Contemporaneous reporting from: 2025/01/08 to 2025/01/15.

• LA County Recovers - map/photos
• CAL FIRE - State of California
• Live Universal Awareness Map - LiveUAMap
• Newsom/californiafirefacts.com
• HollywoodSign.org - 24/7 Live Webcam
• PowerOutage.us - California
• StoryMaps/California Interagency Incident Management Team 1
• NASA Worldview Satellite Imagery

Democrats suggested the fires were caused by climate change. Republicans on X blamed California's leadership and called for resignations. The wildfires caused temperature variations amplifying extreme winds, creating more fires. Some arsonists used the opportunity as a cover to start more fires.

According to (Jan-9) PowerOutage.us, approx. 366-thousand Californians were without power (see images).

BBC News (Jan-9) captioned (video), "More than 10,000 homes and other buildings have been destroyed with entire neighbourhoods reduced to ashes. 180,000 people have been told to leave their homes with hundreds of thousands more on high alert. Arson investigators are looking into the cause of one of the major fires, in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angleles. Five people are known to have died and the authorities say if fires were started deliberately deaths will be treated as murder. There are some reports of looting with more than 20 arrests. Fire authorities are admitting they do not have enough resources to tackle the biggest wildfires ever seen in the Los Angeles area. Strong winds and a shortage of water are hampering efforts to control the flames." "While salt water can be effective when tackling a fire, it's not practical for firefighters to use it routinely or systemwide, and it can be environmentally damaging," USA Today (Jan-9) reported.

MSNBC (Jan-8) shared (video), anchor Lawrence O'Donnell, whose house was in an evacuation zone, received a text, "from Daniel Varela, when he was in that area, reporting directly to me, via text, about what he was seeing, described it as something... ...he's never seen before in all of his reporting around the world, at various hotspots and difficult situations. He said... (this was just at sunset when he said), it's very surreal, as the wind starts kicking up right now, and this smoke just funnels directly out over the ocean like a sideways diabolical tornado, sucking the smoke out into the coming night." Live Universal Awareness Map (Jan-9) added a menu option for the events unfolding in California.

Ascendents.net News' summary: political climate change escalated the fires that were previously believed to have been naturally-occurring wildfires. "It remains unknown how these three fires began, however the Santa Ana winds have contributed to their fast-moving pace... The ferocious wildfires in LA are often started from natural causes, such as lightning, which can spark a fire in an area with dry vegetation. Gusts from the Santa Ana winds can also damage power lines, which generate sparks," Nine News Australia (Jan-8) reported. Hollywoodsign.org's 24/7 Live Hollywood Sign Webcam (video) had no signal.

Science Media Centre (Jan-9) reported that Dr Maria Lucia Ferreira Barbosa, wildfire scientist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), said: "While it is too early to link the current Los Angeles fires to climate change, our research has shown that global warming brings more prolonged dry conditions that exacerbate the spread of wildfires."

Bsky/Kinótico (Jan-8) said, "(Translated from Spanish) The Hollywood Academy has delayed the reading of the nominations for the Oscar until Sunday, January 19 due to the fires that are ravaging Los Angeles Voting to choose nominees is extended for 48 hours, until Tuesday, January 14." X/Bernie Sanders (Jan-8) said, "Eight months since the area has seen rain. The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not “a hoax.” Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is." X/Johnny Midnight (Jan-9) shared (video), "People were spotted throwing gasoline to fuel the fires in California…"

StoryMaps/California Interagency Incident Management Team 1 provided links to official state and federal maps.

CAL FIRE (Jan-9) reported (five) currently active incidents in/around Los Angeles: Palisades Fire (17,234 acres - 0% contained), Eaton Fire (13,690 acres - 0% contained), Kenneth Fire (791 acres - 0% contained), Hurst Fire (671 acres - 10% contained), Lidia Fire (348 acres, 60% contained). Total: 276 acres out of 32,734 acres = less than 1% contained.

"A super scooper aircraft (A.K.A. Canadair CL-415 'water bomber' — scoops seawater to extinguish fires) was struck and damaged by a drone during a firefight," X/Hannibal FM (Jan-10) reported. Firefighters from neighboring states (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington) and Mexico also joined in fighting the fires, CBS News (Jan-11) reported.

TS/Donald Trump (Jan-9) had blamed California Governor Gavin Newsom and referred to him as "Newscum", "One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!" X/Newsom (Jan-11) replied, "A lot of misinformation out there. Just launched a new site to ensure the public has access to fact-based data around the Southern CA wildfires. The TRUTH:

• CA did NOT cut our firefighting budget. We have nearly doubled the size of our firefighting army and built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet.
• CA has INCREASED forest management ten-fold since we took office.
• California will NOT allow for looting.

Get the facts: californiafirefacts.com... There is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot." The governor also called for Elon Musk to quit spreading misinformation: "Stop encouraging looting by lying and telling people it’s decriminalized. It’s not. It’s illegal -- as it always has been. Bad actors will be arrested and prosecuted." On January 10th, Newsom had called (letter), "for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir. We need answers to ensure this does not happen again." Governor Newsom also invited (letter) President-elect Trump to California, "The hundreds of thousands of Americans – displaced from their homes and fearful for the future – deserve to see us all working together in their best interests, not politicizing a human tragedy and spreading disinformation from the sidelines."

Officials controversially set up disaster relief fundraising via the ACTBlue (Democratic Party) website. X/Newsom had (Jan-10) reiterated (video) trying to get Trump to travel to Califronia (like Biden did the day after the fire started), Austin American-Statesman (Jan-8) reported (video). (Newsom/Jan-10) "This is an emergency. This isn't about politics — it's about making sure people are alive. I want the President-elect to visit LA County to understand the magnitude of the devastation we're experiencing right now and how we can be partners in recovery."

"The next few days [would] prove critical to the firefighting effort, with dry weather and strong winds expected to continue before temperatures cool toward the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service... The strongest winds [were] expected to come Sunday morning, easing through the day before picking back up late Monday going into Tuesday," CNN (Jan-12) reported.

The New Republic (Jan-13) reported, "Republican leadership continues to use one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history as political leverage. ...House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju that there should be conditions on the proposed federal aid to California in the wake of the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles County."

"Crews are battling a fire that broke out in Ventura County... The Auto Fire was first reported around 7:15 p.m. on January 13. The fire comes in the wake of officials warning Angelenos to brace for this week’s Santa Ana winds. The return of the strong winds will mean that fires may once again spark across parts of Southern California. While winds aren’t expected to be as bad as last week, which ended up contributing to the spread of the Palisades and Eaton fires, parts of the Southern California may see gusts up to 70 mph at some point this week," USA Viral 24/7 (Jan-14) reported.

"Nearly $5.1 million in immediate aid has been distributed, with affected residents eligible for one-time payments of $770. FEMA reports about 33,000 people have registered for assistance," News Nation (Jan-14) reported.