wildfire has actually only been used since the early 20th, excuse me, the early 20th century. And so because of that, it's hard to guess exactly how many there were. But they are part of the natural cycle, the cycle. The fires in the 19th century would have been influenced by the same conditions as we have today, the Santa Ana winds and human expansion into wild areas, and it's the same thing now as it is today or back then.
The fires in the 19th century would have been influenced by the same dry conditions that we have today. Whether or not it's a little bit drier or a little bit wetter, it's hard to say. The I know the record say that the driest years have been this year and everything like that or recently and everything like that. But when it comes to it, it is very prevalent no matter what to have fires in the LA area. Even growing up, I remember hearing about them back in the eighties. In the 19th century, people would also love to actually go watch these fires, cause they're beautiful at night. So in the evenings, they would actually go and watch these fires. It's like how in the beginning of the Civil War, people would actually go out to watch the troops battle it out.
You can see paintings and pictures of this of people actually watching the civil war being fought right in front of them. There were women with their nice parasols and everything like that and having a gay old time while everybody was fighting and dying in front of them. So to see disaster in front of you, it's pretty common to actually look and so they did back in the day. Also back in the day, it was okay for people to actually light fires up in like the Palisades and everything like that. Because the ranchers and everything like that, there is nobody there. So the ranchers could light fire for whatever purposes they need until this caused problems with erosion. So you get rid of the vegetation. Well, there's nothing left there to stop water from causing erosion to happen. So you'd have mudslides and things like that. And these mudslides actually kept going and were such a problem that one point in time it washed away a railroad track.
Well, guess what they did after that, that was in the 1880s. Well, after that they for they outlawed people lighting fires just so that you wouldn't have that sort of issue. Again, one of the major things that actually cause is these wildfires to actually be so destructive right now, especially towards human structures, is that in the same area, at the beginning of 20th century, there were about a 102,000 people living in LA County or in the LA area. Today, LA has a population of 3,800,000 people. That is a huge jump in population, and that population has to live somewhere. And so structures have gone up all over the place. And because of that, it has caused these wildfires to be more destructive, especially these ones that actually are in developments and everything like that. This is a crazy whatever is going on here, it is crazy, and we haven't seen the like before.
So some other wildfires that actually have happened, especially if you can set consider acreage. Some of the bigger ones were like the Station Fire, which was in the Angeles National Forest. That was the biggest one. That was in 2009, and it burnt a 160,000 acres. Then back in the seventies, there was, one that was a 105,000 acres. Then you had the Woolsey fire in 2018. That one burnt down 1600 structures. So that was the that was the record before the most recent fires. But the ones that we're talking about today, these are only about, like, 20,000 acres are the fire.
The Palisades current fire is 23,000, roughly, maybe 25, and it's burnt down thousands of structures. The Eaton Fire is maybe about 20,000 acres of fire, but it has also burnt down thousands of structures. So this is a crazy situation that's going on there. I don't know what the fix is. It can't all be climate change. And if it is climate change, we have to work to figure out how we can stop this from happening with climate change. Whatever the answer is, they need to do better in LA.
This is the AnyWay podcast with your host, Jesse Fries. I really do try to be good. You know, eat healthy. Well, ish. Exercise. Everything like that. Don't drink too much ish. You you you know, that sort of thing. And I was doing great, especially on the exercise front. I was doing great for about 4 or 5 years. I'd exercise about 3 to 5 times a week, if not more, and I was really in great shape. Now I had some fat on me because I probably was drinking and eating too much, but I was actually in good physical health. And then somewhere around September, October, I just kinda sluffed off. Didn't care anymore, and it's kinda stuck around. Now, through then I've tried to get back into it, you know, you work out a day or 2, then you get sick.
Then you come up with an excuse because you're sick. And then you go, oh, okay, and then it's Thanksgiving, and then you make up another excuse. And then you know, you work out once or twice, and then you go, oh, it's Christmas. What can you do? And then it comes the new year. And then I was starting to work out, and now I got sick. Anyway, these LA fires are causing great havoc out, in California right now. These are the Eaton and the Palisade fires. Fires have been around in LA for a long, long time. And these fires, they're not the largest wildfires out there when you count per acre.
