At least 30 people have died and thousands have been affected after wildfires swept through the Los Angeles, California, area, starting January 7, 2025. These are the most devastating winter wildfires in Southern California in more than four decades.
Firefighters worked tirelessly for weeks to contain the flames, while evacuation orders and hazardous conditions displaced entire communities. Authorities continue to investigate the cases of the fires.
California wildfires: Facts, FAQs, and how to help
- Fast facts: California wildfires
- What caused the fires in Los Angeles?
- What was destroyed by the California fires?
- How is World Vision responding to the Los Angeles fires?
- How can I help children and families affected by the fires?
Fast facts: California wildfires
- Fatalities: 30 confirmed dead, with more than a dozen people reported missing
- Evacuations: Up to 180,000 people at peak
- Containment: All seven California fires were fully contained as of February 3, 2025:
- Palisades fire — More than 23,400 acres burned
- Eaton fire — Over 14,000 acres
- Hurst fire — Nearly 800 acres
- Lidia fire — 395 acres
- Kenneth fire — 1,052 acres
- Sunset fire — 43 acres
- Auto fire —More than 60 acres
- Crews from California and nine other states and Mexico fought the flames with 1,400 fire engines and 84 aircraft.
What caused the fires in Los Angeles?
Authorities are still investigating the specific causes, but a combination of extreme weather patterns over the past two years led to the conditions that exacerbated the current fires.
The southern California region experienced extreme wet weather from winter of 2023 into spring of 2024, allowing much new vegetation to grow quickly. Then the area more recently experienced prolonged dry weather, creating conditions for fires to break out Tuesday, January 7. The proliferation of dry, young vegetation combined with the higher-than-usual Santa Ana winds — as high as 100 mph at times — caused the fires to spread much faster than normal.
What was destroyed by the California fires?
More than 17,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings were damaged or destroyed.
How is World Vision responding to the Los Angeles fires?
World Vision has supported at least 45,000 people so far. In the initial phase of our response, our U.S. Programs team dispatched 40 truckloads of emergency response supplies to our partners. The supplies were delivered to church and community partners across the Los Angeles area for them to distribute to help people affected by the fires.
These supplies were shipped from our World Vision Storehouse, our national network of warehouses, including our locations in Fife, Washington, as well as Dallas, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and West Virginia.
We continue to assess the needs of impacted communities to guide potential rebuilding and recovery efforts.
The shipments include supplies such as:
- Water
- Protective gear, including face masks, goggles, gloves, respirators, and full-body suits
- Food
- Air beds
- Hygiene kits, including feminine hygiene products
- Sheets and blankets
- Coolers
- Shoes
- Socks
- Cleaning supplies
- Diapers
- Formula
- Tools
- Clothing
- Children’s toys
In total, we’ve worked with 21 different partners in Los Angeles to reach people affected by the fires. World Vision partnered with the Los Angeles Dream Center to distribute supplies from the initial shipments on Thursday, January 9, and Friday, January 10, to families affected by the wildfires.
“We’ve got ashes falling from the sky, but World Vision just shows up,” says Matthew Barnett, founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center. “That’s what you do — you show up for people. We at the Dream Center are so grateful. We love you. You guys are always the first ones to step up, always the first ones to bring a truck, always the first ones to provide support. … I love you guys, I thank God for you, and we couldn’t do this without you.”
We also distributed supplies from these shipments throughout the weekend through partnership with the Flintridge Center.
“We can’t do this work without partnership,” says Josh McCurry, executive director of the Flintridge Center. “We need every resource we can get right now.”
Hundreds of local volunteers showed up to help church and community members by unloading pallets, organizing supplies, and handing out those supplies to people affected by the fires.
“You have families here that houses have burned down, and they still came to volunteer and show their time,” says Brandon Lamar, a distribution organizer. “This is what community looks like. You have people from different beliefs, different walks of life, that just want to lend a hand.”
World Vision also distributed supplies in partnership with Adventist Health, California Worship Center, Calvary Baptist Church (Santa Monica), Calvary CME Pasadena Church, Cathedral Church at Highland Park, Center of Hope Church, CityServe Bakersfield, Do Right Church, Dream City Church, Faithful Central Church, Fearless Church LA, First Church of the Nazarene (Pasadena), Glendale Presbyterian Church, Mandarin Baptist Church, New Jericho Christian Church, New Story Church, Victory Bible Church, Vida Church, and Vintage Church Pasadena.
We also brought together World Vision’s staff from both the U.S. and around the world, Team World Vision volunteers, pastor partners, and other community volunteers to distribute essential supplies at the World Vision Global Center office in Monrovia, California, on Sunday, January 12.
Throughout the January weekend distributions, in addition to local volunteers, Pastor Jerry Haynes of Beaumont, Texas, greeted people as they arrived, asking if he could pray for them and passing out supplies. Pastor Jerry’s church was impacted by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He’s now a Pastor Ambassador: World Vision connects pastors who have previously been through disasters to pastors currently experiencing a disaster to provide encouragement, prayer, and support to them. Pastors face unique challenges as they shepherd their congregations through traumatic events while also navigating the aftermath of a disaster themselves.
World Vision president and CEO Edgar Sandoval Sr. also visited Los Angeles January 16, 2025, to meet with community members, pastor partners, volunteers, and church leaders.
He visited a distribution at the Los Angeles Dream Center and joined a relief distribution World Vision had in partnership First Church of the Nazarene and the USC men’s basketball team.
Edgar also toured a community in Altadena, which was devastated by the Eaton fire.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the destruction of homes, churches, communities — it’s really at a level and at a scale that is unimaginable,” Edgar said while in Los Angeles. “Many families have lost everything. The homes and communities they’ve worked hard to build over the years — or even generations — are gone. I have seen and felt God’s presence in some of the hardest, most heartbreaking places in the world, and I feel it here in the communities I have visited. Part of World Vision’s strength is our ability to respond immediately to disasters both here at home and around the world. … In the midst of this tragedy, I’m so grateful that World Vision is able to respond and provide supplies, support, [and] prayers.”
As the initial response slows, World Vision will now turn to long-term recovery and working with local partners to assist with rebuilding efforts.
How can I help children and families affected by the fires?
- Pray: Join us in praying for people in the Los Angeles area who were impacted by these catastrophic fires — and people across the U.S. who are affected by disasters.
- Give: Your gift will help provide essential aid to families impacted by the wildfires in California and other disasters across the U.S.
