The fires raging through the Los Angeles area have left a trail of destruction with over 12,000 structures going up in flames, around 180,000 residents forced to leave their homes, more than 35,000 acres scorched, and at least 25 lives lost. While this all sounds catastrophic, the situation could have been far more dire. According to officials, there just weren’t enough firefighters to cope with such massive blazes, but in some respects, the people of Los Angeles had a stroke of luck.
In the U.S., wildland firefighting hinges on a sprawling network of local, state, and federal agencies, often collaborating across long distances and state lines. This explains why firefighters hailing from Nevada and Arizona are currently battling the flames in L.A., and why aircraft from nearby Orange County and even distant places like Quebec are overhead. The North American wildfire response system heavily relies on this mutual aid approach, which turned out to be fortuitous this time as several agencies had available resources. By Tuesday afternoon, numbers from status reports showed that 5,123 firefighters were battling the Palisades fire while 3,408 were deployed to combat the Eaton fire.
However, relying on luck is hardly a sustainable strategy. The current system is already under severe strain, and with the trend of increasingly frequent and intense wildfires, it’s at risk of failing.
At the federal level, the backbone of U.S. wildfire fighting consists of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, alongside some smaller agencies. These bodies are stretched thin, burdened by an age-old problem of overworking and underpaying a mostly seasonal workforce. This has led to chronic staff shortages, pushing the U.S. wildland firefighting teams into crises that affect their mental, physical well-being, and housing security.
Local and state agencies, which generally enjoy more stability and support, have to prioritize their immediate areas. Orange County, for instance, is able to lend a hand to L.A. only because it’s not contending with significant fires of its own. Had there been active fires in Canada, the Quebecois Super Scooper planes wouldn’t have been available to assist in L.A.
Los Angeles boasts some of the finest firefighting resources globally, but more personnel or tools would not have hastened the containment of the Palisades or Eaton fires in just a day or two. Given the severe drought conditions, relentless winds, and a lack of beneficial natural or prescribed burns causing what experts call a ‘fire debt,’ these outbreaks were almost inevitable.
Despite the inevitability of these fires, Los Angeles narrowly avoided a greater calamity from new fire outbreaks that ignited even as the Palisades and Eaton fires raged uncontrolled. With exhausted local crews on 24- or 48-hour shifts, outside reinforcements prevented these new fires from spiraling out of control.
Having been on the front lines of firefighting myself, I’ve consistently advocated for mutual aid and resource-sharing systems. Yet, as our environment shifts, so must our tactics. Wildfire response plans still lean on seasonal staffing, but as seen with these January blazes, a defined “fire season” is becoming obsolete.
Experts and advocates are urging a return of fire to Western landscapes, to repair over a century’s mismanagement. Yet, implementing prescribed burns in densely populated regions like Altadena or Santa Monica is complex, with limited possibilities. As the interface between wildlands and urban areas becomes more vulnerable, aggressive firefighting remains crucial to safeguard lives and properties.
This calls for a stable, year-round, localized firefighting workforce. We should consider perpetual National Guard activations with firefighting as a focus, or voluntary service models that channel Americans’ willingness to support these overstretched systems. These should complement rather than replace the mutual aid efforts we rely on, enhancing them instead.
Whatever shape this new system takes, simply repeating our past strategies isn’t viable — if they faltered in L.A., they’re bound to falter elsewhere.
Jay Balagna, previously a wildland firefighter, now works as an assistant policy researcher at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Rand. He resides in Los Angeles, close to the Eaton fire.
