Palisades Fire (January 2025)

Summary

On January 7, 2025, the Palisades Fire ignited in the Santa Monica Mountains above Pacific Palisades during extreme Santa Ana winds. It became one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history, destroying 6,845 structures — much of the Palisades neighborhood north of Sunset Boulevard — and killing 12 people before containment on January 31. CAL FIRE and national outlets characterized it as a wind-driven wildfire; it burned concurrently with but separately from the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

Three months assessment pending. Target cutoff Apr 7, 2025. Figures will use only sources available on or before that date.

CAL FIRE Palisades incident page: 12 confirmed civilian fatalities. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner lists Palisades victims separately from Eaton. Do not use combined LA-wildfire death totals.

Six-month pass, updated on recode with all evidence through scoring (six-month cutoff 2025-07-07 has passed; two-year 2027-01-07 has not). Authoritative Palisades-only full-economy figure: Gallagher Re $37 billion (USA Today / Yale Climate Connections, July 2025), with $23 billion of that insured. Verisk (Jan 22, 2025) Palisades-only insured range $20–25 billion is insurance scope, not this pass’s headline. Combined outbreak figures stay off this record. Do not allocate a combined Palisades+Eaton insured estimate by structure count. CAL FIRE: 12 civilian deaths; 6,845 structures destroyed; 975 damaged; 23,448 acres.

Scientific attribution

World Weather Attribution (January 2025) found long-term warming increased the intensity of the extreme fire-weather conditions by about 6% and made them roughly 35% more likely; combined with La Niña, about 75% more likely than a pre-industrial baseline. NOAA notes cool-season Southern California wind-driven fires involve vegetation, drought, and wind — not temperature alone. Frame as loaded dice on fire weather, not sole causation.