But when you count just structures destroyed, they are by far the greatest disaster when it comes to wildfires in the LA County. And then you also add in the museums and the history, especially the Hollywood history out there, like the Will Rogers Ranch that's burnt to the ground. Publishing history, Andrew McNally from Rand McNally Publishing. His house went up in flame. Over 12,000 total structures have actually went up in flames and are no longer there. Before this, the largest was roughly around 1400, 1200, something like that. So this is a huge jump, 12,014 100. It's a huge number difference, and so it is a huge disaster to have such a fire in such a populated area is kind of crazy.
But in the LA area, wildfires are a thing. It's just that it's never hit such a populated area. The LA is known for many types of disasters, especially like mudslides, fires, earthquakes, this sort of thing. And throughout human habitation of the LA Basin, there have been fires. No matter what, there have always been wildfires out there. Throughout history, we don't really know about every wildlife fire or wild fire out there. In the 19th century, they started they did write about them a little bit, but there were many, especially in the 19th century, but most weren't recorded because they did not actually affect the population because the population was little.
It was under a 100000 people. And even, like, for most of it, it was even much less than a 100000 people. And so nobody really cared what would happen out in the country. Nobody cared about those fires. Only fires in the town or the city are what people actually cared about. Pretty much it's true to this day. Overall, plus it's also hard to tell how many fires there were back in the day because on the term wildfire has actually only been used since the early 20th, excuse me, the early 20th century. And so because of that, it's hard to guess exactly how many there were. But they are part of the natural cycle, the cycle. The fires in the 19th century would have been influenced by the same conditions as we have today, the Santa Ana winds and human expansion into wild areas, and it's the same thing now as it is today or back then.
The fires in the 19th century would have been influenced by the same dry conditions that we have today. Whether or not it's a little bit drier or a little bit wetter, it's hard to say. The I know the record say that the driest years have been this year and everything like that or recently and everything like that. But when it comes to it, it is very prevalent no matter what to have fires in the LA area. Even growing up, I remember hearing about them back in the eighties. In the 19th century, people would also love to actually go watch these fires, cause they're beautiful at night. So in the evenings, they would actually go and watch these fires. It's like how in the beginning of the Civil War, people would actually go out to watch the troops battle it out.
You can see paintings and pictures of this of people actually watching the civil war being fought right in front of them. There were women with their nice parasols and everything like that and having a gay old time while everybody was fighting and dying in front of them. So to see disaster in front of you, it's pretty common to actually look and so they did back in the day. Also back in the day, it was okay for people to actually light fires up in like the Palisades and everything like that. Because the ranchers and everything like that, there is nobody there. So the ranchers could light fire for whatever purposes they need until this caused problems with erosion. So you get rid of the vegetation. Well, there's nothing left there to stop water from causing erosion to happen. So you'd have mudslides and things like that. And these mudslides actually kept going and were such a problem that one point in time it washed away a railroad track.
Well, guess what they did after that, that was in the 1880s. Well, after that they for they outlawed people lighting fires just so that you wouldn't have that sort of issue. Again, one of the major things that actually cause is these wildfires to actually be so destructive right now, especially towards human structures, is that in the same area, at the beginning of 20th century, there were about a 102,000 people living in LA County or in the LA area. Today, LA has a population of 3,800,000 people. That is a huge jump in population, and that population has to live somewhere. And so structures have gone up all over the place. And because of that, it has caused these wildfires to be more destructive, especially these ones that actually are in developments and everything like that. This is a crazy whatever is going on here, it is crazy, and we haven't seen the like before.
So some other wildfires that actually have happened, especially if you can set consider acreage. Some of the bigger ones were like the Station Fire, which was in the Angeles National Forest. That was the biggest one. That was in 2009, and it burnt a 160,000 acres. Then back in the seventies, there was, one that was a 105,000 acres. Then you had the Woolsey fire in 2018. That one burnt down 1600 structures. So that was the that was the record before the most recent fires. But the ones that we're talking about today, these are only about, like, 20,000 acres are the fire.
The Palisades current fire is 23,000, roughly, maybe 25, and it's burnt down thousands of structures. The Eaton Fire is maybe about 20,000 acres of fire, but it has also burnt down thousands of structures. So this is a crazy situation that's going on there. I don't know what the fix is. It can't all be climate change. And if it is climate change, we have to work to figure out how we can stop this from happening with climate change. Whatever the answer is, they need to do better in LA.
