- Firefighters in LA have limited options against such large flames.
- Conventional tactics such as fires, controlled burns, and sealing off vital buildings face major obstacles.
- A wildfire expert told BI that the fire is unlikely to die out until LA’s winds change.
Firefighters battling the Los Angeles wildfires face obstacles to many tactics in their arsenal as they try to tame the nearly 27,000 acres that have burned.
As of Thursday, more than 1,400 firefighters were battling several fires with both ground crews and airdrops.
California firefighters “are among the best-trained and best-equipped firefighters anywhere in the world,” said Stefan Doerr, a professor of wildfire science at Swansea University in the United Kingdom.
But, he told Business Insider, “they’re really challenged by the fact that the winds are so extreme, as well as several large fires burning at the same time.”
Composite image of the Pacific Palisades Summit fires on January 8, 2025. Satellite Image @2025 Maxar Technologies
His conclusion: Until the winds fanning the flames die down, “putting out a fire like this is basically impossible.”
Multiple California officials gave a similar assessment, saying there was no immediate prospect of bringing the fires under control.
‘unprepared’
Anthony Marrone, fire chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told local newspaper 6ABC: “La County and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster.”
They could handle one or two big fires, he said, “but not four.”
Doerr, who did not have direct information about LA fire services’ plans, took BI through some tactics commonly used for large wildfires and their limitations in fighting those fires.
1) Attack from the side
“This fire is very complex,” Doerr said, pointing to the number of distinct flames, some extending in several directions at once.
Most of the fires were being pushed out to sea by powerful inland air currents known as the Santa Ana winds.
Doerr said it’s very dangerous there to approach such a large fire from the front, where it burns most intensely.
“Usually it’s attacked from the side to essentially shrink the overall fire front,” he said.
2) Use – or make – fire breaks
Common tactics include removing flammable material with bulldozers, he said. “Removing vegetation is much more effective than trying to fight a fire like this with water.”
The problem is that LA’s topography is complex, making it difficult to remove vegetation, he said.
Beachfront homes destroyed by Palisades fire. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“That leaves the fire department with limited options,” he said. One option is to take advantage of natural firebreaks, such as roads and rivers, or other spots without flammable vegetation, he said.
There, firefighters can wet the area or use a fire retardant to slow the fire, he said.
That, too, Doerr said, is “very, very challenging” in this case.
“Even if they are able to basically stop the flames from moving over, say, a road or something directly, high winds often mean you have embers flying great distances,” he said, adding that in some fires, these can travel. miles.
This, in turn, can ignite more fires, breaking through barriers.
3) Absorb important buildings
“When we see firefighters using water, it’s often to protect properties — to stop them from burning, rather than stopping the entire fire,” Doerr said.
As well as ground crews, Chinook helicopters have dropped thousands of gallons of water on the fire. “It’s like having six fire trucks show up at your house every 10 minutes,” Wayne Coulson, CEO of the Coulson Group, told Global News.
The fires have put a huge strain on LA’s water supply.
Water is dropped by helicopter on the burning Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles. Ethan Swope/Getty Images
Three large, one-million-gallon tanks each serving the Pacific Palisades ran dry within hours under “tremendous demands,” said Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer and CEO of LA’s water and power department, according to The Guardian.
“We’re fighting a fire with urban water systems and it’s really challenging,” Quiñones said, according to the paper.
4) Accept losses and prioritize
So many structures are under threat that it is impossible to protect them all with water. Here, tough decisions have to be made, with important buildings like hospitals likely to take priority, Doerr said.
More than 1,000 buildings were destroyed, including the homes of celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal.
Another extreme alternative would be to bulldoze entire streets to create a fire outbreak, Doerr said.
Houses burning in LA’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Eric Thayer/Getty Images
It would be a desperate measure against some of the world’s most expensive properties – but “it’s still cheaper than burning it down and burning down the next building down the road”, he said.
“Do they take these extreme measures at the moment, I don’t know, but they have done this in the past in extreme fires”, he added.
Some tactics are possible out of bounds
One option that likely won’t be achieved is what Doerr called “tactical burning.”
When dealing with some seasonal fires, firefighters start a smaller, controlled fire in the path of the main flame to burn off available fuel, he said.
That can be really effective — but with the strong winds in LA, it risks making things worse, Doerr said.
“Otherwise you’re just going to generate a new fire that will burn further,” he said.
Waiting for the wind to change
Observers are anxiously watching one key metric — fire containment percentage.
But it is often misunderstood. “‘Contained’ means you basically stopped the edges of the fire from moving any further,” Doerr said. 100% containment means authorities are pretty sure the fire can’t spread any further, he said. From there, it it can burn itself.
According to the fire service, two smaller fires were partially contained as of early Thursday, at 10% and 40% each. The biggest ones were at 0%.
For all their efforts, LA firefighters are largely “at the mercy of the weather,” Doerr said.
“In reality, most fires of such extremes tend to be stopped by a change in the weather,” he added.
Winds, which on Thursday were gusting to 25 mph, are forecast by the National Weather Service to slow to a maximum of 15 mph by Friday evening, offering the best chance yet to contain the flames.
Until then, Doerr said, “putting out a fire like this is basically impossible.”
