JAHIR MORALES: Hey, my name is Jahir Morales. And I’m here with
DAMIAN MONDRAGON: Damian Mondragon.
MORALES: And we’re here to present our overall thoughts about the Los Angeles Fires. In order to get a little bit, understanding of what have occurred in January 2025 it’d be best to record a timeline regarding the creation of the L.A fires. It’s best to know there has been tons of mini fires that have occurred around Los Angeles. But when regarding about L.A. fires, the three most notable are the Eaton fires, the Palisades fires and the Hughes fires. Those have reigned over Los Angeles during 2025. I will be using an article by ABC that briefly goes over the creation of the Palisades fire. To briefly summarize, the creation of the Palisades fire on January 7th around 8 a.m. the Los Angeles Fire Department, pre-deployed and pre-positioned their resources, including fire engines to check on the creation of the Palisades fire. And as time and time goes on, the fire starts to erupt and drive into the Pacific Palisades. And during around, 11:44 a.m. evacuation warnings are sent out which are notices to leave. As harsher, wind starts to come, more fires, start to erupt around Los Angeles. After the fires, begin to settle and be contained. As the fires began to settle during the month of February. In recent news, The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection provides stats regarding the Los Angeles fires. As of February, there has been a total of 57,000 acres burned and 29 fatalities. And 16,000 structures destroyed since the Los Angeles fires.
MONDRAGON: Another thing too that we’re going talk about is our personal thoughts on the fire. Me. I was a little scared, obviously, who wouldn’t be, it’s a fire but I wasn’t too scared. You know, like start packing my things but my sister was really frightened that, the fires were gonna reach our area, which thankfully it didn’t. But yeah, it really frightening for her. She really stressing over it. I told her to calm down. It’s gonna be okay. How about you, do have any any personal thoughts?
MORALES: My first feelings were of dread because I didn’t know if the fires were gonna spread to Santa Ana, you know where I live. But luckily, it didn’t. Adding on I was worried about how the air quality was going to affect us since it could very dangerous to consume, especially in Los Angeles.
MONDRAGON : And it’s, it’s crazy because like it’s a fire, you know who would have thought, did you think that a fire was gonna happen anytime soon?
MORALES: I feel like there were bits and pieces that contributed to the Los Angeles fire without us knowing, One prominent example is like the recent climate change to narrow that’s been happening in California. We’ve been heavily experiencing a drought, and I feel like it could’ve been one of the main contributors to the Los Angeles fire. And not no to mention the recent Santa Ana winds that been happening a few days earlier before the spread. It was also another prominent example of the Los Angeles fires. I feel to move on to another segment Damien. What do feel like could have been the cause of the Santa Ana fires?
MONDRAGON: Uh, I heard somewhere that the I think the Palisades fire Maybe started because of previous ignited, you know, because of fireworks. And that there was fire but they thought it was extinguished and like it back to life, which is crazy. You know, who like you would think like once you finish it like, it’d over. But like it came back to life. That must have been really interesting. What you think of that?
MORALES: I think it’s interesting that the people theorized that it could be like a firework explosion that could have caused like the entire. Um, L.A. fires. Me personally, I just feel like there’s a lot of like publications information going around that shows how the fire could have been erupted. For example, there’s this article by NBC news that state, it was due to their drought like conditions. Sometimes, you might see other articles state, it’s because of the Santa Ana winds. You also be seeing on like things like social media it could have been started by some you know irrational people just being irresponsible causing the fire themselves. But I feel it was a combination of the recent drought and the Santa Ana winds.
MONDRAGON: Aside from causes, it’s really sad to see like all those victims of the fires like losing their homes because its their home like everything they had.
MORALES: Yeah, I agree with that. if you see like many news publications or just going on YouTube, search up, Los Angeles fires. You see like it impacted like a heavy area of Los Angeles. You see a lot of homes destroyed and a lot of people who lost their homes in the fire.
MONDRAGON: Can you imagine losing your own home? Like coming back from work one and then like seeing it engulfed in flames like that, that would be like. I think I would cry. What would do? Like, how would feel?
MORALES: Well, I obviously would feel bad and I feel that’s a things that I like a of people be criticizing that many like rich people got their houses burned down and spending like celebs but either way, you know, it’s still your memorabilia. It’s um, still your home with your own personal feelings about it. So even then, like it’s still a tragedy for many victims of the fire, you still lose a lot of memorabilia and personal items that have been all engulfed in flames.
MONDRAGON: And let’s talk about how to help them. There was many gofundmes, which are still going on to this day, I think, and also donating to certain food drives and volunteer, I think there’s volunteer work, do you know any of them?
MORALES: Yeah, I think the most popular has been gofundmes. There’s just like, I’ve been seeing a lot of like Instagram. Like accounts have been posting like gofundmes regarding the LA fires. Some people I’ve followed that just been also just posting, just charity websites where you can just go and donate. And the good thing about it is that you don’t have to show up. Like, personally, you could just donate a little bit of money for yourself just to help out the people in need. Because there’s a lot of people who really lost their homes and are struggling to put up the money regarding their wealth division. You know, a lot of middle class people, homes have been destroyed, and they go need a lot of money to get back to where they were and to just be able to live again.
MONDRAGON: It’s good to see this. Our community coming back together. Even though it took a fire, we could come back strong. Thank you for listening to our podcast of the California fires. This is Damian Mondragon and
MORALES: Jahir Morales.
MONDRAGON: Saying thanks, goodbye.
